Lots of great feather work in the photos-I'd like to try my hand at it. Could you who have been in this part of custom rod making give me some recommendations for the feather sources you use? thanks. While I'm here. . . We rodmakers are very fortunate to have this forum and the resources that sponsor it. I cannot come onto this forum without learning something of value. It is just impos
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Question for Denis, and probably Tom K: As line comes off a spinning rod, is there a "node" point where the diameter of the dynamic loops of line is very small? Is that what you are trying to "hit" with the position of the guides? If there is a "node," is it always in the same place with the same line, or does it move up and down the rod depending on the velocity
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I always cut my reel seats down as much as possible considering the foot length of likely reels to be used-most of the time I take at least 1/2 inch off. Looks better proportioned, and will be a little lighter, although I cannot argue that it is significant. Then I install them up-locking. The way I hold the reel that gets my hand away from the threads as much as possible (for me.) For jig
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I would strongly discourage the use of EVA on a jigging rod. A jigging rod is one where you don't want to damp out any feeling coming through the rod, and I think EVA would damp much more than cork, especially burl cork. Regarding the front grip, or lack thereof, I find rods rather ugly that don't have anything there. I make my jigging rods now with split grips for lowest weight using burl and
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I use a sharp regular bit in a drill press, take it slowly, let the ring spin a little as the drill contacts it to allow it to center, and have no problems with concentricity (that subsequent turning on a mandril won't fix) and no noticeable chunking on the drill's exit from the cork. I am using burl. I use 7/16 threaded rod for the mandril, turn the handles in the drill press (I have a 7/16 bo
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I had a 7 ' crankbait rod that lost about an inch of the tip in my rod locker, and on replacing it I found I didn't like the action nearly as well any more. I'm not sure what terms I'm involved with, but the sensation I got after the shortening was that the rod felt a little stiffer and less "compliant." In any event , it was changed significantly with only about an inch removed. M
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Next question, would these blanks all work with a spiral wrap bait casting setup OK? I see no reason why they would not. Thanks for the comments on the Rainshadows. I've never made one before, maybe now is the time. Mick
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If the Loomis HS 9000-2 would work for what I've described, then I would think I should also consider the Rainshadow HS 9000 & 9001 blanks at about 1/2 the price? Mick
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I have not yet considered the HS 9000-2 because its power rating is light. I thought I should have medium. The Loomis catalog calls it "Mag Light," Does Mag light have more power than a normal light? Or a normal medium? But it may be the right choice since the fish, while big and powerful, have mostly only open water to run to. The spinning rod I used this year was a St Croix 7 fo
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Thanks for all the great advice. I would never have considered hot shot or popping. The advice to start with one is also very sound advice, and I will do that. Will do some more thinking and research, but your responses are very much appreciated. By the way, a little more detail- the lures that seem to work now are about 1/4 ounce stick baits, so they do not cast anywhere near as easily as
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I fish for chinook salmon in a lake by casting, and the lures they want have gone smaller and smaller. So I am interested in making a casting rod and a spinning rod that will both handle the fish well and cast lures as light as 1/4 ounce with ease and some reasonable distance. This year I used a 7 ' medium power fast tip spinning rod and a 7' casting rod, Loomis 812 spinner bait rod, but was un
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How will the reds w/o CP look? And I'm surprised to hear gold with the gray blank. Would have thought I would hear silver. please elaborate. I do a lot of rods w/o CP, but usually use colors that are about like the blank so that they tend to disappear on the blank. thanks, Mick
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I am building a 6" 6" St Croix SC III-it is a sort of satin gray color. Any recommendations for sharp color combinations? I like to keep my windings sort of simple, usually using a single color with a little metallic accent, but am open to your thoughts. thanks, Mick
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I now have a photo as requested posted in the guide windings category - look for key word "crazed" or my name, Michael Danek. It has a bright yellow background. I shows the appearance after a couple days, when the condition had moderated to some degree. thanks to all for your help in figuring it out. I still am not sure how I allowed a discontinuity in the winding because I ha
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Those of you who suspected moisture were right. The upper guide is clear after a couple days and the cloudiness on the first guide is about 1/2 of what it was, so it has to be that there is a discontinuity in the finish somewhere. Nice to know the Cabelas rod finish, in those handy little packets, was not the problem. I'll try to send the photo anyway so anyone interested can see what i
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Tom Kirkman Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > That's Flex Coat finish, we know it to be a > quality product so that's not really your problem. > > > Nor is the flex in that part of the rod the > problem. I wonder if you could post a good close > up photo of it on the photo page here so we can > see exactly what they look like.
