The overwhelming majority of mass marketed products today are parity products. They use the same raw materials, components,and engineering. They differ mainly in advertising, marketing and pricing. This being said, what do you propose to be in reality, as opposed to hype, the most innovative and distinctive product to become available to rod builders in the past two years or so?
Forum: rodboard

Mike, I'm still confused. I have the 2010 Mudhole Catalog here before me. It has 46 pages of different blanks for sale, and 100 blanks or more are listed on many of these pages. So far I'm unable to find any blanks listed under the heading "sanded unsanded Mudhole Blanks." Could you provide a page number where the blanks being discussed are to be found? I have enjoyed Mudhole servic
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I'm confused. I have built on several "sanded" and "unsanded" Mudhole blanks, one of the most recent being a sanded blank marketed as a Mudhole surf blank, built by Lamiglas, and identified as such in the packaging. The blank was flawless, as far as I could tell, and fully up to Lamiglas' excellent standards. The purchase price was considerably more than $4.99, but I got a t
Forum: rodboard

Mike: In my experience the St. Croix SCIV is an excellent product, and the St. Croix service is second to none. I have fished St. Croix blanks for over 30 years. Given your geographic location you might be swayed by doing buisness not just in the U.S.A. but close to home.
Forum: rodboard

I suspect that not only mass but surface area enters into the ability of a fishline to transmit wave energy. Water is a dense medium which must be displaced in order for fishline to transmit energy through it. The larger the diameter of the line the more water must be displaced in transmitting the wave. This impedes the progress of the wave and causes energy loss. A tin can telephone does not wor
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The propagation of waves is the basis for every type of electromagnetic, light, or sound communication - including this one. These waves have conformed to paper predictions every time in instances whose number defy imagination. Instant fame and fortune await the person who can create or identify waves which do not behave in ways which are described on paper; anglers included.
Forum: rodboard

I want to build a 6' casting rod to fish worms with no more than 1/16oz. of weight on #15 nylon monofilament, and this rod will be used with the lightest reel of the proper size available. I want to build this rod with the lightest blank, the lightest guides, and the lightest reelseat I can buy. About how much weight should I add to the butt of this rod to make it balance?
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Richard, your point is well taken. How many fingernail clippings and layers of paint would it take to equal a one ounce weight added to the butt of a rod? Are we talking a difference of 10X, 100X, 1,000X? I'm guessing it's closer to 1,000X, which makes me suspect it would be about 1,000 times more productive to leave off that screw-in weight than to go through all that clipping and scrapeing. O
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Emory: The meaning of "seems" and "is" are distinctly different. Check the post you refer to. As for your gracious bridge offer, I would leap (get it?) at your offer of the Brooklyn Bridge, but I am currently involved in building a bridge to a duckblind with federal money. The completed bridge would be 2000 feet long, but as a result of the 10% across-the-board fed
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Fishing with an accomplished nymph fisherman is a humbling experience. (I'm talking about the guys who don't use bobbers/indicators.) It seems the rascals have a sixth sense which is independent of touch, sight, or the type of rod in their hand. Now, if you could build or buy tackle which would impart their abilities . . .
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Jim, I agree. Perceived rod balance is purely subjective, has little to do with science or physics, and cannot be measured or described - except "It feels right to me." Fine. My only problem is the use of bogus science to justify personal taste.
Forum: rodboard

The handlining example was offered to suggest if "sensitivity" is your highest priority then forget "balance" and throw your rod away. If casting distance, ease, and accuracy is a high priority you will be obliged to make some concessions to balance; static or otherwise. In this imperfect world we are obliged to make compromises on most issues. Every aspect of a completed rod
Forum: rodboard

While flylining bait and bottom fishing in the Sea of Cortez I have had the dubious honor of being badly out-fished by Mexican guides using handlines. I'll bet a lot of you have shared this embarrassment. I frequently offered them the use of my spare outfit, but they declined and explained they could detect bites and set hooks better by hand The presence or lack of balance in our tackle did
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Every time you put a lure or a bait with a different weight or action (resistance) on your line the working balance of your rod will change. You could go back to good old sliding rings on a straight-tube grip, which would allow you to balance your rod by changing the position of your reel every time you change lures or bait. Or you could spring for $139.99 (+ postage) for a Ross reel seat extend
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We can all name several fishing tackle companies that have thrived for quite a while by selling (and sometimes manufacturing) low volume, high mark-up products. Posts on this site devote discussion to such high-end products far out of proportion to their sales volume. Perhaps excessive concentration upon extra-high mark up products is a mistake for corporate tackle marketers/makers. It certai
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Ross Reels offers a new product, the "Ross Balance Arm," for $139.99. It will allow the angler to attach his fly reel at various distances forward of (or behind) his rod's fixed reel seat to achieve a static balance. This device should come in handy for those who still fish or troll with fly rods. For those who cast and retrieve while fly fishing the benefits of the device are less ap
Forum: rodboard

