They have become my go to and like Lynn, on smaller blanks I double them over and they work great for me. So much easier to adjust than tape.
Forum: rodboard

To me they can definitely be slippery and I finished the few I've done with permagloss FWIW. This is a crazy story I had to share about learning my lesson with these grips...I do love them but to me a little slippery. 6 weeks ago I was fishing a dam from a high platform. This was my first time using a rod with a carbon grip... it was a lamiglas TFX hybrid with titanium guides, CFX grips, ca
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I'm a new builder for sure so I'm really asking more than anything... but in my mind and when I played around with it a few times it seems to me anything other than a simple MUST side load several guides even if it's a little it happens over several guides which to me would be worse. Then we are somewhere closer on the spectrum to the traditional casting setup? I can't really see but to me it loo
Forum: rodboard

I'm a newbie but love the simple spirals I have done. I tried the Pete Holloway but didn't like the way the guides were loaded. Probably operator error but went back to the simple and it works for me.
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I ended up deciding to try the CLB and Rainshadow. I had read a lot of posts where Tom recommended the CLB I ordered a Black Steel 704 blank and I got a CLB704(wasn't sure if it was supposed to be a CLBF704) but it feels amazing and can't wait to fish it. I'm getting it finished up and will hopefully get it out on the water in the next few weeks. This will be a 15lb live bait rod for stripers.
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Thank you Tom, I just assumed any type of spiral would benefit from a little offset? Would Tom offset the 0 if he were building simple(no longer simple I guess) spiral ha ha?
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Kent, thank you I didn't realized I had that hidden but just changed it. I'd love any guidelines you could provide. Thank you!
Forum: rodboard

I was hoping for some help on my first simple spiral. Am I correct that when the stripper is offset slightly to prevent uneven line accumulation it pushes the bumper guide closer to the 180 guide in the optimal position? When I load the rod the bumper needs to be about 3.5" from the 180 guide, making it approx 6.5" from the 0 to keep the line off of the blank. I used a small single fo
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Russ, Thank you for the help I'm going to give the rain shadow rclb70xl a try. I do think for what I do I will like a lighter rod Thanks again!
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Russ, I never have to cast the bait, just slow bump trolling them along at .5-1 mph. Sometimes a light inline planer board, sometimes freelined, sometimes 1/2oz sinker or maybe 1oz sinker at the most.
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Russ, That definitely makes me think... because I really baby my rods and until this point I've been catching them on graphite bass rods without any issues. Maybe I feel like I'm "missing out" ha ha as funny as that sounds. I keep thinking I need the soft tip for live bait but I don't seem to miss many fish on these rods with circle hooks. Even with these rods it's easy to see the bi
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That's exactly what I was thinking about the 10-25 rating from what info I could dig up. I will give Seeker a call too to hear their thoughts. Yes I'm totally fishing open water/no cover to worry about, and strictly live bait. I'll check out the calstar and rainshadow. Thank you for the help!
Forum: rodboard

Hello everyone, First post here and I'm excited about the wealth of info here. I want to start building my own rods. I've found a lot of older threads recommending Seeker CLB blanks for striper live baiting. I fish mainly 15lb test for landlocked stripers mainly in the 10-20lb range with some bigger ones swimming around. I see the CLB 704 has been highly recommended for this in the past but i
Forum: rodboard