Myself I prefer single foots or all but the stripper, I always use the Forhan locking wrap. I use the simple spiral 0º-bumper-180º, and one of the principles of the simple spiral, as I understand it, is to keep the line as close to the blank as possible. I would probably use 7 or 8 guides plus the bumper. I wouldn’t worry about the 3 series blanks not being sensitive enough, I have that
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On all of my rods I use a simple spiral with a 12 double foot stripper, and then a 6 single foot the rest of the way. You could use a larger bumper guide if you wanted, but keep it a single foot, it is important to keep the bumper as low and close to the blank as possible.
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I put mine on the side that the reel handle will be on.
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Not much. I was stripping epoxy off of a factory rod to do a rewrap and I destroyed the blank with a heat gun. I still use the heat gun to remove fuzzies, and bubbles from epoxy, but I am very careful to keep it moving and not get too close.
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Thanks, I have 2 good heavy coats of color lock on it now, tonight I will put the Permagolss on. I’m glad that I didn’t get 50 replies saying that this was the worst idea in the history of custom rod building. To slightly improve my chances I put the decal opposite where the reel mounts, so if I do have to do a repair it will be less noticeable. Thanks Mike
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From searching old posts it seemed like most people thought that it was OK to use Permagloss over decals as long as you coated them first with color preserver. I am building a G Loomis GL3 with a split grip and I want to put the Loomis peel and stick decal between the grips then cover the decal, wraps, and winding checks entirely with U40 Color Lock and Permagloss. Is there anything that I shou
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Don’t forget the Titan Ti guides, you get the benefits of the titanium at less cost than the Fuji Ti SIC. On a 6’6” bass rod that I am about to build the numbers look like this $15.41 for Alconites, $32.94 for Titans, and $49.64 Ti SIC.
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I have been happy with the rusults I got with U-40, but I havent tried any others.
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The amount of blank showing on an exposed reel seat will be dependant on the size of your blank. The outside shape stays the same within a reel seat series, but they have many different inside diameters to fit different size blanks. A 14mm ID seat would show more blank than a 9mmID seat. CUI makes a seat with almost the entire bottom cut away, but I have never seen one in person.
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I fished the tournament and nothing fell off, I actually caught a lot of fish on the new rod. One of the things that I wanted to do was check out if the rod fished the way I wanted it to before I took the more permanent step of sealing the wraps. The rod performed flawlessly, I wanted a Carolina rig rod that I could cast a long way, and I ended up casting so far I threw all of the braid off and
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Does anyone have experience fishing with a rod that only has color preserver on the wraps? I have just finished my first rod, and I would like to use it this weekend in a bass tournament. Right now I have one coat of U-40 color preserver on the wraps, and planned on putting a light coat of LS Supreme on tonight, which should set up before Saturday. One issue is that some of the wraps are not a
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I bought some at the show from Custom Tackle Supply. The packages have a date code stamped on them, if it is Jan 07 2007 or later it is the new formula, I got that information from the guys in the Trondrak booth. Just have them look at the package before they send it to make sure. I figure for a newbie the longer pot life should be very helpful. Thanks Mike
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Thanks for the suggestions it looks like the Rainshodow IFS904 or the Loomis L904 is pretty close to what I am looking for. All of the numbers are very close or identical so how would the Batson RX7 compare to the Loomis GL2 or GL3? I couldn’t find a weight for the Loomis blanks, but the Batson is listed at 3.29oz which seems pretty light for a 7’6” blank. Thanks Mike
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I thought that 1 oz was pretty common for Carolina rigs. I use them for relatively deep mountain lakes in Georgia, North and South Carolina, mostly for spotted bass. The heavy weight is for long casts and to keep the rig on the bottom in deep water. I use 1 oz tungsten weights with 30 lb Power Pro braided line and about a 3 ft leader. I use mainly finesse worms or small lizards. I don’t ne
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Thanks for the replies, I will definitely make the finish seminar. I had kind of forgotten about the seminars since I found out that I had a tournament on Saturday, but the basic building and finish seminar should be 2 hours well spent. No offense about the reminder to follow the directions, that is a pet peeve of mine too. I am an engineer and in the past have had to write instructions for
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I am looking for recommendations for a blank 7’6” or longer for fishing a Carolina rig with 1or 1 ½ oz weights.
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This question has to do with rod finishes for an absolute beginner. I am interested in building my own rods, and since I live in Asheville I plan on coming to the Expo to buy the supplies that I need to get started. It seems from reading the posts here and my own experience building a few rods many years ago that the most difficult part to get right and the easiest way to ruin a perfectly good
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