Take care when you buy or recommend a fly line for this rod once you have built it. It sounds like an older blank. Recently an "arms race" has developed, where "the most powerful eight weight rod" needs a nine or ten weight line to properly load and cast it. Modern line manufacturers have accommodated by turning their 50-year-old AFTMA line weights up a notch or two, further
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The Mudhole folks develop the rod blanks, put guides, reel seats and handles on them, test them, and react to the comments and suggestions of many thousands of customers. I trust this source of testing the best guide placements.
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I have been satisfied with the spacing suggestions in the Mudhole Catalog.
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Anglers with different levels of fly-casting proficiency usually prefer rods with different actions. If there is a fly-fishing club in your area the members are usually willing to let you try casting their rods to see which you prefer. Seek cooperation from a competent caster who has matched his line to his rod. All too often rods are rejected because they are matched with too heavy or too light
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Best when form follows function. Will you be soaking bait or chucking plugs? Braid or mono? Trying to maximize distance, strength, or durability? Cold water or warm water? Clean water or gritty water? Compromises in components and construction are necessary, but I believe even compromises should vary according to the environment(s) you expect your rod to most frequently encounter.
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After several casts I frequently find my fly line has acquired some twists. These twists often result in small tangles in my fly line, but only when the line falls limp in my shooting basket or at my feet -about 90% of the time I am fishing. I rarely if ever develop a tangle in the taut line I am retrieving. Most of the fish I hook hit during the retrieve when there is a significant chance of a t
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I always wonder if questions about guide size and type selection are seeking opinions primarily about appearance, durability, or performance?
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The REC choker guides are usually the source of the squeaks - and are unusually ugly, but not so ugly as REC tip-tops. That said REC NiTI running guides are my absolute first choice, and I have never heard them "sing". But I suspect if your line is dirty enough you could make them squeal in protest.
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I double- haul on every cast over 20', which in the salt is pretty much every cast. I double haul out of habit on fresh water lakes and streams when I don't roll cast. When I haul my elbow bends very little, and this lack of movement does not perceptibly stress my elbow. I started fly casting in the mid 1950's and I'm not in particularly good shape now but I just returned from a full day's fly c
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If your casting arm/shoulder/elbow hurts when you cast a 10 wt. line you should probably improve your double-haul technique - where the arm holding the rod is used primarily to steer the line and the free arm hauls to power the cast.
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This makes me wonder why one-piece rods are so popular. I assumed they were bought by people who never flew or traveled with them or shipped them. The performance of the rod (rather than the reel) is foremost in fly fishing, unlike spinning or bait casting, yet fly anglers have a strong preference for 4-piece fly rods. The huge advances in the materials, design, and construction of multi-piece ro
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Several years ago I built a fly rod from an 8' hot shot blank. It made a very fast action 11wt. fly rod that casts surprisingly well and has a vey powerful butt section for fighting big fish. The blank was rated for 3/4 ounce lures, and ~3/4 ounce is what the head of an 11 wt. fly line weighs. I was a bit surprised that the conversion worked, but it does. That rod has handled many spawning Chino
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Does the Rod Room sell any blanks that are manufactured in the U.S.A.? Just curious. I haven't seen any "made in the U.S.A." stickers on any blanks I have bought recently.
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I thought micro guides were better?
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I suspect you could get a decal from any reputable spin rod blank manufacturer and put it on a rod blank from any other quality manufacturer - and never be caught.
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What size micro guides should be used to rebuild a Great Lakes Whirlaway spinning rod/reel?
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Phil: I really like your idea of foam shims. Seems like manufacturers would jump on this. Foam shims are much easier to rout out than cork and they are durable and cheap. Suppliers could perhaps punch out a "donut" from a size large or extra-large cork disk to use with a foam shim and still have a large enough cork disk to sell as a size small or medium disc.
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Thanks, Lynn. I live less than an hour from the Saint Johns River in central Florida and there are probably 20 ponds with #10 LMB within 5 miles of my house. The shad are running in the St. Johns now and if I see a LMB pushing bait in the reeds there I will not hesitate to throw a fly at him!
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The question remains: Why use #50 or #65 pound test lines when you can only apply #25 of drag on a fish weighing half that? This looks suspiciously like image replacing reality.
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I searched for fresh-water bass casting and spinning reels which can exert more than 20# of drag pressure. Not much luck. How many pounds of shock can a 15 pound bass generate with less than a one foot head start? I may need to up-reel to a salt-water big-game reel and up-line to 3 or 4 hundred yards of 50# braid (to fill up the reel spool).
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The average 20# braided polyethylene line is 0.008 inches in diameter. There is no need for a running guide with an opening larger than .020 inches. Is there any reason for using a running guide with an outside diameter larger than 1/4 inch - more than 12X the inside diameter of the guide opening?
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The last 4-guide spin rod I can remember was a nine-foot surf rod with a HUGE, fold-down, hinged choker guide which was spring-loaded and locked into place. This was to allow it to be more easily and safely transported.
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What color are they?
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Cork grips are pretty much history. The best cork rings available are more like a cross between an oak tree and a sponge, and it takes 100+ years for a cork oak to grow big enough to harvest cork. Do any manufacturers of synthetic fly rod grips offer grips in different (larger) diameters? Not everyone is a "medium", and it shouldn't cost much to make different grip sizes. ,
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Thank you, Gene. This old dog got some new ideas from your clear and logically-supported suggestions.
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The ability to make long casts is not of much importance in Big Fish (13 wt.+) fly rods, but protection of the fly line from being cut by guides is carefully avoided. I don't think the coating on 15 wt. fly lines is chemically much different than the coating on a 6 wt. fly line, but big-game fly rods still use - snakes apparently without damage to the fly lines. You would be amazed at how hard a
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The ability to make long casts is not of much importance in Big Fish (13 wt.+) fly rods, but protection of the fly line from being cut by guides is carefully avoided. I don't think the coating on 15 wt. fly lines is chemically much different than the coating on a 6 wt. fly line, but big-game fly rods still use - snakes apparently without damage to the fly lines. You would be amazed at how hard a
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ben - Any idea why they use snake guides exclusively? Blue-water fly anglers who fish for (and catch) big (100+ lbs.) fish are generally pretty savvy and very practical about their tackle. The companies who build and sell them their rods make and sell what they want: what works best vs. what "looks best". I would like to hear from custom builders who have built and sold more than say, t
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I just searched for 15 wt. fly rods on line. Every one I could find, from the cheapest to the dearest, was equipped with snake running guides. See for yourself.
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I have never had a fly line damaged by "thinner snake guides", but then I have always used high quality fly lines.
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