dear friends,

I'm a very fresh "fish" in the rodbuilders branch!

I don't know if my English is so good to explain you this problem, so I'm sorry for the eventuals whriting&exprimation mistakes!

I've buyed a 7' casting rod! The initial owner of the rod told me that the blank is a Cabela's 30$ value one! I've allready spent 100$ for this rod! I've choosed it because of his fast action! The blank is strong in of but not exagerating stiff! Is exactly wat I need it for a good strong hook set for the walleye-zander in my country! I want to use it for jigging tehniques for zander and pike! the rod have for the moment small Hardloy Fuji guides in a good number, but they are not aligned on the spine! This is not the big problem to fix because anyway I must to remove them all and put new spinning one's! I have not yet decided the dimension of the guides! A friend sugested me a 25-10-8-6-6-6-6-5 to obtain a Fuji-Concept arrangement of the guides!
And now, the big problem! How can I transform the reel seat? Is a fuji good quality one and I don't want to remove it completely! I dont want to spend more many! but the reel seat is a casting designed one ! coud i cut somehow the "spine" who don't allow me to handle the rod properly if I put a spinning reel on it? Or shoud I remove it and put a new one! I'm affraid of complications who may appear in the removal operations plus the extra-cost of a new one! I think I don't realy need to align the reel seat on the spine of the blank because the talon is very stiff and actually he gonna work only if a realy big zander will take my jig!
What do you suggest me to do! Thank You!


cos -23years old ,Bucharest, Romania

I jig for walleye in the US. I use a casting rod for this and much prefer them over the spinning rods.
I think it would be easier to use this one as it is. If you want a spinning rod, order the same blank, components and build yourself a spin rod on that. Much less work than re-doing the one you already have.
Give that bugger a try with a good casting reel when jigging, I think that you'll like it!!

Putter

1. I have friends doing this in Romania too!In fact they are the only guys I know fishing with casting rods in Romania for zander! And they had results not for once! One of them was the original owner of my casting rod! they are now GLoomis fan's! I've never tryed to fish with a casting rod before and i've heared it seems not to be the easyest job in the world! the hardest part will be the cast of the lure!?! So, i'm a little be affraid to do that! Anyway I will try to take this option in my view! What reel do you suggest me to use! Shimano Curado is a good choice to do a good job? If I order it from the US I'll have a 40% extra-cost from the original catalog price because of the ship to Romania! So I must to choose a cheaper one, but still quality one!

2. The original owner don't remember exactly the name of the blank from Cabelas(mayebe the old XML but is not very shour about it); & that's all I know about the blank!
So is impossibile to get the same from US!

Thank you for your suggestion!

Cos,

It appears that you have a lot of money tied up in the new rod, and are not enthustic about using it with a casting (conventional) reel. I am not entirely clear if the issue you describe with the spine is that the spine set-up, as a casting rod is wrong for use as a spinning rod (reel on the bottom, vs top) or if the rod is simply not aligned at all with any useful axis.

Leaving the spine issue aside for the moment,there are some differencees between a spinning rod and a casting rod. There's guide size and type, type of reel seat, and a few other details. If you change the guide types to reflect correct spine, you still have to deal with the reel seat, and dealing with the ree seat typically also means dealing with one or more grips. This may be more work than you want to do right now.

It may be more effort and cost-effective to simply replace the 2-3 guides closest to the reel seat to higher guide types that are compatible with spinning, and perhaps a modification to the existing reel seet to allow for use as a spinning model (remove finger-grip)?

I think what gramps and Ed said are the options I would go with. Replace the first few guides, and cutting the trigger and some light sanding will give you a good spinning seat.

Or, just give it a go as is and see what you think about casting rods. Baitcasters are not the easiest things to use, but maybe you might want to look at some spincasters. Takes no skill at all to use one, and they are a lot less expensive. I know I'm in a serious minority, but personally I don't know why more people don't like them. I've had the same Zebco 33 for over 25 years, have caught countless walleye and pike on it, and I've never lost a fish due to the reel. I've used baitcasters that cost 20 times as much, but have always wound up selling them off and going back to my Zebco.

Festival,a big THANK YOU guys ,for helping me with your suggestions!

Yesterday night I've worked a little bit on my new rod! I've removed all cast guides and I've put a new set of spinning guides! A rodbuilder from my country help me to do a good "topic" of them to obtain a Fuji Concept distribution on the blank! 30-16-10-8-8-6-6 plus a 5 tip top guide!

I've used Hardloy Fuji single foot guides who seems to be lighter than other ones! At the first view is OK but the action of the blank is much changed, I will say, alot! The rod is not anymore as fast as it was with the cast guides, even if they was the same model(I mean single foot Hardloy from Fuji)! I've tought that the two #6 guides on the top of the rod are too big and too heavy! Do you know, guys other models of lighter guides I could use for my rod tip?

I have also on a 9' fly rod( I don't use it too much because it's too stiff) having few Black Fuji Alconite #5 single foot guides.Can I use those guides to do my spinning rod faster.... and how?

Another US friend suggested me a spiral placement of the guides to keep the rod from twisting! What do you think about his suggestion?

I'm not sure if swapping those guides would do what you're looking for. All I can say is that you could try it and see. Are they that much lighter?

On the spiral wrap: Spiral wraps are done to get the guides down on the bottom side of the rod where they belong to stabilize the rod on a casting reel set-up (reel on top of rod). Your rod is a spinning rod, now, and the guides ARE on the underside of the rod (as is the reel), so this is a moot point.

Putter

The rod is allmost ready to fish!

I've worked today to the wrapping of the guides!It looks great! And the fast action of the rod is not so degenerated as I've tought yesterday night! Mayebe I was tyered!

You have right Putter, the Hardloy Fuji guides are not that much lighter as I tought!I have not a specialised weighter to see what's the difference between different guides, but I think is very small! but not importanceless!!! Anyway Hardloy are most resistents to the fishing braid( I'm a Berkley FireLine big fan)!We have alot of chinese SIC guides on the market, but I'm not so shore they are so strong!

I'll see what I'm going to do with the reel seat trigger!

I do have 2 more questions about the next operations:

1. How can I remove all the epoxy from the old wrapping zones?It's still remain few pieces of epoxydic resin on the blank!

2. What kind of epoxy do you use to cover the wrappig tread(I think as elastic as possibile)! I've found a "BISON" A+B epoxy on the romanian market here! What do you think about it,...of course if you have it in US too and you know what I talking about :)))!

best regards, guys

Cos

1. A hair dryer and my fingernails are what I use; or a plastic knife or spoon, too, to remove that stubborn old epoxy.

2. I'm not familiar with this brand, but if it's a two part epoxy formulated for finishing thread wraps, go with it. Every brand has it's own little quirks. Pick one brand and master it!! Good luck.

Putter

Thank's again, Putter!

I've allready buyed the two part epoxy!

I've found a better one (I think) special made for fishing rods; it is guaranteed by an italian rods factory and also have an "elastic" specfication on the packet, the problem is it is a little bit expensive(around 15$)!

The "BISON" one is made in Holland and came in 3 types: "5 min."(5$) , "Universal" (2hours hardening)(4$) and "Steel"(8$) ; I've choosed the "5 min." one because it was cheaper(5$) and a friend seems to use it from alot of time and his wraps gives no sign of cracking!

I don't know if 5 minutes is enough to cover the thread properly! What do you think? Shoud I try the "Universal" better because of his 2 hours hardening time(so I will have more time to a better work)?