Another friend steered me towards the Supplee-Biddle Hardware company who was a distributor of inexpensive rods and other tackle they bought from various sources. I found a little on them with “Google”. It doesn’t sound like their rods have much value with collectors. My friend thought some of their later ones were sourced from Japan, but I couldn’t verify this on-line.
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I have a fairly foggy memory that the Congress was the highest split bamboo line of the South Bend rod company. I don’t know if South Bend ever went by “SBM”. My friend, who use to tell me about the old split bamboo makers as we took turns rowing and fishing, has been gone for almost fifteen years. So many bamboo rods were broken and shortened in repair. Many were very short by today’s standards.
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I have a rod I built on a St. Croix SCV72MM blank that I really like with that weight range of square bills. That said, I recently got schooled by a fishing buddy during a square bill day.
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Hello Chris, I usually don’t try to sway someone away from a brand they have asked specifically about. Also, I am aware that the XRay blanks are currently on sale. Still, if they don’t have one that readily meets your needs, I’d recommend looking elsewhere at a blank that does. Point Blank has the 73MXF that seems ideal. It is an extra fast rod rated for up to 3/4 of an ounce. This would make
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Tony Vieson Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > Just because you visit a privately owned > establishment, doesn't automatically mean that > they have a good hamburger. Is the burger on the > same level as say your store bought fro-zone > patties, your typical fast food joint, or is it to > a level that you'd pay a little extra like >
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I would personally only build bass rods, for sure, on blanks from three companies. There is a fourth I might consider. Hands-down, my favorite blanks are the SCV’s from St. Croix. They are now available from Rod Geeks. These are perhaps, the best you can buy. They are made from the highest specification Hexcel graphite. They are manufactured in Park Falls, Wisconsin. The ART tapers are truly grea
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I wouldn’t buy a power wrapper to build the volume of rods you will likely build for yourself. A nice one will cost more than everything else you need and not necessarily help you build better rods. If you are building a few rods each winter, hand wrappers won’t get very laborious. I think it is good to keep early builds simple. Fancy thread patterns just add weight, blunt sensitivity, and in
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I’m a big fan of Gen 4 myself and Andy Dear has been helpful to me. However, John at Flex Coat certainly just earned John Menken’s loyalty in much the same way.
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The hardest substance I can find that could ever he expected to become attached to fishing line is the silicon dioxide components of diatomaceous algae. This rates a 7 on the Moh scale and about 1200 on the Vickers. That is a fairly hard abrasive paste when imbedded in braided line. Common aluminum oxide used in quality, but value priced ceramic guides ranks a 9 on the Moh scale and 2600 on the V
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There are lots of strategies for pricing discretionary types of items. I heard what I considered a reliable report years ago about a person affiliated with Sage going ballistic on one of the managers at St. Croix for building high performing, high specification fly rods without adding prestige pricing. I had seen fairly similar behavior at a trade show a few months earlier. The story went that St
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Plasma is a gas of positively charged ions. You don’t want to run any kind of already manufactured fishing line through plasma. That won’t end in a good outcome. Does the importer of these products state their hardness, strength, strain resistance or reversal properties, (ability to not crack) in quantitative or relative terms that are meaningful?
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We are articulating this differently but aren’t that far apart. Crush resistance is also maintaining a constant distance between the skin surfaces. The bonding of the skin to the core helps prevent sliding and deflection which adds much more to overall strength than sum of the either the mass or strength of the two materials.
