Respectfully, my thoughts came from personal experience using, tweaking and improving. Sometimes things don’t need to be “improved”. It should be a personal preference, not a builder preference, or opinion. The guy that mentored me on building was a serious fly fisherman. He had a bunch of rods and handles built up to have clients use under his observation to find what preferences they had fo
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Maybe we may be talking about different things, as you mentioned fly fishing. I was a serious bass tournament fisherman for 35 years, and, believe me, I looked for every advantage I could get. That included over analyzing the equipment I had. One of the reasons I went to building rods was to have better equipment (and more specialized) than what I could get. For ME, smaller was better than bi
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The Fuji Blue Dun I got is labeled “NOCP Poly thread”. I guess it’s different than the “Ultra” Poly.
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I built a rod for someone using the Apex seat. It was surprisingly comfortable (and light!). I couldn’t put it down, until he came by and picked it up.
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I’m not sure if this relates or not, but when I took up golf, I went straight to custom fitted clubs and lessons from the start. Grip size was a very important fitting measurement, and, in golf clubs, 1/16” of an inch was a full measurement change. Now, when taking lessons, the instructor taught me that the power came from my fingers, NOT my palms. I had to learn how to hold and swing with the
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Standard X-Rays and C6O2’s seem the same to me, Deltas’ seem more black and seem to even have a “gloss” to them. The mirror finish X-Rays are supposed to be buffed, not sanded. I’m not sure I would sand anything not originally intended to be.
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Personally, I wasn’t too impressed with the Seaguide guides. I got some blue titanium’s and regular titanium’s and the guides seem weak (easy to bend), with casting imperfections (had to do some filing to get some metal burrs off), and had a few guides with misaligned rings pressed in. Not sure how their SS ones would be, but not convinced of their quality control. The running guides were tall
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David: I’m skeptical too, especially on a casting rod. It seems the rod torque would cause the blank to twist in a removable handle especially something that powerful and long. Somehow, as of what I’ve heard so far, they seem to be getting away with it. The removable feature would be really nice in the XO situation as, if the rod breaks, that expensive handle could be reused.
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For what it’s worth, I just noticed that the Megabass P5 7’11” flipping stick has a removable handle. The contact surface appears to only be 2”. I would think if 2” is enough contact area for a near 8ft flipping stick, then maybe a glued in handle only at the threads could be enough too. (I’m like you though, still a little uneasy on this.)
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Fly fishermen are a different breed and they appreciate different things. Sometimes “retro” is a favorable thing and sometimes it’s so good companies may bring something back (ie Scott Fly Rod’s “G” Series fly rods). I think guys that used those blanks in the past would know better how they compare to today’s rods. I’d say they’re worth at least what they’re stickered at from back then though
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As expensive as these are, they should make them with removable ferrules (like the way rods were made a long tin3 ago. That way, if the rod breaks, at least the handle would be salvageable. Assuming the handle itself has strength, I trust that a bond that only covers the reel seat area would be sufficient. Those ferruled handles from years past were only about an inch and a half of connection,
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I went with the 16-8-5.5 as recommended by the KR calculator and haven’t looked back (2500 reels). I think you see a lot of store rods with 20’s because they want to accommodate more reel sizes and be more “universal”. With braid, I don’t think spool diameters need to be so big anymore.
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Mark Piccirilli Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Okay I'll put on another coat tomorrow, do you > think it would hurt to do slightly more hardener > just to make sure it finishes properly. NO. The epoxy has to be in EQUAL parts! Exactly equal. Syringes are the best way. Many will say that you need to mix a minimum of 3cc’s of each to allow a l
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Mine are usually pretty tight as previously described by others, but sometimes the ones closer to the tip loosen up a bit after adjusting (like they’re become to wiggle). Out of curiosity, I epoxied them anyway. Turns out epoxy soaks all the way through to the blank (I don’t use color preservers) and forms a single unit when dry. Haven’t had any issues yet, but easy enough to repair if I calle
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A lot of these high end fly rods actually replace (for a nominal fee) breakage for any reason. That alone might be worth it if the savings is only $200.
