"To the best of my knowledge, I am still the only person that has ever built a mechanical casting machine that could make verbatim casts, with no human error involved, over and over and over again." Tom: According to Dale Harrington, he did it when he was a reel engineer with the Shakespeare Company in Kalamazoo in the 1950's. They used the enclosed environment of the Kalamazoo
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Having a 4# rated mono actually possessing a 12# breaking strength or a 20# braid break at 45# poses no problem for me. I choose my line with a minimum poundage rating that is required for the type of fishing and the diameter/flex that is need for efficient casting for the reel/rod being used. The additional breaking strength is just a bonus.
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I suspect you may be over-casting; that is, casting too hard and not getting the casting energy transfered to the lure with the result that then excess energy remaining in the rod that has not been transfered to the lure is coming out in the form of rod oscillation. Try using a lure that is 50% heavier than you are now, make the same effort cast and see what happens. My guess is that the heavie
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Sounds like a 9' blank that I have. My plans are to make a 9' spiral wrap casting rod with micro guides for casting small lures with 12-15# braided line for steelhead and salmon at river mouths. I'm not sure just how small the lures could go but at that length, using 2 handed casting, it could be a very comfortable rod to cast light lures either while wading, from a boat or a kayak/canoe. That
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Prices may rise due to market anticipation of a scarcity with a continued demand contributing to increased pricing/sales and increase in value. Prices may well then decline at a later time as demand levels and then erodes due to more acceptable product substitution in the market with a resulting lowering of demand for these particular blanks. In addition, since production will cease, the in
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For gills with their sideways fighting and sharp bursts, I prefer a softer rod. My favorite for just such action is an inexpensive 7 ft IM6. This rod serves me well either wading or from my kayak. With the soft action, I often spool quality 2 lb test line if I'm fishing areas without lots of obstructions. The 2 lb and the soft rod helps with casting the smaller lures and baits. Bluegill rods
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Excessive wear to any guide on a fly rod should be seen as a good thing. It means that you are getting almost enough fishing time on the river!
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I have built all of my personal pike and walleye rods for Canadian fishing on the FishEagle II blanks. I consider them to be very good, durable blanks at a very good price although I note that there has been a significant increase in price this year.
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Thank you.
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Tom: "Pacific Bay Minima 4" Where away? Search of Pac Bay site plus Goggle search and brief review of some sponsors sites do not show the above.
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Question: Did you purchase these two rods at the both same time? If so, what you may have is simultaneous damage to both rods at some point in their lives. I find it hard to believe that these rods could have an inherent flaw in the same place due to manufacture unless they were successive in manufacturing. The most obvious problem of a failure in the same location on two rods is damage to bo
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I am always amused when I see statistics such as those quoted that 98% of the broker rods are due to "operator error." Just who came up with that number and how did they arrive at it? Throwing unsupported "scientific" numbers like that around has as little validity as "anecdotal" numbers. Using my own anecdotal numbers, the percentage of "Operator error"
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Kyle This happened to me very recently. Some Rod Bond and some finish epoxy that had not been used for nearly 3 years and that spent the past 2 years in an unheated garage in northern Michigan, turned up. I posed the question to one and all and following their directions, a series of short bursts in the microwave returned all of the epoxy to their original conditions. And both work just lik
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"On some thing that light, re-coils or single foot wire. Or Titanium ceramics." OK Bill but in what size would be the minimum for a 2 wgt rod?
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I'm going to build a 2 wgt 6.5' fly rod for my small river brook trout fishing. Assuming no knots passing through any guides, what are your thoughts as to the minimum size single foot ceramic running guides that can be used on this wgt rod? I'd also like to hear any experiences if any of ceramic vs single foot wire guides.
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Thanks Steve: The specific 5.0/4.5/3.5/3.0 size recommendation was what I was looking for. I will most likely lay in a sufficient number of each of these to begin with.
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I have not done much building over the past couple of years due to business commitments and moving but will be gearing up soon. I build only for myself and friends. Recently, after reading posts here about Micros and wanting to see for myself, I stripped the guides from an old (circa 1977 ) 4'9" Shakespeare Ultimate Ultralite that was in the fishing closet. It had three large, very heavy
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Having fished for bluegills on and off since 1947, it is my learned opinion that bluegills are not in the least line shy but only want to please the fisherman (especially the younger ones) by taking just about any offering put in front of them. Some of the most fun I've ever had fishing was with a 4 wgt fly rod, wading in the shallows of a lake and catching 8 to 11 inch bluegills on small su
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I would say "Forget the specs" and just tell us what kind of rod you want. What action suits your fly fishing style. What action are you most comfortable with on the stream. At one time, I thought that fast taper with high velocity that would allow me to cast into the next county were important. However, over the years I gradually drifted back to being most comfortable with a slower
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Thanks for the advice. It appears to have worked. Will run a bonding test today. As a side note, I used the kitchen microwave with no pre-permission. I then showed the results to my wife, telling her what I did in the microwave. Her smiling comment was; "Oh good. That should let you finish that new rod. Right?" Eat your hearts out guys. I have a keeper.
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I came across a nearly full 4 oz jar of Rod Bond resin that had been stored in a moving box in an unheated garage in Northern Michigan for 2 years since we last moved. The consistency is like a dry face cream (make sense?). My question is this: Is there a way to salvage this bottle or should it just go immediately to the dust bin?
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Dave; It looks 300 years old; like something out of the Hermitage collection. Nicely done.
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Bob The only solution is to keep a 5th grader around to sync the computer, program the HDDVD player and figure out how the new cell phone works. Keep one around; that is if you can stand a 5th grader being around. As to computers: Don't give up your day job. Regards Richard
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Tom Posted: "Through handle, 1-piece construction is a fairly recent thing." Which means, if we are seeing things go back to the way they were prior to the 1980's, that 1 piece through-the-handle was not all it was cracked up to be or that fishermen (mainly rod builders) could only be snookered for a couple of decades or so.
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Don't forget to think very seriously about an adequate ventilation system for the new room.
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I'd like to hear the owl's side of the story about the "big one that got away last night".
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I agree. If the stripping guide is too close to the reel seat, you are limited in the amount of line that can be "stripped" in. If it is too far away from the reel seat, (toward the tip), the user has to bend and, stretch and reach for the line. For me personally on my own rods, I put the stripper guide where the line is an easy full arms length reach with the reel seat located at m
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Reading this, the thought just crossed my mind: What about using that insulation foam that is used in houses to stop air infiltration? It's a push the button and no measuring required. As a appraiser, I've seen that stuff on the even on the outside of houses that's been in place for years in all of the northern Michigan weather and it is still hard and firm. Just a thought.
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I doubt that the average fisherman would really worry about which would "outcast" the other and make a decision as to which one to use based on only on that criteria. My experience has been that the spinning outfit will achieve a greater distance while the bait casting rig will allow for more accuracy.
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It has been my experience in my real estate appraisal business that when a client starts trying to get into my pocket via reduced fees, they are not really that interested in my product but in either getting a deal or just plain cheap. The lure of promises of "future business" has been heard so many times it it pathetic. All they are interested in doing is getting you to do what they
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