Jim, I agree with you. Started using the Winn Grips about a year ago and the people I make rods for love them. Never liked Eva so used mostly cork for many years. I have made a couple of casting rods for myself using Winn grips and I have not noticed any loss of sensitivity vs cork. Just finished a couple of rods using the new CFX foam core carbon fiber grips, they are nice but not as comfortabl
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Since it is relatively fresh (a day or two), hit it with a hair dryer, this should soften the epoxy quite nicely. Note: If your hair can handle the heat of a hair dryer so can a blank. At this point use your finger nail or a piece of split bamboo or even your burnishing tool to scrape the drop of epoxy away. This should remove it without touching the underneath finish of the blank. A little DNA o
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I agree with Michael, have used the same line set up with kr guides (4.5) without ever having a rod failure. I have seen rod tips fail due to inadvertent damage such as by being hit with a jig or another rod while fishing or having the tip hitting the boat gunnels or console I have also seen tips damaged removing them from a rod locker or by putting an abnormal bend in a rod during storage. In m
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Gregg see what you are talking about, but does not do any thing for me. I have to turn my tablet sideways to see that they are lined up by three's, but still need to scroll forever (it seems) to get through everything. Need a table format to simplify the blanks section. Norm
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I absolutely agree with Jay! I really miss having blanks of a given brand listed in a tabulated form. IMO this is the simplest and easiest way to look at and compare blanks. Hopefully mudhole will find away to give us the option of looking at blanks via a table format.
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Very interesting piece of history, and shows how far rod making has advanced over the past 100 years. Thanks for the post! Norm
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Gregg, I also agree with Jason & David. Put 'brands' as the first option under the 'blanks' heading, rather than 'view all'. Or if you keep the 'view all' button then have a 'brands' option at the top of the page after you push 'view all'. I think this will make more people happier with the website, and it should not distract from anything currently in place. It will give the user the option
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John - Mudhole has CRB Gator blanks I think they have the one you want (MH Gator B12-40L) 7' 12-40 live bait rod. Finding some blanks on the new mudhole website has been difficult. So search using the word 'gator' only and you will get there. Gator blanks or Gator glass will not get you there. It on the second page. Norm
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Greg, first of all thank you for taking the time to read all of the comments in order to try to improve the mudhole website. You specifically asked me about my problems with the guide section. Here goes, for example when I select spinning guides from the menu I get 209 choices, when I narrow by choosing an application such as inshore I get one choice and that is the microwave 30 system, there sh
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David, thanks I just over looked that tab! Just saw discription went down to read and lost sight of the other tabs. I like you feel that this tread is is important to mudhole for improving their website. They are having things pointed out to them they never thought of during development. I am confident they will improve the website, in part, via the comments listed here. Norm
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Well in that case try the BPST (8/10) you have nothing to lose, and it may work perfectly well. That is basically the only choice you have for a size 8 ring. The BPST is a general purpose spin/cast tiptop.
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Three that look good are your first choice the BBST (10/10 black), the HGST (10/10) and the MNST (10/10) but ithe latter two are gunsmoke color. Any one of these would work just fine. The HGST appears to be a closer match to your guides. Norm
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The heat gun should work fine to soften the epoxy enough to scrape it off. If done carefully it will come off but do not worry about scratching the underlying rod finish, it is just finish and will not weaken the blank. Since you have been using this rod a lot it probably already has a number of scratches. You do not want to gouge into the graphite fibers with your scraper. So whatever scraper y
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Looks like you want a heavy duty SIC tiptop with a size 8 ring and a size 10 tube. These are almost impossible to find, did the search at mudhole and found nothing different than what you found. The BPST looks a little frail for what you want to do but it is the only guide I could find, but may work fine. Also went to the new angler resources product catalog and faired no better. There are more
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I know very little about the GLB 84 1M, so i cannot comment about a suitable replacement. However, I remove and replace guides all the time and if you are careful it is easy to do with no problems. When cutting off the guide cut on the foot of the guide this prevents nicking or cutting the blank. You then peel back the wrappings and unwind them. Using the heat from a hair dryer will soften the ep
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I noticed when you find a blank you are interested in buying (or comparing) and look at the details for that blank no information is given concerning butt diameter or tip size. This something that definitively needs to be fixed! I still like looking at charts it is so much easier to compare blanks from a given manufacturer. Been playing around with the website for the past few days and it still
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As I mentioned above, if you want to try the minima-4s, use sizes16, 8 &5 Match Guides (XM4XG), followed by 3 to 4 size 4 minima-4 fly guides (XF4XG). The tip top will have a size 4 ring (XFM4XT). Total cost less than $8.00. I think these will be the lightest guides you can put on an ultralight rod. I have a 6 1/2' ultralight with these guides and it casts and performs extremely well. The ai
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Scott - From what you have mentioned so far there is little question in my mind that what you have is a Mitchell Abu Garcia rod with a handle built on an aluminum tube with a fiberglass blank glued Into the handle. This was a very common way for rods to be built back in the 60's &70's. There is no such thing as an an all aluminum rod, so I'm sure some of the cork was chipped away on the handl
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Went and checked my order history and you are right. All but 10 of my orders are gone! There is no rhyme nor reason for the 10 that were saved. In fact most of my most recent orders are not listed. Hopefully, they can fix this bug.