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Was it a Fuji guide though? The ones with the “locking bump” on the guide foot?
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If it matters, I have never had a KT guide (all the way down to a 4 1/2) come out, wrapped conventionally. There is a little locking bump on the foot that supposed to keep it locked in. I use them pretty much all the time now.
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Weight a set of #5 running guides, Fuji KT alconite to Fuji KT torzites. You will find the weight difference to be indistinguishable (low 1,000’s of an ounce) for the entire train. I don’t see how there would be any measurable or noticeable performance difference. A set of 10 torzite spinning guides (including the significantly heavier KL16) weighed .007 oz., the exact same set in cc alcon
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I’ve done thin coats, and I’ve done thick coats. I’m sure decal quality has something to do with it as my coatings on Rainshadow decals come out near perfect. Anything else, it’s a crap shoot. Just noticed that the last two NFC labels I epoxied had the ink run a bit. Never had that happen before.
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It seems store bought rods use something else other than the epoxy we use. Theirs seem way thinner and too perfect. When I go real thin, it seems hours later it pulls away in some spots (like fish eye contamination) or the label edges start showing themselves. Label seems like it never gets evenly coated until I put on multiple coats, which in turn promotes the “wavey” finish. The best I’ve a
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Looking for a different, thinner, solution. Anyone use Permagloss for rod labels instead of epoxy? Does it hold up?
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Plug in your SB682 and the SB722 here: You will see the blanks may have the same flex characteristic but the action is now different, with the SB682 now a medium action. I, personally, don’t think they will fish the same.
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How much shorter? I’ve found the SJ703 very comparable to the SB722, just 2” shorter (ignore their labelled lure weight ranges). A 6’8” rod will fish completely differently than a 7’2” rod, so what he liked about yours, he may not like if it were a 6’8” version, even if everything else about the blank/action is identical.
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I think a lot of people agree that a tip heavy rod, for bottom contact fishing, is a bad thing, but I’ve never had to add weight to accomplish not having that. Personally, I’d scrap a rod before I’d add an ounce of weight to it. I go the extra mile to shave the last fractions of an ounce away, so no way I’m willing to add an ounce back - but that’s just me. Maybe it’s the components I use, the
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Not for me and probably never will be. I'd prefer to search for different components or even a different blank manufacturer to help balance a rod before I'd ever add weight to a build. Reel choice makes a difference too. I've also noticed that 1 once barely moves the balance point 1/4 of an inch (with reel installed). I'll continue to maintain that an extremely light, but slightly "unbal
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40-50 ft is much deeper than I personally have fished (successfully anyways) so not sure how credible my advice would be. The closest I regularly fish is 35 ft for Great lakes smallmouth and due to techniques and lure preferences of the smallmouth, I find spinning more efficient to use. I would imagine you would need to be able to make long casts as 20 yards of the cast would be wasted just to
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I’ve built several of those blanks, some thoughts - it is an exceptional Carolina rig rod (if you’re the big weight, long leader type of guy), or a great punching rod, but I don’t feel it’s that good as a “casting jig” rod (unless you cast jigs over 1 ounce regularly). It’s just too powerful, and heavy (weight wise) to be fun using as a casting jig rod all day. I think it needs at least an ounc
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Just throwing this out there - though I use all three of the SB724, SB722, and the SJ703, the one I keep grabbing for (and can’t seem to want to put down) is the SJ703. I mainly use it for for dropshotting Great Lakes smallmouth (so bigger weights and bigger fish), but recently discovered that it also excels at Ned rigging (1/10 oz head). Though I feel it might be a little light for Texas rigge
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For those that might not have known, that hook keeper, though called a “drop shot” keeper, actually excels at holding hooks at the bend. That way, Texas rigged plastics do not have to have the hookpoint removed to hold the bait. I typically place it 2 thumb widths away from my reel seat, as I like to be able to place a finger or two on the blank as I fish (a reason why I wouldn’t have the windi
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I'm curious as to what advantage you're expecting, compared to 15 cent throwaways (which can actually be reused)?
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