Jason, as Michael said, take more care while mixing your epoxy. When mixing, don't let your stirring utensil leave the pool of epoxy. If you're like me, you tilt your mixing cup as you mix. If you let the stir stick leave the edge of the epoxy you're bring air into the mix when the stick reenters the pool. Mix slowly and thoroughly. If you're mixing your epoxy for at least 2 minutes, you'll have
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Jim, I have no problem at all believing that you have to deal with accusations of Fuji just wanting to sell more guides. I see that kind of comment on other fishing related web sites I belong to, all the time. Not directed towards Fuji, but at other manufacturers. The most famous of which would be, Gary Yamamoto and the Senko. Did you know that Yamamoto purposefully makes Senko's less durable
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I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one with a collection of empty little plastic bags. lol I always order extra running guides, and even an extra tip top for a build every now and then. You never know when you'll run into a blank tip that doesn't match the published dimensions. I haven't had it happen often, but the two times that I have, and haven't had a tip top to fit, has been to say the
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Phil ..... you of all people should know that what Aaron said about rods being task specific, is absolutely true. You build fly rods. You can't get much more task specific than that, now can you?
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I'm curious as to how long the "general rule" of the length of the rod in feet, plus one, for the number of guides needed on a rod, has been around? I know it's more than 30 years old, as I have been seeing it mentioned for at least that long. Things have changed drastically since then. At least when it comes to spinning rod guide trains. Even before I had any idea of what static l
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Terry, your answers to my questions would be far too generic. I would need more information. Just as I would need more information if I knew nothing about crappie, or knew nothing about the size of fish they were after. Someone could ask me to build them a bass rod, but without knowing how big the bass they will be catching are, could I really build them an appropriate rod? A rod for heavy co
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The whole species specific thing is just based on what kind of fish you will be fishing for with the rod. If you are going to fish for bass, you're going to call it a bass rod. Take your bass rod and go pike fishing with it, now it's a pike rod. Etc ... I think Aaron hit it on the head when he said, what, where, and how. What bait are you fishing? Where are you fishing it? How are you fishing
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The above responses just go to show how subjective the number of guides used on a rod can be, from one builder to another. I'll use Kendall's first post as an example. I have a drop shot rod I built on a Rainshadow Eternity 2 ETES610MXF blank. The Eternity 2 blanks were the RX9 version of the RX10 Eternity that Kendall referenced. Technically, the choke guide is a running guide, but since Kend
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Aaron ..... I started looking at it like this ....... you're fishing for bass around spawning bluegill. You can see bass cruising, but there are carp cruising around as well. You want to pitch your bait on one of the carp to spook it out of there, but if you do, you'll spook the bass too. The bass probably won't come back, but you know that dang carp will LOL
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Aaron, that looks great. Nice clean lines. It looks like a manufactured piece. Very nice, and definitely something I will store in the memory banks. Thanks for sharing.
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Everyone would agree that consistency is the key to accuracy. But would be all agree that the rod needs to handle the line consistently, in order for the angler to make consistent casts? There is no doubt in my mind that the rods I build, handle the line I use more consistently than the factory rods I used to use. There is also no doubt in my mind that my accuracy and casting distance has imp
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The above is exactly what I am talking about when I say that a neutrally balanced, or for me, a tip light light rod aids in bite detection. It isn't always about the vibrations transmitted by the rod. With some techniques you'll often just sense a difference in the weight of the tip. If you're waiting to feel the tap, you'll miss the fish. A drop shot is a prime example
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A tip light rod isn't just about avoiding or reducing fatigue.
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I used to put up with tip heavy factory rods, Then I started building my own. Now I don't have to. Here's another way of looking at it. You have a favorite steak house. And you think, man no way is there a better steak anywhere on the planet. Then one day you hear some people talking about this other steak house. They're talking about how good it is. One of them may even mention them thinkin
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Directly from them. That's where I got mine.
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Looks good Roger. Very nice.