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Maybe my opinion will change after getting use to it. I order a lot of stuff from mudhole and got around their old site quite easily. When I went on it today I thought to myself where is everything! It was like someone replacing your favorite old and comfortable recliner with a good looking but uncomfortable modern chair. Hopefully I will grow to like it. Norm
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I did not like it at all. To me it seems very complex and cumbersome making it harder to browse their website. I like simple. But that just might be me. Norm
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I still wrap rods by hand, been doing it for 46 years. Tried a power wrapper but never liked it so I sold it! I could wrap faster and easier by hand and I liked sitting in one place and moving the blank as I wrap rather than vise versa. I also dried my rods early on by suspending them between two folding chairs and rotating them a 1/4 turn every 10-15 minutes for about 2 hrs. Worked great. Have t
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The handles on some of the old Mitchell Abu Garcia rods were made on aluminum tubes and the fiberglass blank was glued Into it. Is it possible that the only the handle section of your rod is aluminum and the rest of the rod is fiberglass? If so you can rebuild the handle to hide the alu!minum, clean up the fiberglass blank and repaint it if you wish. Hope this helps. Norm
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Try the minima 4 hard chrome guides. Use minima-4 sizes16, 8, & 5 match guides (they have the height), followed by minima-4 size 4 fly guides as runners. With matching tip top, all for less than $8.00. Set up similar to kr concept. How's that for good & cheap! Norm
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Jim - Because of your regular and helpful input into this forum, I was curious as to who you were. So awhile back I did a search and found your online LinkedIn profile and I have to say you have a very impressive resume. Angler Resources is very fortunate to have you as thier spokesman. It has become evident that you take your job very seriously and believe in your your products. The AR product c
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Measured three different grips - rear grip, butt grip and half wells, all were ~ 10mm (~ 0.4 in.). Probably made on a 3/8" mandrel. Norm
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I had no previous experience with foam core graphite fiber grips, so recently bought several of the cfx grips to try out on some rods I am currently building. They look and feel very good, they come in a matte finish that has some texture to them. They are a very firm grip. In fact they look and feel very similar to the grips found on the Edge First Strike series of rods designed by Gary Loomis.
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Good idea, cork is always a good tried and true choice! Cannot go wrong with it. I build most of my rods with cork, just recently been playing with the Winn grips, which have been very popular and well received. Now starting to try the foam core graphite fiber grips. One thing I have found out over the years is there are different strokes for different folks. Good luck with your build, I am sure
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For a little more than the price of the Winn grips, Mudhole does sell CFX foam core graphite fiber grips. They are brand new at mudhole, and I recently bought a few to try. I just put a split grip set on a casting rod I am currently building; they look and feel really good. They ream easier than the Winn grips so are not difficult to install. According to Steve they might be a more sensitive alte
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I just looked at a recent E-mail flyer from mudhole concerning their new foam core carbon fiber inserts that can be used as a sleeve/spacer for SK reel seats. This will eliminate the need for reel seat checks, and they look pretty sharp. Since they are so new I have not tried them yet, but I plan to do so in the near future. They are a little expensive though. Norm
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