I have redone a couple and built some with Minima guides and used the Minima tip tops. The tip tops failed on a couple of rods and I replaced all with ceramic.
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Thank you for the help. As Norman says the guide is slipping and trying to get out from under the thread and the thread is also slipping down the foot. In the future I'll use a file perpendicular to the foot to give it some "teeth" and find a better way to hold it on the blank. I'm cutting a thin piece of masking tape to hold the guide. It's mostly on the tip end of the blank.
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That's the one Roger.
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I searched for the most sensitive and lightest rod for finesse worm fishing small rivers in a kayak and have settled on one. It's a Rainshadow Immortal IMMWS62MXF. I'm on my 3rd one; broke one and lost one. I use Minima guides and a very light spinning reel with 6 lb line or 10 lb braid with a 6 lb fluorocarbon leader. I also take it in my boat for shallow finesse worm fishing, 15' or less.
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Length Weight Sensitivity Cost not necessarily in that order.
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...over guide foot. Haven't had this problem so bad as it was today. I grind the foot to a knife edge using A thread can't get the thread to climb up, have to leave a 2 or 3 thread gap. The guides seem to have more paint than I noticed before could that be a problem?
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Bought 4 4' shop lights on sale for $12 each and just installed one. I had tubes and these are so much brighter, 4000 lumens. The name is "Hyper Tough".
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I used to wear Basspro wading booties with felt soles for wet wading but they only last one season. They quit selling the felt soled ones and the rubber soled ones are no good on slimy rocks and don't last anyway. I now wear Chaco wading shoes but they also aren't good on slimy rocks but they last a long time.
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I also fish from a kayak sometimes and built a soft plastic rod from a Rainshadow walleye blank, IMMWS62MXF. It's 6'2" and weighs 1.2oz.
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I usually use a dremel but I've been known to use a bench grinder. As John said if it's not square the butt cap or the tip top covers it.
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I've only been on here for a few years and have learned bunches from the great people on here. Thank you.
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You buy them. Mudhole calls them "winding checks".
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Last week I broke the shorter blank and just ordered it. I'm using the rod for finesse worm fishing in shallow water. 6lb mono, 1/16 oz weight and a Zoom finesse worm Texas rigged. Thanks
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I'm with Jay. Golf is the most frustrating game in the world; one day you hit the ball OK and the next every shot goes in the woods.
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Forgot to say I broke 1 1/2" from the tip a few months after I built and just added a new tip. The extra fast part was pretty much gone. I use the rod with 6 lb mono or fluorocarbon for finesse fishing with a 4" worm and could feel a pebble on the bottom in 20'. Think I'll just get another blank.
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I broke my favorite worm rod this morning and am sick about it. I've been using it for several years and reached down to get the worm off a log and snapped 3" off the tip. It was a Rainshadow blank IMMWS62MXF with Minima guides. The rod and reel weighed less than 10 oz and I used it several times a week here in FL. Does anyone know if there's going to be a sale on those blanks in the nea
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I have a 4 pc 7.5' Eagle Claw in an aluminum tube that I bungee corded to the handle bars of my dirt bike in the '70s and 80s. I fished for golden trout in the South Fork of the Kern River and smaller tributaries in the CA high sierras. IMO 7.5' is the perfect length and 4 pc is compact enough for a pack or bike.
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If you can measure it for the size and have time and are frugal you can order it/them on @#$%& for 1/10 the cost from boca or mcmaster carr. They usually have free shipping. Ceramic bearings are the best for saltwater longevity.
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How about striper fishermen? I've had 5-15 lb stripers take me well beyond 10 yards you mention and this is on a 9 wt.
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Not the same blank but I use it for the same thing and love it. Rainshadow Immortal walleye IMMWS62MXF. They're a little longer, 6'2".
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I looked at another rod with a Minima tip top and saw the same thing, many grooves. Two other rods that I built with Mimima guides have other good tip tops that aren't grooved. Everyone was right.
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Three years ago I built a light spinning rod with Mimima guides and tip top and use it frequently. The other day my line felt rough so I looked at the guides and the tip top was severely grooved in several places. The rod was only used with 6 lb mono not braid. The other guides were OK. I replaced it with another style.
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I mixed them up on a rod this winter and can tell the difference but not by much. The feet are longer on one of them, forgot which.
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I wanted the lightest reel available that I could afford and went with an Okuma RTX 30. I'd rather have a Shimano Stradic Ci4 but couldn't swing it.
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I wanted the lightest reel available that I could afford and went with an Okuma RTX 30. I'd rather have a Shimano Stradic Ci4 but couldn't swing it.
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I'm primarily a bass fisherman and use various length rods for different presentations. This said I prefer shorter rods than the younger guys. My finesse worm rods are 6' to 6'2", my big worm rods are 6'6", my spinnerbait rods are 6'6" to 7', my topwaters are 6'6". For small river kayak fishing, which I do a lot in the summer, are 5'6" to throw under trees.
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Don't. I had a bunch of Minima guides and bought some SSR guides to build a new rod. I learned the hard way they aren't the same. The feet on the SSRs are longer and when wrapped don't look good with the Minimas. Ended up cutting the feet on the longer ones to look good.
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I have a set of number drills that I use to slightly enlarge the tube. DO NOT USE A POWER DRILL FOR THIS, USE YOUR HAND.
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For what it's worth, years ago I put a spinning reel on a fly rod with 1 or 2 lb test line for a crappie rod. There was no feel and I had to watch the line for a bite. As Spencer said, you can buy ultralight blanks that cast much better and feel the bite.
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As for blanks I can't help, but for kits; what kind of fishing do you do? There are kits for anything you like to do.
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