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I’ve been de-crystallizing (is this a word?) various types of resins for decades with never a bad result. I simply heat a small pan of water on the range to just below simmering and then immerse the closed resin bottles. You can watch as they magically become clear and liquid. Boat building and repair resins are very expensive. They are stored and used in large quantities. Throwing these product
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Tom Kirkman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The secret to these grips isn't the carbon skin - > it's the rigid foam core. But you can salvage what > you have by shimming with thread or fine cord. > Spiral up the blank, and down again if necessary, > smear the thread or cord with epoxy and "screw" > the core in place. > >
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No one seems to know what is going on there, but it appears to me that a few indicators point to much greater issues than COVID. I’ve waited extra time for blanks from three other companies after COVID, but there were no manufacturing related issues. Well experienced steelhead and surf casting anglers, who have been their customers for decades, seem to be fleeing. I hear it in conversations a
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I just returned from a couple of weeks of Halibut and Salmon fishing with several rods I built. All survived and functioned very well. There were a few blanks and components that really stood out to me. I’ll start first with those of the sponsors. The Alps Aluminum Trigger reel seat is so well designed, made, and finished. It holds reels so securely and is comfortable to use for hours. I cut
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I just had a negative experience with Lamiglas that is very telling. I bought a built Halibut rod in late May from them. I was very short on time between work, family events, and getting ready to go to Alaska for an extended fishing trip. The Halibut rod was the one I least cared about building myself. The rod came with two guides extremely mis-aligned. I called them and emailed them for days. Fi
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Make sure the wrap is offset a little bit from where the thread is being fed from your wrapper so the thread wants to pack towards what has been wrapped on the rod. Go slow and lay your burnisher against the incoming thread to coax it towards the wrap a bit more. With a little practice you can pack tight as the thread is wrapped on the blank. There is a balance point between jumping over the ridg
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I’m going to torture test your guides on a couple of rods in Alaska. I’m expecting great results.
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Thanks, I will do that.
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I’m looking at cutting the SCV70MF down three inches from the butt end to make it a 6’9” rod. That should be about my perfect personal length for jerkbaiting. I just slap the water a bit with a 7’0 rod on the shallow baits. Most jerkbaits I use weigh between 1/4 and 1/2 ounce. I use 8-10lb. fluorocarbon. St Croix makes an identical rod at 6’6”, so going to the midpoint between these two should be
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I’ve moved several times in the last few years. I’ve lived in a couple of locations where a majority of my USPS deliveries were left crushed at my door. In other places, this was rare to nonexistent. A local postal employee told me it wasn’t them, that everything they get that goes through Memphis is destroyed and very late arriving. I currently have bad luck with packages getting diverted in Por
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I have never been able to get consistent life out of the same brand/model/size of fly lines. This is on the same rod with same guides, while fishing the same river during the same season of use. I’ve noticed this across three makers.
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I’m considering getting an SCV blank and cutting about three inches from it’s butt to make it a better length for jerkbaiting. I know this will slow the blank a little. My question is whether the action change can be expected to be proportional along the length of the rod verses being biased towards the butt-end. I’d prefer to have the stiffness at the tip unchanged and the butt to have a little
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It’s a good question that I can only add to fog rather than clarity. I built on a Point Blank a few months ago, and it’s quality and sensitivity are really impressive. The company has two different data charts for my blank, the vendor a third, and the supplied label represented a fourth. That was really frustrating and frankly inexcusable. Still, the blank is very nice, regardless of whatever it
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Kent Griffith Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------ > > That said, I wish Todd Vivian would or could > actually make his own rods on this soil like he > did at Lamiglas before going CCP on us so we can > all see what he is capable of, but as long as the > rods are made in China without his direct > oversight, I am afraid I can not make a fair
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St. Croix rods, that are labeled for spinnerbaits, are all moderate-fast between 6’6” and 7’0”. I don’t own one of these, but generally find that moderate-fast actions are a sweet spot for spinnerbaits. I usually fish spinnerbaits on my nicest baitcasting rod that is leftover after I best rig for the specific parameters expected for the day. I always tie Decoy brand snaps on at home for baits tha
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Michael Danek Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Phil, the premium blank makers are providing > premium blanks, blanks that in general out-perform > the cheapies. Most of the builders on this forum > understand that except for a few anomalies, you > get what you pay for. The term “blank makers” is an important distinction to me. Most makers h
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My recommendation is to build a rod that you need in your arsenal which doesn’t really warrant being premium. What species or technique do you need a rod for, but only infrequently? There must be one where a great performance/value ratio blank like the Rainshadow Immortal series would suffice wonderfully. I used one of those for a topwater build and it works great. While I really like topwater fi
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I just built a rod with an EPDM grip. Russell is absolutely correct in they are softer and heavier. I went with a triangular EVA fore grip to save weight in front of the reel seat. I am not sure the amount of savings is noticeable, however. The EPDM really didn’t feel all that heavy to me. The combination of texture and the increased cushion afford a very secure grip. Installation is beyond easy
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