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I used a rod 6 1/2 foot MF jigging spinning rod for the first time last week on some pretty good walleyes and late in the week I noticed the bottom two single foot Amtek titanium guides had what appears to be frosty/cloudy looking "crazing" in the rod finish on the bottom side only. The finish is Cabela's rod finish that I have used for years-it comes in little premeasured packets so I
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If you have not already done so, you may want to check out spiral winding for this rod. Since it is so limber it may take a lot of guides to keep the line off the rod with conventional winding, especially if you want to use micro guides, and spiral will possibly allow fewer guides. And the rod will be stable when flexed. This seems like an ideal candidate for the spiral guide setup, fewer and
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I still think the best option is to keep this rod blank the way it is and build it into a spinning rod. It will be an excellent spinning rod and a very limited casting rod. It is rated for lures 1/8-3/8 and lines 4-10 pounds test. Not ideal for a casting rod. If you want to start cheap to make your casting rod beginner's mistakes on a $20 blank instead of a $90 blank check out Mudhole.com f
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I agree with not cutting off the blank-if you want a shorter rod, get a shorter blank and save this one for another rod. I have a 7 foot bait cast Loomis crankbait rod that is softer than most bait casting rods, feels a lot like a spinning rod. And I love it. Casts like a dream, handles all sizes of fish well. It wouldn't be a good flipping rod or a good rod for snapping lures off weeds, but
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I agree with Karry that unless one goes to the trophy catch and release lakes out west, a serious stick is not needed, and in fact may be tiring to cast all day long. I go to a good pike lake in Ontario every year and have found that a 6 1/2 foot length is good when fishing two to a 14 foot boat, ( if both fishermen have 7 foot rods it can get a little crowed in the boat, too!) but if I were fi
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Regarding the ergonomics issue on grip diameters. I read the article and came to the conclusion like the author did that the ideal size for my handles was pretty large. I made two casting rods with variations of shape and with larger than normal rear grips, but still smaller than the numbers predicted. Neither of them is easy to cast WITH ONE HAND because I just cannot seem to grip them secur
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For a true drop shot hook keeper write to [email protected] they have a website that shows the keepers and from which they may be ordered.
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Cabelas has a nice selection of blanks, also. I made an 8 wt 9 ft travel rod from one of their XML blanks and it is a great rod, very light for the power. A guide who sees a lot of rods mentioned how well he liked it, also.
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I would strongly recommend you think about painting the blank. Sounds like a great way to open a can of worms, (appearance/durability of the finish) and it has to be detrimental to the mass of the blank, and therefore its sensitivity. Along the same vein, the smaller/lighter you can make the guides, the better for the action of the rod. Regarding sizing the reel seat, I purchased a caliper f
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I used AmTac titans (titanium frame, nanolite rings-slightly less hard than hardest Fujis, but tougher) on a recent spinning rod I intend for dropshot. For this type of fishing you want the lightest guideset (other than possibly the recoils) to maintain best sensitivity. A couple other things I would suggest, there is a drop shot hook keeper that is open on the "butt" side so it a
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I recently made a Loomis SB812, and I am very pleased with it, not only for how it fishes, but how it looks. It is one classy rod. I did a simple spiral wrap and used Gudebrod Olive without color preservative, and it almost matches the color of the rod blank, a beautiful glossy olive/bronze color. With burl cork, split grip, a little metallic gold trim, it is an elegant, understated, beauty.
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I can't say my dog ate my homework, but on my last rod I leaned over the drying rod to check on something and touched the rod with my sweatshirt. The rod finish was still quite tacky and the pattern left by the shirt was like an alligator back. I used a very wet finger to rub down the pattern, getting rid of most of it without the finish doing anything funny, then let it harden. A quick sandin
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I just finished a rod with an epoxy ramp and finished it by wrapping with black size A thread, then applying color preservative, then 2 part rod finish. You cannot even see the wrap and it is very black, glossy, and perfectly smooth.
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Any preferences for color preservative foy nylon out there? Please advise what they are and why. thanks, Mick
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