I Love BassResource

X2 with the above... It appears to me that when she see's a wreck, she just locks up and drives the straight and narrow. She's all hype, and not even that great lookin. C- on the driving B on the looks

x3 on the fuji micro. I'm still using some batson micros, they work very well, but as stated the fuji frames are better/smaller overall. Once my current inventory of batson guides run out I'll be going to the fuji's exclusively. I use a thin piece of cut masking tape for test casting, weight distribution testing, and finally wrapping. I've tried tubing and ties, but found them both to much of a hassle to deal with.

I like the one where these guys walk into a bar with super models and proceed to use use fists of fury and wrath on every one in a 1000 yard radius... Oh wait, that was on the intraweb, nvm ;D

Yes I did and yes I still do. I'll be posting screen shots as I collect them. It's pretty amazing, the picture quality blows me away.

Yeah, the image is pretty impressive. I'm not gonna start a HB vs Lowrance war, but I've researched it long and hard. I had an HB unit on my rig last year, needless to say I now have an HDS8 sitting in my console. The current HDS units are producing some incredible imagery.

I launched in a local lake one day last spring, early spring I should say. There were some locals fishing on the bank, probably 7 - 10 people. I fish alone probably 90% of the time, so I jump out tie my boat off to the dock, jump back into my truck, back into the lake, launch the boat, pull back up the ramp.... and I notice the boat starts drifting out into the lake. I had forgot to "securely" tie the rope back to the boat. I tried to grab it but it was of no use, my audience on the bank slowly started letting me know I'd have to swim for it. And I did, 50 degree water and all... I had done this 1,000 times before and never had it happen. I now recheck my knots before I launch...

A bunch of guys are placing the ducers on the trolling motors instead of on the consoles. The pic below was actually taken from the trolling motor, at very low speeds. Its a lowrance unit instead of a bird, but you get the general idea.

Who cares of any posts that have been up for years. The evolution of rod building is in constant motion. While I don't think we need a new forum, I would love to see new pics of any builds, mess ups, ideas, etc...

Your taking your rod building into the next level Eddie. There is some fantastic artwork going on in those rods, I can see a ton of time and patience. Really nice, thanks for sharing!

Only the cords are passed. The unit will find the waypoint using its own integrated antenna, unless you have specifically configured the unit to use the antenna in another networked head unit.

Yeah, if your using non HDS units and have them networked via NMEA, than when you set a waypoint on any unit the cords will reflect the position of the shared puck. With the HDS units, each unit has an internal Antenna, so the waypoint you set would reflect the bow or console antenna. You can select from the options menu to force one unit to use the other units GPS antenna, given you have them linked via hub or nmea. Again I may be incorrect as I haven't really used my HDS units yet. Thats my general understanding at this point.

Each HDS Unit has an integrated GPS module. When you mark a waypoint, the cords will be based off of the location of the headunit used to create the waypoint. At least that is my understanding. When I mark something, I typically use the waypoint as a general point of reference. Due to margin of error, drift path, etc... it may take me a minute or so to locate a specific piece of cover, especially if its in deeper water. I normally try to have a visual reference if the piece of cover/structure is something I find relevant/useful. I've had both bird and lowrance units on my current rig, and I have yet to notice a difference in GPS accuracy between the two. Granted I haven't used my new HDS units much and they're based of the new 4000 series antennas which are suppose to be a bit more accurate than the older 3000 antennas.

X2 that deep diver is nice!

I'm no pro, but I'll give my answer. No, I would try to get you to buy the highest quality blank you could afford. Once you chose your blank, I would than attempt to talk you out of using a foregrip In OEM builds, I can't imagine the gains are going to be that noticeable. I'm a big proponent of split grips, skeleton seats, and no foregrips, but I believe the stick needs to be built around these concepts. The rods in the original post look great! I don't mean to discourage what your doing, you've done well!

I was hearing on the radio the Olympic committee has already passed out over 100k condoms directly to Olympic athletes. They've also been interviewing some of the more popular cat houses around the area and supposedly they can't keep enough girls on tap. Why not toss in a Big Mac, some nuggets, and a small fry?

:-?

I'm not really following where you guys think companies are making more money? Do you mean by saving component costs? Do you mean that by using split grips, the rod is more attractive, thus they move more product? I would think the consumer is going to buy a rod regardless of the evolution of how rod's are being built. With the current state of the mass produced rod lines, I'm seeing prices decreasing across the board. You can look at virtually any company and most now offer a quality product line for under $100 bucks, yes most all utilize split grips. I can't add anything else to this thread other than what I've stated. Flechero has much more experience than I, and he pretty much nailed it. I do think removing weight from a rod blank, helps with the overall sensitivity of the stick. I think its pretty commonly accepted that the most noticeable gains are when we can remove weight from the reel seat forward. In saying that, use whatever floats your boat, if it works for you, it will likely work for the fish.

Pffft... not me. You've obviously never seen my dragon style kung fu. Plus, with the crane kick being my special move, I'm like straight out of mortal combat....

That's a pretty good summary of balance, and it sounds like I pretty much agree. One thing about balance that has always puzzled me. People tend to bicker about how a rod will balance, even to the point where they place massive counter weights at the end of the rod handle. When you have 30 feet of line out, with a 1/2oz lure attached (example). There isn't much of anything you can do as a builder to overcome that load, in relation to "balancing" a rod. So I think you've nailed when you say the objective, is to build a rod that feels comfortable in the hands.

Ditto. Used to go trolling with my father and Uncle in a 21ft Bayliner Trophy. Absolutely awesome time. He had a nice rig so we would get close to 20 rods out back with the riggers and planer boards on that things. edit: We would head out south of Dunkirk, NY Man the smallmouth action is insane around Dunkirk, we caught a few gators as well.

Lol some of you guys are so old or resistant to change that I can smell you even on an intranet forum. ;D

Combine split grips with micros and not the gigantic guides you get from mass builds and rods will balance perfectly.

X2 Last year, I reach for these over my Pointers in several cases. Great baits!

I may be driving down, I have a few more details to work out, but I'm hopeful.

I've built rods using both methods, and I consistently find the split grip rods to be overall lighter, more sensitive, and just plain cool looking. In my experience, sensitivity rating seems to be wildly subjective from angler to angler. I myself think that by removing anything above the reel seat, I can improve the overall sensitivity of a rod. The difference isn't huge, nor is it substantial enough to have a noticeably negative impact on the rod should you choose to properly use a fore grip. During my builds for anglers that really pay attention to detail; lure contact, bottom makeup, etc.. I have yet to have a user tell me that using a split grip/no foregrip setup didn't improve overall sensitivity. On the flip side, I've had guys that simply run and gun all day tell me they didn't see the benefit and needed a full grip for the added casting comfort. Either way, the rod needs accommodate your fishing habits, you shouldn't be forced to accommodate a rod that doesn't suit you.