Ben, I agree with you about doing a locking wrap on K guides. It's a pain in the butt in my book. The only thing about adding a heel to the K guides is it will decrease the guides ability to shed line. With that goes their "tangle free design" Personally, I only do locking wraps on the rods that I will be using to extract fish from heavy cover. Even with those I don't know if it's re
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Those things are pretty slick. And I love the idea of the easy to ream foam core center of the inserts. The aesthetic possibilities you get using the Perfect Fit inserts, and trim pieces is awesome as well. I am a huge fan of the Alps MVT reel seat, but the IDs of the last two I've ordered, have not even been close to their advertised dimension. In both cases I had to return the seats I was s
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Mathew, if what I am gathering from what Paul is saying is correct, he has the metal Pac Bay chuck. If I am correct, then I think there could be a few things in play here. Paul, I have the Pac Bay version of the wrapper you have. I upgraded the stock chuck with the Alps chuck, but the Pac Bay metal chuck looks like it is a quality unit. I experience the same wobble that you're dealing with, an
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I personally would't choose a medium heavy power, fast action blank for topwater lures unless I was modifying the blank. They have treble hooks, and fast action rods with that kind of power are IMO a recipe for lost fish. Especially when you are talking about fish that jump. And fish that seem to jump even more when they are hitting on topwater baits. As far as blanks go, yeah you want a ligh
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I'm curious about the weight of a BLAG#4 as well. A #4 Minima4 guide's listed weight is .077 grams. 2.4 times lighter than the BLAG 6, but is it lighter than a BLAG 4?
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Kenneth, with the bait weights you mention I'm assuming you're going to be throwing baits like a Hudd 68 or 6" and 7" Talons. Maybe something like a 6" Spro BBZ? Like Spencer said, you won't need a long grip with those kind of baits. They're pretty small as swimbaits go. If it's a dedicated swimbait rod, I wouldn't think you'd want or need to go longer than an 11" - 12"
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x2 on Spencer's "very nice" comment. Light, crisp, and very sensitive. And the gloss black finish is gorgeous !!!
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You're building this rod on an extra heavy power rod blank, I'd ask what are the sizes and weights of the swimbaits that are going to be thrown on this rod? If you're talking big 12" baits with weights upwards of 6 oz, then I'd be looking at the 14" length that Roger is talking about. A rear grip of that length is going to allow you to easily get the butt of the rod along your side, for
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Mud Hole sells 18" long square blocks that have a .375 hole bored in them. Interestingly they don't list their outside dimensions in the online catalog. Colors are kind of limited, but they do sell them.
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Not that I know of, and back in my younger days I have been out fishing for steelhead when the stream bed had anchor ice on it, and the guides would freeze closed about every 20 minutes. Couldn't tell you what the temp was, but it was well below freezing. No ill effects to my rod. Can't say the same thing about me though lol
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Help you he will ............ size 6 is too big for that rod, they are ....... That was my Yoda impersonation ...... figured the Luuuuuke, I am your father was a little ...... much.lol The poor attempts at humor aside, Norman turned me on to the Minima4 guides that I am using on a build I am currently in the middle of. and they are no joke when it comes to being feather light. I haven't ev
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Lynn ..... If I guessed that the words "die hard" weren't the first words that popped into your head ..... would I be correct? LOL
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Digital. The reason I got them is the aforementioned, "the eyes aren't what they used to be" even with glasses lol I got mine from Harbor Freight. They're Pittsburgh brand. I don't know how truly accurate they are, but if they aren't, at least they're consistent in not being so.
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Ben, ya know ..... I don't know the answer to your question about not being able to enlarge the picture. Maybe you do have to be signed in, to do so? LOL Lynn, .... get a net !! You bet my friend ........ it is going to be a longggg winter. And thanks for the response.
