spoonplugger1

Like many said before, I think anytime a rod is fished with a tight line, high modulus materials are not necessary to get the job done.

Why does it have to look like thread? This kind of stuff is what rod building is all about.

I have spinning rods, running 3 mm runners, 10 lb braid to 8 lb P-Line CXX with the knot on the reel that cast beautifully and further than my identical rods built on the old NGC system. 5 mm guides were used on the old Berkeley Series One casting rods back 30+ years ago, G Loomis was using 4 mm guides on spinning rods 40+ years ago, they shed knots just fine. You really think a casting rod wouldn't do better than a spinning version passing a knot? The stripper you selected is the second choke point on your rod, the reel level wind is the first, did your knot pass through it? Doesn't the line have to pass through that little hole at some pretty steep angles? If so, haven't we learned something about the rest of the rod layout from the size of the levelwind guide and the straighter angles the line will see after it leaves the reel?

I don't know, all the Ugly Stik rods I wrapped 30+ years ago, my 10 wt. Dan Craft SigV fly rod 15+ years ago, the Scott fly rods I've wrapped. You can wrap up a guide foot, but not a little micro-ridge, interesting.

I don't think you can buy a ML Phenix Feather spinning rod, last weight I saw listed for one that was actually weighed was 3.12 oz. on the casting version.

A 16 mm reel seat on a spinning rod is to small and will cramp your hand over a day's fishing. I personally use a 20, or 22 mm Fuji NPS, or pipe seat on my rods this makes them at least semi-ergonomical. As men's hands go I have short fingers. I like the shape of the NPS when down locking and the length means I need very little extra grips, if at all on a split grip rod. Many steelheaders have made NFC SH 1002 HM blanks into 4.2 - 4.5 oz rods, a 4.2 was built by Gary himself with a NPS reel seat, you should get a sweet stick. They come in 16, 18, 20, and 22 mm I believe still.

Skinny, Can't send a .pdf via message function on site, guess I need to email you.

Skinny, About 13 years ago their was some information passed to rod builders about a two rod test build, one built New Guide Concept, one built like Pat Vinzant builds a guide system, he is a rod builder who specializes in high performance spinning rods. Same blanks, same grips and reel seat. The Pat Vinzant rod was lighter and better balanced, and performed demonstratively better in the situation you may be using your build in, and at no time performed worse under any situation. The author of the post was Bob McKamey and the builder of the rods was his son Hunter who does the rod building videos for Mudhole and is a longtime tournament angler. I'd be happy to send you a .pdf I made of the information if you like.

Here's an old computer graphic or 50 lb mono in a 3 mm guide ring, G Loomis was using 4 mm runners on his rods 40 years ago. No one's reinventing the wheel just dusting off an old one.

You should never wax your ferrule, that is something that was done to metal ferrule rods 50+ years ago. Your ferrule is a much softer material and the wax just collects dust and sand which turns into a world class lapping compound and wears out the ferrule giving you a sloppy fit that causes tips to fly off. Some of us have used two piece rods for 60+ years with zero problems, that said we don't fish all day without checking the ferrule, the fly anglers, surf anglers, etc. all check their ferrules from time to time, if you don't you can also blow one up.

SkinnyWater, What Mick is saying, is there is no such thing as a ML blank, a 6-12 line blank, a 1/8 to 3/8 oz blank, a 5 wt. fly blank. These are all manufacturer interpretations, best guesses. A St. Croix ML will not be the same as a NFC ML, or a MHX ML, the reason it makes much more sense to pick a company when you start out and learn to build from there than to use the shotgun approach and learn very little. The very reason so many are disappointed, you hear it all the time, "This isn't a MH, it more a medium". Compared to what? "It's not a fast, it's a medium fast". How do you know it's not a power difference and not the action? The very reason the CC system was designed, it doesn't tell you what to buy, but it will compare products in the verifiable and repeatable fashion so you can make educated decisions.

Like gorilla glue give it just the very slightest bit of water and it cures. Both are water curing urethanes, you can build lighter powered rods with no thread using permagloss finish, it's strong enough to damage the guide while you try pulling it off with pliers.

I'd use Permagloss, makes a d**n fine adhesive and it is real thin for the needle.

The fish is not the concern when selecting a guide system, after all any fish simply bends the rod while fighting, and you in return pull on them. You therefore need a guide system that will hold up to the load the blank will take and survive being stored and transported also, in my mind this is every bit as important when selecting guides, if your rods get knocked around a lot go with a heavy duty guide system. G Loomis used match guides on their steelhead rods for decades, my GL3 rods are decades old and still going strong. The match guides were built by Pacific Bay, but Batson Rainshadow, Fuji, Seymo, Sea Guide, and many other have had this design since at least after WW II. The KR height guides are in no way new to Fuji, the Fleaweight series is in Dale Clemen's book published in the 80's.

You can put high build on lightly, but not light build heavily. It you are worried about weight and durability than use Permagloss, much lighter and tougher and it naturally goes on thin.

Strength is not the issue here, bling is. Any of the nylon/carbon seats will hold far more load than you will subject them to. They have been doing so for many decades with much heavier loads.

Take a guide with no thread holding it and use epoxy wrapping finish to hold it down. Do the same with Permagloss, try to remove the guide, tell me again what a great anchoring compound epoxy finish is.

Pitchin rods and skipping rods together in one bĺank is pretty rare. I find a softer XF tip to be advantageous for skipping. One would be the Point Blank PB691MHXF, the United Composites UW 70MHXF worm rod blank if he needs additional durability, but my choice would be the NFC MB 705-1 HM.

If you are careful about your fit and finish there should be no real need for a winding check, it should look pretty seamless. I have also added a small thread wrap against the grip and finished it while finishing the rest of the rod.

The blank style has been around forever, popping rod blanks, everyone makes one.

6 - 12 lb. SJ blank from just about anybody you can afford, just be advised 3/8 really is the top end on these type blanks, go over and they start getting sloppy quickly. Not saying there is no power, you have no tip left.

Rip Hair, There really isn't a right answer, so many people see things from so many viewpoints and experiences. Myself I look at how a blank is made, how it bends and where than start from there. Some people set the stripper guide and tip guide at a certain distance from the reel, or tip top than fill in the blank between. Both rods will fish. Myself I notice that there is quite a distance at the tip of all blanks that doesn't bend much and since we are primarily installing guides to protect the blank, and since we have a criteria in our heads on how we want to set up the rest of the guide train, why do we change that criteria for that first and last guide without a good reason for doing so? Something we know, not something we were told, or accepted without asking why it needs to be that way. The way rods have been built has changed so much in the last 50 years, minds have been changed so many times, myself I can't accept this is the last change, like all changes before someone was thinking outside the box, till it became the box.

Like I said in the last post, it is a graphite and S glass composite blank, the S glass is put in to increase lifting power. There was 2 a-rig rods made on this blank built, a 7 ft 6 in and 8 ft version, have your supplier shorten the blank for shipping, or use another, shorter blank. You can also use the Rainshadow REVSB710MH-SB, American Tackle Bushido SWB710/12-25, or 15-30. I just think the Seeker is a great blank.

Great looking stick, the travel peacock bass blanks Rainshadow used to make in the RX7 graphite were extraordinary travel rods also. One of many things Batson knows how to do so well. You did well.

What would be wrong with using a swimbait blank for swimbaits and A rigs? Frankly mine is on a little known blank in bass circles the Seeker CSW808 Blue Steel composite S glass/ graphite blank. Paul Elias won a lot of money on this blank some years ago. Others have good things to say about this blank, just google it.