spoonplugger1

The white is where the epoxy has lifted off the thread. Sometimes filling the area with a thin finish like water based urethane varnish will decrease the spot because it will flow into the cavity, much thinner than epoxy. I use a sharp toothpick to get it only in the crack. I wouldn't fix a new rod, have it fixed, or replaced.

Thanks Lyman.

After reading everyone's comments today on the paint removal on the blank, I asked myself if I've ever tried to mask off an area and just remove that paint, and I haven't, not on a door or furniture either. Anyone had good results?

Casting guides are a different kettle of fish, lots of great guides out there and you don't need to spend a lot to get a good guide/rod. This is where you should ask "how much"? Truth be told, the difference between world class and mediocre is maybe 2%, or less. Now you add the truth that any rod you pick off the shelf will cast further than you can reliably get a hookset, get a consistently good presentation, and really feel the fish in it's environment at it's best and you end up with, "what will make the lightest, most sensitive, and FUN rod to fish?" Micro guides in a spiral wrap are a great option, and cost less than the bigger guides, so unless your tying leaders on your braid, using extraordinarily large knots, it's something to look at.

Lucas, What brand rods are you using now? That's where I would start looking, rod manufacturers, at least the good ones, have a philosophy, for better word, that they design from. I have a rod I use that was designed by Rich Forhan from Dee Thomas' blank design ideas that was built by Lamiglas. It's 6 ft. 8 in. long and mod fast actioned, rated 10 - 40 lb. line, 1/2 to 3 oz. I believe. Frankly out here in the west, we don't use frogs as much as other places, but when I've had to it's been a favorite with the others that have used it, as it's nice and light for it's power because it's made from IM700 graphite. Another good frog rod, the Castaway Grass Master, used to be able to get the blank from Swampland, the Castaway 874, not a particularly fast rod. Frog rods and flipping sticks is the last place I look for fast, or XF rods. Still the finest flipping stick on the planet, is the long gone Shikari 764 in any graphite, a moderate rod, remember the rod's action has little to do with hook setting speed, or power. It's just not that simple, but it's a great sales ploy.

Japanese reels came t the US made from aluminum, than graphite because it was better, than when the Curados came with all the new reels from others in aluminum because it was better, now graphite is better again. Make up my mind. Still have some of the original graphite Shimano Bantam 101s with the little tiny handles that still work great. Had a tapered spool like the Lew's BB1s.

Try this to give us an idea of how far away from a perfect spinning layout we need to go. Put your spinning reel on one of your casting rods and go cast it, you'll be surprised how well it works, and it will give us an idea of how far we need to go. As you know turning a spinning rod over and installing a casting reel will work, but the high guides on top feel funny to say the least.

How heavy of line are you using?

The fish won't know the difference, there are more important things to worry about.

My first smallie rod.was a Berkeley Lighning rod in that weight class. I use a Lamiglas XMG50 LSJ841same weight class for the same thing now, but our fish rarely get over 4 lbs. 1 1/2 pounders are my bread and butter, same with LMB.

The anglers resource article won't help, it's for spinning rods. The extra guides used on rods lately has nothing to do with distributing blank load, it started about 15 years, or so when braided lines really started taking off on surf rods. As you know a surf rod is built with less guides per foot than a bass rod by a considerable amount, this led to the the limp line lassoing guides and damaging guides, throwing off expensive plugs when the line made an abrupt stop, etc. Adding a FEW extra and sometime smaller guides helped greatly as it tamed the loops. As usual only half the info gets passed on, none of the reason for the change is included, it gets hyped up by know nothing press, and the rest goes into the mists of mythology. If you have an older rod with guide lassoing problems, going to a.smaller guide set cures it also. Just like like shooting a .22 lr bullet is more efficient and more accurate than shooting it out of a .30 caliber bore, the exact same reason I like micro guided rods, if 50 lb. mono passes through a 3mm guide with no problems, my braid, fluoro and mono selections are not an issue, and you'll never loop a guide again, almost never have multi rod snagging on your boat deck, and rods go in and out of under deck storage so much better.

Agree 10, maybe 11. How long is your rear grip? 13 inches is to close to the reel, 15 to 18 is about right. Some of my rods are over 20 inches away, static distribution starts at the tip, not some guides back, first guide from the tip should be set with the same criteria as the others, means 1 less guide on most rod right there. The line shouldn't go under the blank, we're adding guides to protect the rod blank from damage and to distribute the load over the entire blank, it's not a beauty contest. Guides used on earlier rods were bigger, heavier and taller. That suggestion was implemented back in those days when you had one guide per foot of rod and sometimes less. With the much shorter guides used today the line naturally rides much closer to the blank all the time, bent, or otherwise, but the loads put on the blank haven't changed and the guides, no matter the height have identical loads put on them and through to the blank, makes it much easier now to build a poorly balanced rod if your guides are 3 or 4 inches apart, than you add weight to the butt to compensate for your bad guide setup, soon you have a graphite rod that weighs more the a well set up glass rod. My salmon/steelhead rods are longer by over a foot and they have less guides, my 10 1/2 ft. rods have 3 less guides than you have on your rod..