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Rather than contribute a long post on the subject, I will just say that the thread that Aaron linked is a very thorough discussion of the topic. It has a lot of back and forth and presents a lot of different ideas. And Aaron, looks perfect to me, and very familiar.
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Michael, good to hear your success with your drill press set up. I am quite certain that my power wrapper will be more than up to the task. As for the dusty cork turning in the garage goes. I completely understand that. When I was making that carbon fiber grip I referenced earlier, it created a lot of dust. After that mess I decided to make a dust collection system using a small shop vac. It work
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Lynn, have you seen the tubing that Mud Hole offers? It comes in 3' lengths, and in 4 different sizes. I've used it on the last dozen builds I've done, and it works really well. One thing I really like about it is that I can cut it so that the bands are any width I want them to be. There is a chart that tells you the ID and what it will stretch up to.
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I've only caught one bowfin in my life, and it pound for pound, put up the best fight of any fish I've ever caught. I didn't weigh it, but I would guess it to have been between 4 and 5 lbs. I can only imagine what an 8 lb + one would fight like. Alex? What did you catch it on? I caught mine on a Mann's Rat, the precursor to the hollow bodied frogs on the market today. Man did that thing blow t
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Roger, I appreciate the response. As far as to get a tail stock or not. I know a tail stock would be the way to go. And I may just end up getting one. But for now I'm going to see if one of the rod stands on my wrapper will work. I just don't plan on building more than 3 or maybe 4 grips. I'm picky about the work I do, so if after practicing turning a lesser quality grip or two, I find that I rea
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I'll be using my power wrapper as a lathe. I can make a more than adequate tool rest for it. What I have been wrestling with, is whether or not I should invest in a tail stock. As for right now, I am leaning towards being able do without. Much like the one foam core carbon sleeve grip I built, I'm just wanting to build a cork grip or two, just for the sake of doing it. And I love the possibilitie
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Herb? Do you not use a tool rest or some sort? I've been collecting the things I think I need for making cork grips, and from what I'm seeing, a tool rest is going to be pretty important. Just curious ...
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And miss major winter snow storms, and -20 wind chills? No thanks !!!
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Ahhh ,,,,, I didn't read the article, as there was no link to it remaining in the initial post. Yeah, definitely nothing revolutionary there.
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No it doesn't change the action, and it doesn't change the power, but when you are talking about braided line versus a nylon or fluorocarbon mono filament line, braided line will make a rod feel more powerful. I was about to say that a lot of bass anglers confuse action and power, but that isn't true. I belong to several fishing related web sites. One of which is dominated by bass anglers. I o
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Andrew, you will love the Vanford. In case you aren't aware, it's the Stradic Ci 4, with some upgrades. It is feather light and smooth as silk, and IMO will not feel or look out of place. If I remember correctly, the 2500 Vanford weighs 6.4 oz. And yes, I meant a 5.5 KB as your choke guide, and then the rest KTs. As far as my choice of the 5.5 goes, I have no real data to support using a 5.5
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I can certainly understand Mark's concern with using 4.5's as running guides for a first time guide wrapper. They are small and can be frustrating. With that said, as long as you are aware that they may present some initial difficulty, I wouldn't shy away from them. In my estimation, wrapping a size 5 isn't much different than wrapping a 4.5. I wouldn't go with a 6 as a running guide. The weight
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Just my opinion here, but a Lindy rig, if you're using the Lindy walking sinker, is pretty much a Carolina rig. In fact, I use Lindy rig walking sinkers for my Carolina rigs when fishing rock and gravel flats, for bass. It was designed for fishing those kind of areas for walleye, and it comes through that kind of stuff way better than an egg or bullet sinker does. I rarely fish for walleye an
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Or post to this site on a device that more than likely, if it's not completely made overseas, has components that are made overseas. I think this is kind of like the Olympics. If you're an American, you wave the American flag and pull for any American competing in an event. But if someone from another country is better, you have to recognize the superior athlete. Not doing so is, to say the le
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