Corbin Broner has a well deserved nickname in Emmett.
"The legend," Broner said laughing.
"Yep. Everywhere I go."
The 17-year-old is a competitive fisherman.
"I'm on my way to becoming a pro, that's what I want to do," Broner said.
He's been fishing the Payette River with his family since he was little.
"My dad and grandpa started teaching me fishing, fly fishing, and it just kind of grew from there. I also like teaching other people how to fish," Broner said.
Now, Broner has turned his love of fishing into a small business. He hand builds fishing rods with intricate and colorful decorative wraps. He calls them, BattleStix.
"At first it was just a hobby. I just wanted to make myself better at competitive fishing. Making my own gear kind of seemed an advantage to me over others, because they just bought their gear. Now I know my gear, I know what it does and I know what it can do for certain parts of fishing. From there, word of mouth got out that I'm using really cool built rods out there, people started liking them, and now people are wanting to buy them," Broner said.
Broner spends at least five hours just wrapping each one of a kind design. When putting the fishing rod together, he takes the time to find the spine of the rod; where the rod naturally bends the most. Building with that in mind, leads to a higher quality rod that won't snap in two.
"Each rod is unique to every single person, that's the purpose of a custom rod. You get your own colors, your own components, your own design and depending on what kind of fishing you want to do, you get certain rod blanks," Broner explained.
"Performance wise they're over the top compared to most manufactured rods, and they'll last you forever," he continued.
Broner studies through the online school, K12 Idaho Technical Career Academy. It allows him to spend more time building his BattleStix business. He mails his fishing rods to customers all over the Northwest using trusty bubble wrap and PVC pipe.
His customers are happy too.
"One went to go catfishing and he caught this big ol' fish. Aw, you should have seen his face when he showed me a picture of his fish," Broner said.
The best part? Sharing his passion for fishing with others.
It's the number one feeling I think. I get to do it every week, teach classes, teach other people how to fish and just be a part of it. Especially here in Idaho. Fishing and hunting, that's what it's all about," Broner said.
Broner says in the future, he plans on studying business management in college so one day, he can set up a store for his custom fishing rod business.
If you're interested in learning more about BattleStix, or getting in touch with Broner, visit his Facebook page.
