I don't use any adhesive. I haven't run into any issues. The shrink grip isn't going anywhere. If you wanted to twist the shrink grip you would have to squeeze it and by squeezing it gets locked in place against the EVA.
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The heaviest popping rods designed to fight 300+ pound tuna use Fuji MNSG's.
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I use drywall tape.
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Topwater for tuna is a very specific application and a specific rod type is needed to do it correctly. The rod needs to have a soft tip to throw the lighter lures sometimes necessary to get a bite. Think 1 ounce. Then the rod needs to have the backbone to be able to handle the exuberant fight tuna give. Additionally, the action should be moderate to give the angler a chance in the long, drawn out
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GT blanks have a stiff tip to cast heavy poppers, 3-8oz.. Tuna blanks have a softer tip for casting lighter lures, 2-5oz. Both have incredible back bone to fight big fish. Some brands to look at for tuna blanks in no particular order; Saltywatertackle Race Point Special, Black Hole Cape Cod Special, Spinal, CTS, United Composites, OTI, Temple Reef Black Devil, Phenix. Blanks will range from $150
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GT blanks have a stiff tip to cast heavy poppers, 3-8oz.. Tuna blanks have a softer tip for casting lighter lures, 2-5oz. Both have incredible back bone to fight big fish. Some brands to look at for tuna blanks in no particular order; Saltywatertackle Race Point Special, Black Hole Cape Cod Special, Spinal, CTS, United Composites, OTI, Temple Reef Black Devil, Phenix. Blanks will range from $150
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Yes. Just make sure you get the right diameter shrink grip so it will still shrink down tight.
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I have never heard of not using DNA before. I use it every time to clean the blank, threads and even the previous layer of finish and I have never had a fisheye. Never. Granted, I have only built 8 rods, but it is still a lot of DNA with no issues. I do let it evaporate before proceeding with whatever I am doing next. Maybe I have just been lucky. Who knows.
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I do not coat my underwraps. I am just careful wrapping the guides that all the threads are next to each other so I don't have a lot of pushing thread around to do.
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We need some more info. How much drag are you using? You said you have a Raptor and are using 40+ pounds of drag. If this is true, then you need a 400+ gram jigging rod. None of the lighter rods can handle that amount of drag. I have a JM 3 Kings Heavy for my HX Raptor. It is a good match for Bluefin Tuna and overkill for everything else I encounter but still light enough to work. What is
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I don't know. The blank I am leaning towards is the Seeker Hercules Inshore Heavy and it has a 0.7 butt. I think it might be too skinny and require too much shimming up around the the foregrip area. Billy V.? Quick measurement 26-32" up from the butt? (I could play around with the length of the foregrip and/or how much to trim from the butt or tip) Thanks for the offer John.
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Does anyone have any Lakeland locking ferrules laying around? Probably around 0.5-0.6" I.D. I am looking to build a 2 piece rod. It will be 6'6"-7', 20-50, medium fast-fast action and I would like the ferrule to be under the foregrip so the top section is less than 5 feet in length. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tom
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Is fishing with 30+ #s, 40+ #s or even 50#s easy to do? No. Can it be done by an experienced angler? Of course. How does one become an experienced angler? Go fishing. So can it be done by inexperienced anglers? Yes. Hopefully with supervision of someone experienced. Bluefin Tuna fishing requires this amount of drag. If you want to release them with a chance of surviving then you want them to the
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Nice and solid this morning. No squeeking sound, no movement. I am happy.
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Unfortunately, time just won't allow. I usually build a rod months in advance of when I expect to use it; usually a late Winter project. The blank I wanted to build on was supposed to be ready by the end of February. Ok, plenty of time. Then its release date got pushed back to March. End of March I was told definitely April. End of April told not sure when so I chose another blank. Weeks of decid
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I had the tip section from a broken blank that I used to open up some space for the epoxy. The syringe wouldn't pull in much epoxy so I used the tongue depresser thingy to scoop epoxy. I pushed it in the open space and then acted like I was churning butter with the old rod tip and depresser. I think I got a lot of epoxy pretty much as far down as I needed. A couple hours later and it is feeling
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I think part of the problem is the grip slid on nice and easy in test spacing. Then I shrunk the x-flock rubber tubing over the grip. I think it squeezed the thinnest part in the middle of the shaped butt grip just a little. Enough to make it a tighter fit so it squeegeed the epoxy down. I went to my local West Marine and got some epoxy syringes. I can push them a few inches down under the grip.
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Yup, I was rushing to get the grip on before the epoxy got too tacky since I did the gimbal first and forgot to put it up the blank. The seat is not on yet. It being a holiday weekend, I do not have any extra time to get a new grip. Rod needs to be ready next week. I will see if I can figure out some sort of syringe to get epoxy down in there. Thanks for the help.
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Hey all, I need some help on how to fix this. I used two-part 2ton epoxy for aluminum gimbal and rear grip. I built up the blank for the gimbal with sheetrock tape and it is on there good. The eva grip slid down on the blank just barely touching by the time it got to the gimbal so I figured it would be fine. Problem is when I slid the grip down it squeeged all the epoxy off the blank. The very
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In 40 years there will be no guides at all. The rod will magically attract the line. It will be completely frictionless and smooth along the entire bend of the rod. The rod will also be an ounce or two, variable action, length, grips, color and it will play music and clean and cook the fish for you too. You heard it hear first!
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I guess I have been lucky so far. No issues with coating the blank with epoxy and then squeezing the top and pushing the grip down.
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6'6" rod is fine from a rodholder or on a rail. True stand-up with a harness and/or plate or just into your gut should be 5'6"-6' max.
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I like the X-Flocked shrink rubber grips over hypalon or eva, but I am looking for something different. I would like the flocked rubber plain, no X smooth lines. Anyone know if this available? Also, what is the shrink material? I call it rubber, but what is actually, polyolefin, neoprene, rubber? Speaking of neoprene, anyone ever use it? Is it nice and grippy, squishy yet durable? Thanks
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I spiral clockwise for the line laying ease reason as well. It is much easier for me to push the line to the right with my left thumb than pull it to the left.
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If you like the look of the metallic then wrap the guides with regular and then do a second layer with metallic. A bit more work, but gets you the results. On a side note, I have only used lite build and I do 2-4 coats of it and have had nothing but great results. The only issue ever is my so class stand-up rod with rollers that flexes a lot. I have a couple small cracks at the ends of the fe
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Hmmm, I have always just used the same size thread as I was wrapping with. Never an issue.
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Look at Spinal Rods, Jigging Master, Oti when the new series comes out in a couple months, Synit if you are wealthy and American Tackle Bushido Warrior series. A little more explanation on the type of action you are looking for, jig weights used, drag used and targeted species will help a lot.
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Yes, 130# line on an Avet HX Raptor. I am looking for a light weight (relatively) setup for jigging tuna. So no rollers. My Calstar trolling/live bait standup rod has the Aftcos. Off Cape Cod we can run into 300+ pound fish so I need to be prepared. Good to hear the AmTaks are up to the task. I have been looking to build with them for a while now. Now I need to decide on the blank; Phenix Titan j
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Fuji RB guides maybe? Winthrop top?
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Are you guys comfortable using the AmTak Virtus Heavy guides spiral wrapped for super heavy jigging applications? Like 30+ pounds of drag application for bluefins? Are you using the Ti or SS guides? Which Avet reels are these rods for? Thanks.
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