I’m going to throw a bit of a curve ball into this discussion. It’s been eleven years, but I have a sincerely deep level of experience regarding smallmouth bass in the BWCAW. There are other methods that are often more productive for smallmouth in those lakes than teasing the shoreline with poppers. There is an uncanny abundance of reefs, islands, humps, rocky flats, and other types of hard struc
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Do you work the popper panfish, tease and skip style, or are you fully working it like a larger popper? Doing the later, seated in a canoe, is really hard for extended periods. It also requires a shorte rod than what is optimal for casting light lures long distances.
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I fished avidly for smallmouth in Minnesota for ten years, with some of this time spent as a working fisheries biologist. I’ve caught many between 3.5 to 6 lbs. smallmouth from canoes. Most of these were caught on a Stradic 1000 when really light lures were used. I certainly never ran out of drag as there are only so many beans you can put to a quality smallmouth on a long, light rod. It’s imp
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Consistency seems worth spending the two minutes it takes to find the curvature of a blank. If you have four rods sitting on a deck or in rod holders, why would you want to continually adjust your casts to each one being built on a different part of a blank’s curve. I’d rather have them all the same, or at least 180 degrees apart, if I am building them myself.
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It’s because of space and expense. You need a fairly good size, low traffic lot to practice back and forward casts with regular gear. A pricey fly line is ruined almost immediately by casting over pavement or grass. “Learning” is probably a better term than “practice” for these.
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Unless I have a planned upgrade in an out year, I match everything on a rod build and it’s accompanying reel in regards to price and performance. It’s when every part is of similar specification that the magic happens. If you put the Vanford on a 1.5 oz blank with light guides and similar components, it’s going to be a wonderful outfit. If you are going to compromise on the blank and bits, then I
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Quickfire is likely a big part of your wrap issue. Those auto-bail casting features were really popular about 25 years ago. Now, they are missing from manufacturers’ lines, or relegated to the bubble packaged class of reels, because of tangle and reliability issues. Building a custom rod with that level of reel is a bit of a mismatch. You are on the right track with what you are now talking about
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A level table, two dowels and a China marker are my tools for this pursuit. It takes only a couple of minutes to let the blank tell you it’s curvature. I put curve up for rods meant for typical freshwater sized fish and curve down for the big ones. This gets you the casting accuracy that Kent talks about for most rods. When the fish get big, then the same forces Kent mentioned in casting are in g
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The gold standard for as long as I can remember is the Fly-O by the Royal Wulff company. I believe that it was developed more by Joan than Lee.
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Terms like “better, high end, and low end” are not that useful to me when I choose a blank for a build. I look more towards what I plan on doing with the finished rod (and it’s reel), and let that set a rational price point. I built a rod last year on an SCV blank that cost much more than another I built on an Immortal blank. I am equally happy with both results. The SCV blank is one that I might
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G1000’s go back at least to the later 1980’s, and they are still in production. I don’t know for sure, but I can’t remember the series ever being suspended. I bought two of them more than twenty years apart. I’ve found them to be durable. Both remain fully usable. They’ve usually been near the middle of the Lamiglas line in price. I think they were nearer or were to the top of the line before the
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I’ve lived in locales where breakage and package damage was rare to nonexistent. I’ve lived in places where anything short of a steel belted tire was likely to be delivered in shattered pieces.
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“Simplify, then add lightness” - Colin Chapman.
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I like Gen4 better than any other thread finish I’ve tried. While I’ve never had a serious problem with any, Gen4 just goes through every step of the finishing process with pure ease. It dries predictably, level, appropriately hard, and very clear. It’s bubble release has been absolutely great for me. I believe that its release technology is a noticeable improvement. I can’t make a fair compariso
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I really enjoy bass fishing, so I’m not singling anyone out, here... Still, I have to wonder if any person recent to swimbaits on 30lb. drag reels and 8’ rods has gained a quick master’s of science degree in physics with 65 lb. or stronger braid also now being thrown into the equation. A gator, random Jeremy Wade fish, or shoreline cow could suddenly make one forget about single digit largemouth.