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Ben, thanks for the additional reply. Much appreciated.. And yes, I remember Steve posting that. I absolutely love how the rods I have with micro guides on them, perform. And my thinking of rather having too many guides versus not having enough, comes from something Tom posted in what may have been the first thread I ever posted on this site. I'm paraphrasing here, but he made mention that it wo
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As the saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words" Below is a link to a picture I posted showing the guide spacing and line path as it currently it. 10 guides total. 3 transition guides, 7 running guides Any comments on whether or not I have some serious overkill going on here, will be greatly appreciated. Tom, my apologies if using the photo section for pictures su
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Norman, happy new year, and believe me, I understand what you're saying about the functionality of the rod, I'll just say that part of functionality, is durability. I've never broken a rod while actually fighting a fish either. When the rod I referenced earlier, broke ...it happened so fast that I didn't have time to even begin to fight the fish. I was pretty much just holding on so I didn't lose
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Lynn, thank you very much for the response. It is truly appreciated. We must have been typing at the same time lol And yes!!! Protecting the blank is what I am trying to do. This thing is a different animal than I am used to. Even in spinning gear. I'm just concerned that I may be losing a lot of sensitivity, simply because I am being over cautious. Were this any other kind of rod I wouldn't
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Ben, thank you very much for your response. I truly appreciate it. I'm kind of thinking it isn't or shouldn't be out of the ordinary for a blank with the characteristics that this blank has. When I was performing the static load, I decided to do a check for action angle, just to see how fast the action is. I came up with an AA of 77 or 78, so it's definitely an extra fast action. I wish I had
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I need som opinions on guide spacing. More specifically, running guide spacing. How much deviation do you folks allow between the path of the line, and the curve of the blank, between running guides? Maybe an easier way to ask is ......... let's say the line is 3/8" away from the blank at each guide when the blank has no load on it.. Now with the blank fully loaded per CCS standards, how
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Tony, if you're going to be attaching the base to something, which isn't a bad idea considering that the connecting hardware won't make the entire bed rigid, you can do what I did and not even use the hardware to connect the pieces together. Initially I used the accompanying hardware to connect the pieces together, a somewhat frustrating and certainly not easy task, then as I didn't have a de
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Matt, other than the frustration that comes with running line through them when your eyes aren't what they used to be, my main frustration with micro guides is placing them on the rod prior to wrapping. If that's where you get your main frustration with them, I may have a suggestion that could help. I used to use blue painters tape to tape my guides on. It worked but if I wanted to test cast
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I haven't tried one of the laser alignment tools for reasons already mentioned. It just looks too cumbersome. What I do on conventionally wrapped casting rods is, I mount an old reel that I have spooled with yellow 50# test braid, and mount it in the reel seat. I then center the reels line guide over the center of the blank and run the line through the guides. I tie a 1/4 oz weight to the end
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Don, I certainly mean no disrespect, but wouldn't lengthening the leader to that extent, defeat the use of braid? Years ago I used to use braid and a fluorocarbon leader when flipping and pitching. And despite using a factory rod with (by my standards now) huge #6 running guides, I still didn't like the idea of the leader knot passing through the guides, so I kept my leader the same length as
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Tony, yes that is the chuck I was talking about.. You will love it. As far as needing to wrap rubber bands around the chuck, the black nylon one, that came with my wrapper. I never had to do that. It has basically what amounts to a big wing nut that you tighten against the back of the chucks jaw adjusting wheel, and that device worked quite well. Maybe I was lucky? I will say I never ran it f
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I either missed something, or I am very confused .... or both lol I saw no mention of the build being a spiral wrap. Anyhow ..... Matt, as you see there are many different suggestions. I will say that mine comes without the type of knowledge that Norman and Michael have about guide trains. I'm more entrenched in the traditional type of guide train. That's why I still use 3 double foot guides i
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Matt, that is an awesome blank, and I love love LOVE the rod I built on it, and I have little doubt that you will too. As far as the guides you might want to use, as you can see you'll get a couple of different suggestions. For me personally, I used Fuji LN and L guides with Alconite rings, on the rod I built using that blank. The LNs are double foot guides. The Ls are single foot guides.
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Michael, you are definitely right in thinking it would be a heck of a chore to keep a room you turned grips in, clean enough to do wrap finishing in the same room. I pretty much have to do it, so I just do a thorough cleaning of the room, then let the room sit for a day before I do wraps and finish work. I don't turn a lot of grips though. If I did I'd set up a separate room. Cleaning my rod wrap
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Welcome Tony, you are going to absolutely love this place. It is without a doubt the best rod building forum on the planet. As far as the wrapper the girls got you, I think you will like it. I have virtually the same wrapper, except mine comes from Pac Bay. The only upgrade that I would look into, would be the chuck. I upgraded my wrapper by replacing the stock chuck (black nylon) with the A
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David, if you think you may end up turning grips, then I think a power wrapper would be a good choice. You can still wrap by hand, on a power wrapper. Simply position the rod so the butt isn't in the chuck, or even more simple, just open the jaws of the chuck so they don't touch the butt of the rod. If you need more tension, to keep the rod from moving if you stop in the middle of a wrap, than
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