If your trying for color and light weight, the Winn grips come to mind, (skinned eva), burl cork rings also work, but burl cork is 3 times heavier than standard cork, the colored foam skinned grips are fiberglass or a combo glass/graphite if they are two tone, the combos are a bit lighter than the cork, the glass about the same. You can get some eva foam from Mudhole and shape it with sandpaper on your hand drill, it will be similar in weight to the Winn grip, slightly heavier than cork. For short split grips just slide the foam over a snug drill bit and go to town. For a clean cut, cut the foam slightly long any way you choose, install on the drill bit, turn it on high speed and final cut with braided line, or "D" size wrapping thread.

Blank power is the problem if your tearing hooks out, blank action has virtually nothing to do with it. Rod designs have no common thread, Heavy means nothing other than it's heavier than a Med Heavy in the same rod line from the same manufacturer, some other rod company may call it X Hvy, or Med Hvy. pick up an inshore rod with the same components, layout and it could be a medium. G Loomis for years used the same exact blank across a spectrum of descriptions and each customer raved about the results not knowing their Mag Bass, Walleye, or Green Water series rod started life a decade before as a Hot Shot rod designed to pull plugs for salmon and steelhead. I know a gentleman who has taken a Hot Shot blank and by adding a long Tennessee grip, he uses it as a fly rod, spinning rod, or casting rod by just placing the reel in the right place, and it works very well. His rods are on the Worried Shrimp web site, if it's still up.

I think you can still get blank EVA rings out there, (no hole), glue it on and shape it to match. Fixed for under a buck, and your rod will only be a half inch longer.

Go to rodbuilding.org, select the library on the upper part of the page, that look for the articles on the New Guide Concept system and the Static Distribution guide layout system. The first is in the upper half of the articles if I remember right, the latter near the bottom. Everything you need to know to build any rod is in those articles.

What your asking for is a tough one, because your wanting us to compare a relatively obscure rod. I've never seen an Evergreen brand rod of any kind, let alone be able to help from your description. You see there is really no such thing as a "heavy" powered rod, there is no standard and never will be. You see the rod you want to compare to was designed to present a specific group of lures, line ratings, power ratings, action, are all subjective. It was added on after they had gotten the blank right, no thought was given to what was later put on the rod. You'd be much better served when selecting a rod by telling someone what weight lure the rod has to throw, and then present properly, what type/weight line your using, do you need to pass a knot through your guides, etc. That all said, I've found the Rod Geek SG70MHM to be a great chatterbait blank for me and my customers throwing 1/2 oz. baits for the most part. You can extend the blank if you need to or go to the longer SG79MHM for more length. Another positive for some is that you can get the blanks in a variety of colors.

I have the earlier CB76 and 80H RX7 blanks built for big plugs, 22s are no problem, extended some of them to 9 ft. and cast big MagLips, HotShots, HotnTots, TadPollies, etc for salmon also.

Glass and composites has made a comeback, the most popular US built salmon rods are composites, their reduced reaction times help keep the fish hooked, the graphite helps them carry up to 20 oz. of lead without being cumbersome. The combination makes for a durable rod. Skeeter Reese when he was sponsored by Lamiglas used an E glass blank the MB841E for his crankbait rod, over the years before that, the same blank could be bought both in S glass and Triflex which was a glass tipped rod with a graphite wrapped butt beginning about 2/3 up, the graphite flag was at an angle at the tip, so the stiffness was progressive and the larger diameter butt, thin walled. Both blanks were 3/8 oz. less weight then the E glass blank, all were built on the same mandrel. This blank and it's other MB bretheren have been, and still are, popular in the salt back east. My SMB841 S glass and CMB841 Triflex composite crankbait rods have been used for trolling for steelhead with plugs in the Columbia River, then caught sea bass, flounder, and other bottom fish the next day. Specialization, or the selling of the concept has sold a whole bunch more gear and tackle than ever before. Not so long ago, prior to Shimano, the old G Loomis catalogs would list all their rods and than list all the fish species he thought the same rod would be good at catching, some were a dozen species. Some of his hotshot blanks were built as hotshot rods for salmon/steelhead the HSR, an Mag Bass MBR, walleye WR and Green Water series the GWR, all the same identical blank, and same length, of course the grip lengths and other components were selected for each species requirements.

If I remember right, the Mojos are built on the same SCII blank, components are different.

The blank is stiff like many St. Croix, works great at the bottom end 3/8 oz. rating, but not much under it, however it does well in the top end, easily exceeding the 1 oz. rating on some large cranks and swimbaits we threw. You can drop down one power if need better light gear performance, the 5/8 oz. upper limit can be extended to 3/4 oz., or maybe a bit more. The Fenwick World Class rods I tried weren't in the same league as the Bass X rods.

Though I'm a custom builder, I've done some fishing this year around some industry people and got to use their new offerings. One rod stood out in your price range, and was built to be a versatile rod geared more toward your favorites. The St. Croix BXC71MHF.

Tyler, It depends on what you want, what is your core presentation, the presentation you have the most confidence in and use a lot? Than you'll know where to start. Stay away from most X fast rod blanks if you want a versatile rod, they are usually more specialized, for more specific needs.

The St. Croix 5C70MHF makes a fanatastic rod and you shouldn't have any problem finding a factory rod to handle with your reel of choice on it. If you can go one lighter the medium blank in this series makes even better rods that are up there with the finest from anyone and just flat fun to fish with.

Depends on the situation, S glass, or composites for reaction baits, for everything else graphite.