Thursday afternoon I was given the pleasure of meeting Bill Stevens, where I learned more in an hour than I could have in a year trying to figure it out for myself. He gave me the oppurtunity to cast a crankin rod he had- all micros all on top... Let me tell you something this was a working and casting macine.. With a plug that was between 1/4 and 1/2 ounce.. I was able with braided line and a revo reel to cast out the entire spool, that was around 80 percent full of line well atleast almost; I didn't want to hook a car on the freeway, I kinda got scared.. This rod was a dream in hand as well.

Thanks again Mr. Stevens

Kevin,

Mr. Stevens is da' man.

The distance casting of the plug sounds wonderful - however, without intending to discredit any of your's or Bill's talents, what if you then suceed in "hookin-up" to your prize fish of the day with all of the line out - then what???????? Fish Wins???

With conventional casting and spinning equipment, how far can one effectively set the hook on a fish and manage to land same fish? Are Micro Guides a solution to a problem we maybe didn't have?

I am a fly rod builder and user and am just curious about all the goings on in the other fields of creative rod building.

Thanks

Charlie

tightlinerods@aol.com

Sorry I don't have time to explain in more detail, but do the words tested at Lake Falcon meen anything. I'll reply again when I have more time.

Charlie;
When building a long range casting rod for throwing crank baits the objective almost always is to get the most distance you can. Not to catch a bass at that distance, but so the usually deep diving crank bait which descends at an angle has enough time to get down to the targeted depth and structure before it is actually cranked past that point on the way back to the rod, and allowing for it to stay at that depth a longer distance before heading a back to the surface as it nears the angler’s rod again.

Steve's words are right on about cranking sticks. But, I have noticed what Charlie mentioned regarding other sorts of bass rods.

Just to satisfy my curiosity, I built and fished a spinnerbait rod with micros this past year. If it matters, I used the modified spiral wrap that Steve suggested, and my running guides were Batson 3.0s. I was extremely impressed with the rod's light weight, and overall fishability.

It's one of the best casting rods I have, but I do have to be careful. As Charlie suggested, I can easily out-cast my ability to set a hook.

Would braid not fix that? I have set the hook on cod fish in 270' of water using a 6 foot rod and 30 pound test braided line. With the belly and angle in the line due to current, there may have been 360 feet of line out. I understand if mono is better for what you are doing, but if braid would work, it will solidly set a hook very far away from an angler.

Tim

Charlie:

Remember to look up the types of desired by the moving bait anglers - action and power - many like the softer glass composite blanks - think about it for a little as this relates to the "hook set" you are describing.

All Bass Rods Are Not Created Equal - Different Strokes For Different Folks - Takes One To Know One - Do What You Gotta Do and Many Other Things Define The Various Reasons Bass Rods Are Specific -

Micro Rods Cover All The Bases!

The hook set you note was used with a Micro Rod yesterday (Dec. 6) to Win First Place in The East Assecsion Bass Anglers Open in Morgan City, La. The seven foot five power all 3.5 micro Mag Bass all on top was loaded with 50 # braid and fish were "hooked" from 10 to 80 feet.

With a moving bait at longer distances there are many things related to hook set that are normally not considered on this board.

It will be very difficult for a production rod company to cover all the bases when and if they ever try to bring the micros to market by selling them to an angler - the normal retail business model does not allow direct contact with a customer when a store has 10 different rod companies to deal with - getting a correct micro rod in hand requires direct and meaningful communication between the angler and the fisherman.

The real bad thing about this, where you are concerned, is decals are also kept to a minimum - covering them adds additional weight. }>

Charlie: Back to the mill - (only you, Ballard and Bobby will know the odor I will have to contend with this morning)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2008 09:46AM by Bill Stevens.

Hey Charlie,
Like steve said, the purpose of casting distance for long range cranking rods is to get the bait down and keep it in the strike zone longer. That being said most crankbait fish hook themselves, you just need to maintain pressure and sweep the rod to the side.

And Tim, yes braid will solve the hookset at a distance problem, BUT it is not always the best line for a technique. I personally would never use it for crankbaits. I like to have the additional stretch of monofilament to help prevent the bait from tearing out of the fishs mouth. The nice thing about the long casting distance is that it means you wont have to work as hard to throw a bait the required distance for what you are fishing. If you can throw it 100 yards with a hard cast, 20 will be a piece of cake (note. distances pulled wildly from out of nowhere)

Scott Sheets
www.smsrods.com

A longer rod allows you to move more line and affect a better hook set. I caught a 10.1 at the end of a very long cast with an 8 foot micro'd crankbait rod throwing a shallow diving crankbait. Line and reel also play a big factor. It's very easy to outcast some of the very stretchy mono out there (mono that stretches 20+%) with a good reel on a 6 foot rod with full size guides. As with every other technique, it's very important to match all your equipment to the desired technique.

Charlie-
I agree that the increased casting distance achieved can result in being too far from the fish when it counts so you have to be conscious of that. But because it will cast farthr also means that it requires less effort to make casts of the correct distance, resulting in less fatigue if using a technique that requires making 100's of casts in a day's fishing. That is often the case when it's necessary to cover a lot of water trying to find a concentration of fish or for scattered fish. It sometimes is purely a numbers game. Often fast moving lures are used when "in the hunt" so casts of greater length will help cover more water with fewer casts, i. e. more efficiently. You obviously can't catch one with the lure hanging off the end of the rod.
Rod length, action and power as well as line choice and sharp hooks are factors in being able to effectively set hooks at greater distances if technique requires making longer casts.

Chris

Kevin

I agree that with some lures there is a possibility of out casting yourself, but with a crankbait 95% of casts you make are past the target. Thus allowing your bait to be in strike zone at the proper depth. I just about always use some mono on crankbaits, but I have recently switched to braid on a lot of applications. I have found that braid with a wide wobbling crankbait is money in stumps and bushes. I usually use composite and pure glass rods for cranking varying in length from 6'6' to 7'6'. I have not yet tried the microed out crankin rod in Falcon, but my next trip in January possibly but February definitely I will be able to give plenty of feedback. We caught on some big bodied five to eight foot divers last year at that time. My last trip all I had was my composites and glass rods: that was in October. After throwing those all day for five days, my hands, fingers and wrists still have not recovered and I'm 32. My next trip will definitely include a microed composite of something along those lines. I also reccomend a samarui braid made by daiwa. It works in every application from finesse on spinning equipment to heavy deep water flippin in bushes. I am looking forward to testing the cranking rod application I have loved it in every rod choice.

Ahhh Yes Bill,

The sweet smell of money - methal mercaptans, NCG's, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide - all the great things in life at "the mill" . And, thanks for the infromation guys about the priciples of micro rod fishing.

Charlie