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I have done that operation to multiple CFX grips using a Dremel with a tapered stone, and then lightly finishing with a half-moon point file. The power grinding needs a fine touch as it goes quickly. The dust isn’t something you want to breath.
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I do go from braided line to fluorocarbon with the FG knot, and occasionally use the Alberto. At some point of line wear, I’ll probably give hollow core a try, but I’m not close to that point on either reel. I primarily use the Tranx for Chinook, but it should work great for this rod. I doubt I could maintain over twenty lbs of drag, fishing a nearly eight foot long rod vertically, without needin
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John Sansevera Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I really like the finish on the blank itself. How > is that finish achieved without add weight to the > rod, I don't want to change the action , and IMO I > would think the added weight would make the rod > rubbery. An association between “Harley Davidson”, “added weight”, and “rubbery” seems
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I’m a bit out of my building experience on this rod. I’ll be using it with both a Shimano Tranx 400 and an Avet SX5.3. I’ll mostly use it to fish lingcod, smaller halibut, cabazon, and rockfish, but it will also be useful for albacore and maybe even large bass swimbaits. It looks like it is factory built as the “Classic” on Alps MXN’s, probably starting with size 16 and COF’ing down to 10’s or 8’
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Good Sir, you need a trip to a western state, like Montana or Oregon. There are wonderful streams where trout and/or steelhead don’t need to be stocked and the scenery is always grand. It’s not prime time right now, but the winter will go by quickly enough.
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I want this business to be thriving ten years from now. Choice and competition is always much better than the inverse. My objective was to get them to see that they need to make an adjustment or so on how they handle their “out of stock” situation for customer retention. I ordered this blank during their October sale to be able to accurately measure it and order the rest of the components during
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An update: I did get a call from the same customer service person. I don’t know if this thread was a factor in “jogging” his memory, or not. Apparently, Anglers Resource is expecting the blank shipment to be in soon. I’ll see what communication happens through the remainder of the process. From my limited experiences, it appears that Get Bit transcended from being mostly family run to employee op
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They charged me for a Point Blank on October 17th. I was contacted a day or so later and told it would be shipped on December 10th. I’ve not yet received shipping notice, which isn’t too surprising during these times for something made in China. I’ve been told twice on the phone on different days, though, that they would check with the supplier and call me right back. I’ve not been called back ei
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I built with the Razor. I like it a lot. It feels nice when palming, and it looks great. The quality is really good. I wish they made a Razor that can take a regular fore grip for heavier rods and types of fishing where a fore grip is an advantage.
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Are you the wade Christensen I know?
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Thank you Jon for finding this all out. I am so glad that at least the Rod Geeks selection of SCV blanks isn’t yet gone..
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Freshwater rinsing can actually be nearly impossible for the traveling angler to do. Once, I did it in an airport bathroom before check-in (awkward). Often, showers and sinks in the guest rooms of more remote angling destinations (like the Outer Islands of the Bahamas), are saltwater. Washing gear in the dining area, where you fill your drinking water bottles, is a no-go. Freshwater is pretty muc
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It was a good read. They are a very good and popular site. I was glad to see them cover rod building. One point made was how daunting it was to order appropriate components and get everything sized right. It looks like he still missed on the grip matching the real seat’s diameter. This is from one of the foremost experts in the world on production fishing rods. This is where I believe there is
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For me, I’ll answer the question of why a builder would risk dealing with any of these companies (Rod Geeks, St. Croix, Axiom). There simply isn’t a company now supplying blanks that is doing so without racking up doubts and limited choices. This is something that I think should be ringing alarms in the rod building community. I paid for a Point Blank on October 17th that has yet to arrive in
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Thanks, that experience is good to hear about. I looked up “silicon nitride” since SeaGuide doesn’t seem to describe the material. It appears to be a hard ceramic with high tensile strength. This has to be a difficult market for a new company to break into as the perception of reliability is crucial. Constructively offered, their English language corporate literature doesn’t seem to much address
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