Fishing is far from the only sport suffering from advertising inflation. Avid golfers eagerly pay $300+ for a revolutionary new and improved driver and often own several drivers. The amount of money they spend on equipment has little effect upon their game. Today nearly every major reel brand offers a spinning reel nearing $1,000 in price, and their rod pricing/marketing isn't far behind. It's
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Thanks for a concise explanation, Emory, and thanks for reminding us that there's always a trade-off. It's also wise to remember that the rod is but one component of the system we fish with. For example, it would be folly to agonize over a rod's sensitivity while connecting the rod to the hook with monofilament which stretches 25%.
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Have any of you advanced builders experimented with asymetric grips shaped specifically to conform to the hand of an individual user? Do the inherent limitations of such a grip outweigh the advantages an asymmetric grip might provide? I won't get out the rifflers without an encouraging report.
Forum: rodboard

Does this mean the more I straighten my rod arm when casting the faster the action of the rod becomes? Can I slow the action of my fly rod by holding a book under the elbow of my casting rod arm, as was once how flycasting was taught? I am already aware I can shorten my casts by doing so. If this "longer=faster rule" holds true it's time to minimize compromise in rod selection by empl
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I trust a good deal of scientific experimentation, expert field testing, and revision precedes bringing a blank to market, particulary an expensive blank. Because of this (perhaps unwarranted) faith in the diligence and equpment of blank manufacturers I would avoid adding or removing material from a rod bank for the purpose of changing its length, weight, or geometry and just buy a different b
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During what period of time were bamboo fly rods made with rings danging from keepers instead of guides?
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Jason: I would suggest you take a piece of #2 leader wire and haywire twist it to the end of the spring as a safety measure. It would be ugly to recreate the story of the old woman who swallowed a fly. You could rotate the wire leash with the shaft of the worm as you screw it into the tape plug, and if the worm pulls off the shaft you will still be able to exert 28 pounds of pressure to pull the
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Wow, an entire chapter! This must include the complete biography of Joseph Pujol, better known by his professional name; Le Petomane, revived as the Mel Brooks character in "Blazing Saddles."
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Either alcohol or mineral spirits should be a solvent for the masking tape adhesive. You could find out on a strip of tape. If you poured the solvent down the inverted tip section it should soften up the tape arbor somewhat. Then you might take a small diameter but powerful spring , cut off one end and sharpen the wire, and (firmly) attach the other end of the spring to a thin wire rod. Using su
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For the same reason a portrait of Elvis by Andrew Wyeth would be preferable to an anonymous painting of Elvis on black velvet. Same subject, same purpose, different inherent value. Now, if a rod is seen strictly as a way of harvesting fish, a gallon of rotenone or a crate of hand grenades would be a better choice.
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If anglers were blindfolded and cast a selection of rods comparable in length and weight the "more is better" and "newest is best" impact of marketing hype would probably become clearer to them.
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A fun discussion. But before bass fishermen with their wacky worms attempt to define themselves as leading authorities on light bites they might try fishing some #18 nymphs upstream. A rig which balances nicely while it's motionless in the hand - and requires the efforts of neither angler or fish to upset this static balance - may not perform in action as well as a lighter rig with less static ba
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I still don't get it. If I go from an unweighted worm weighing 1/8 oz. to a 3/8 oz. Texas rig I have increased the force which must be applied to move the rod by 1/4 oz. times the length of the rod, since it is a lever. Suppose the rod is just over six feet (76") long and the butt of the rod is 4" behind your hand. How much weight would you have to add to the rod to achieve the same b
Forum: rodboard

A fishing pole is a type three lever whose fulcrum is the wrist, elbow, shoulder, or some combination of the three. Adding mass to a lever like this anywhere between the fulcrum and the load - which is at the tip of the rod - increases the inertia which must be overcome every time the rod moves or stops moving. This increased inertia requires more force to overcome it, and the angler must supply
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