How do you make a fishing rod in minecraft?

Answer 1

Crafting Table:

0 0 I

0 I S

I 0 S

If 0 is blank, I is Sticks, and S is string.
[X] [X] [stick]

[X] [stick] [string]

[stick] [X] [string]
Place Wooden Sticks and String in the following configuration.

EEW

EWS

WES

Where W is the Wooden Stick, S is the String, and E is an empty space.
Three sticks and two string arranged like so in your 3x3 crafting table:

Let these symbols below represent the items.

- = Nothing

/ = Stick

s = String

--/

-/s

/-s

Making this same pattern mirrored horizontally will work as well, like so:

\--

s\-

s-\

Hope you didn't find that too confusing for you.
Look on the minecraft wiki.