Courtesy of Dynamic Sponsorships / Photos: MLF 

For more than two decades, Major League Fishing pro Terry “Big Show” Scroggins has built a reputation as one of the most respected anglers in professional bass fishing. The Team Toyota pro has accumulated nearly $2.5 million in winnings throughout his career and is widely accepted as one of the good guys of the sport. Scroggins is also known for his affinity as a tackle and equipment tinkerer, searching for every possible advantage on and off the water.

Many of those advantages aren’t found in a tackle store rack or online retailer. Scroggins notably produces many of the soft plastic lures he competes with at home or in the back of his Tundra while on the road.  And since 2019, Scroggins has custom built every rod he’s landed a bass with on the BPT or Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit.

For Scroggins, rod building started as a pursuit of performance rather than a hobby, but over time he’s formed a partnership with Florida based company Mud Hole Custom Tackle. Using MHX rod blanks and components from Mud Hole, Scroggins can customize his equipment and create rods tailored precisely to his needs and the way he fishes.

“There are so many advantages to building your own rods,” Scroggins said. “You get to choose your own components like the handle, the reel seat, thread color and guides. This process alone will teach you so much about the specifics and how each component affects the overall build. Each element is optimized to you and how you fish.

“The finished product will be more durable than store bought rods, too, especially the guides. But in my mind the biggest benefit to custom building rods is you can check the spine on the blank. This ensures your rod is balanced and the guides are in the right spot when your rod loads up on a hook set or you make a cast. I’m not exaggerating when I say over 50% of the name-brand rods I check at tackle stores are off spine.”

For those who aren’t mechanically inclined, some of Scroggins’ vocabulary may sound intimidating. But part of Big Show’s charm is that whether he’s talking about rod building, the nuances or flipping, or how to grill a ribeye, he doesn’t overcomplicate things.

For example, after sampling and tinkering with dozens of rod blanks Scroggins has found a few that he relies on and employs across a wide array of techniques. The DS822 is a spinning rod blank from Mud Hole, Scroggins explained the “DS” stands for ‘drop shot’. The “82” stands for 82-inches, or 6-feet 10-inches long. Lastly the “2” describes the power of the rod. The DS822 is a two-power rod, whereas the DS821 is a one-power rod so slightly lighter in the tip.

Scroggins employs his homemade DS822’s for nearly every finesse and spinning rod application he uses on tour. Whether he’s throwing a drop shot, shakey head, floating worm, jighead minnow, or spy bait he uses that same rod blank. In fact, Scroggins has become so fond of that blank that he uses it for select casting rod applications, too.

Big Show fits the 6-foot 10-inch rod blank with casting guides and says it’s the perfect rod for small topwaters like prop baits, jerkbaits, or small squarebills.

“A fishing pole is a fishing pole,” Scroggins offered. “Mud Hole offers recommendations, which is good input, but if a rod blank is optimized for one technique that doesn’t mean that’s all it’s good for. I hadn’t heard of anyone using a spinning rod blank for a casting rod, but I’ve caught hundreds of bigguns now on that DS822 both spinning and casting. If it ain’t broke, there’s no need to fix it!”

Scroggins’ time-tested wisdom and down-to-earth nature help the Florida native cut through the noise in many facets of life, rod building included.  He may have a brainchild that drifts away from the everyday norms, but each creation is born from real-world experience and time on the water.

Whether he is pouring soft plastics from a mold the fish have never seen before or using a spinning rod blank to build a casting rod Scroggins is not afraid to do things his own way when he feels it gives him an advantage.

“It’s bass fishing, y’all, don’t be afraid to think outside the box sometimes,” Scroggins said with a smile. “Half the products we have in our boats were born from bass fisherman tinkering with things or tweaking an existing product to make it better. That’s what led me to building my own rods and it’s something I enjoy more every year.”