spoonplugger1

It's just an acrylic emulsion, not a finish, you should be fine.

Nothing stays the same in this world, when St. Croix was a minority holder in the company the company was run by the owner, quality and paint choices were his. St. Croix buys him out, now it's their choices. The previous owner of Rod Geeks is over at Rod Forge, he is not the owner but seems to bring experiences to the table they listen to. The owner is the gentleman who makes Temple Fork Outfitter products, he brought production to the US in a new state of the art production facility.

Didn't know Daiwa made custom rods or sold blanks.

The MB725 I have handled and fished a short time, I believe like the MB705 HM it is rated to 3/4 oz., I would not even go there on either rod, the 725 being the lighter powered of the two, my max. would be 1/2 oz. and the tip throws little, light stuff beautifully. The MB705 HM is no more than a 5/8 oz. rod, and stiffer tipped, not the light bait rod the 725 is.

The SJ703 is getting good press as a BFS rod.

Take a guide off the broken tip and tape it securely the what's left and try it, you don't have to guess or spend a penny, I've used guides as tup tops before with no issues.

I don't think G Loomis has particularly awesome build quality, any proficient rod builder ought can build a rod as "well" as G Loomis.

My Rainshadow IC847-3 rod, now that I think of it, would be a tossup for the rod mentioned above, a much more versatile multispecies fresh and salt rod.

There you go, it was the second post.

I believe regional knowledge has value, it has been long past time for me to have reliable opinions on what would work best in your area, literally I can think of many companies I used that no longer sell blanks or gone out of business since I lived/fished the SE and the Midwest. So in all honesty I would not be your best choice if you live there. Our walleye are bigger than the average I caught back east and in much windier, deeper/steeper, nastier bottoms then anything back there, 1/2 oz. to 1 oz. is the norm for jig weights, I wouldn't build one of our rods for the Great Lakes/river systems either.

I can't speak for others, but I will not warranty a rod and components that I haven't ordered, checked and had in my possession the entire time, so it might be a good idea to get with someone soon. I have seen some horror stories from people who did and the bad reputation that follows when everyone hears only one side.

Actually, the NFC blanks are well documented, the vast majority being bass blanks. This goes for a lot of other blanks from other companies in the same place.

Don't have the rod built till you have your ducks in a row, exactly what you want and need, custom rod builders are there to build your rod. Your rod builder is your only face to face person that can pick your brain to fill in the necessary blanks to build you your rod, at best we are second best, if not third.

Asking the ID of a guide when your line is far smaller is about as relevant as asking what caliber bore is necessary to get the most efficiency out of a .22 LR shell. Would your line flow more efficiently in a straight line or in spirals?

Seems to me if the rods are the same power, the action is irrelevant because at full load they will show exactly the same bend, a parabolic one, followed by a more hinged one then rod failure. What we feel is not what the fish feels as far as load, how the rod bends is irrelevant if the fish is under the same load, which gets you the same results, remember the fish has mass that displaces water and power in the water, but no real weight, they are neutrally buoyant, otherwise they would be called rocks.

Bringing up the same old thing like it's some kind of argument to make a point for your choices makes little sense, we all know that selecting the smallest guide that will pass your line and connections is the many decades old mantra in rod building, I hope we also understand that what you do as a bass angler in one area of the country where you are fishing bass in trashy conditions is not the way an angler fishing clean, clear reservoirs would want to build their rods. I can successfully fish 10 lb. braid with an 8 lb. fluoro leader here in the west than I ever could of expected to do so when I lived in FL. I have and many others have built identical rods with conventional thought guides vs our dramatically smaller guide sets using the above line combo and every time the smaller guide set out performs the conventional set in casting distance and is a wash when throwing mono. I have pretty much had to come to the conclusion that many out there really aren't trying anything else for themselves and that is ok, but staying behind that bulwark when others are trying to improve and learn something is a disservice to all. Everyone has to use what works for their situation otherwise we are building off the rack rods, all rods are handmade by someone and pass through many hands to do so in a factory.

Not for me, but many will disagree, Berkeley Series One, cast and spinning and the Shimano Aero rods the came out with their first long spool reels all had smaller guides then that in the late 80's, 4 mm and smaller would be my definition. Got to remember what we have now hasn't really been with us long in production rods, not long ago the tall SV style guides in 8 mm for running guides and 16 mm first guides from the round reels was the norm, everything evolves as reels and lures changed, things went smaller and lighter as bass presentations that won tournies changed, now they seem to be going heavier again. After all dropshotting is not new, it lost interest here, succeeded hugely in Japan, than came back.

I and others weighed the SS and Ti micros back in the day which was an expensive proposition as you had to have at least 20 of each to get a consistent repeatable measurement, as you went smaller, and the Ti guides weren't made as small as the available SS guides out there, SS was always lighter. But when you got into the smallest sizes that were available from both, the difference was a minute difference becoming unnoticeable except with a scale and many guides. The less size/mass you have the smaller the difference. When a guide is 1/6 the weight of another and 5 ft. of a lever away from your hand that's a 30 time difference in weight felt by you and the rod as you accelerate and stop the rod, multiply that by all the guides and their distance from your hand and you see things can get lighter, more balanced, and your rod can cast and react much crisper in a hurry. When we were doing this in SS guides, all the micros, all sizes were retailing under a dollar a piece, the three smallest sizes were all $0.67 each, probably more now but if you can't afford to test and try something new, at that price, you need to look at another hobby.

Ring material doesn't affect feel, Pac Bay made Ti guides in their Minima series that had the SS chromed rings in them, they had a complete set of SS and Ti match guides selected like you would see on a 4-8, 6-10 lb. lined 9 1/2 ft rod and they were bound together with a wire tie at a Lamiglas rod builder get together years back, 2014 I think, 20 mm to 4 mm, it was very easy to tell which guide set you had in each hand.

Born and raised in Longview/Castle Rock, became a lifer Coastie and fished both coasts, Great Lakes, and Florida. Ice breaker and drug patrols let me fish the Caribbean, Panama, New Zealand, etc. Been building rods for 40 years, there is only one rule in guide selection, build your rod with the lightest, smallest guide set that gets the job done and allows you to pass any interferences like knots. A 3 mm guide weighs almost 1/6 the weight of a SF 6 mm guide. A rod builder/ tournament angler built two identical pitching rods and used the same reel and line to compare, the only difference was the size of the final guides, 3 mm vs 3.5 mm, the 3 mm guided rod out pitched the larger guides easily, not even really close. 50 lb. mono in a 3 mm guide. One rule, use a 6 mm tip top for mono/fluor over 15 lb. line, line direction change can jam the line in the micro tip tops a bit increasing friction.

Micro guides have been around since for many decades, just not so much in the US though G Loomis put them on his steelhead rods since the start of G Loomis if not since the inception of Loomis Composites (LCI) before that. Europe and Japan don't see them with the mystery we do as they have used them much longer then Gary on many types of rods. I have a light powered European match rod that I used for float fishing steelhead after seeing it done in Canada long before it came here, the spinning rod guides start with a 10 mm nearest the reel and progress the 4 mm quickly, with a Shimano 2000 and 8 lb. mono it has thrown my offering into next week for almost 40 years, on many streams I can fish both banks from one side on some decent sized rivers ere in the Pac. NW. Braid just a bit better. On a casting rod, just how much room does the line need to flow through a guide? The first guide isn't even on the rod, but the reel, what does the size, flow and angles exhibited on that guide in use tell us about the rod?

Don't you love it when a plan comes together?

Nothing happens in a vacuum, the look of factory rods, guide trains, components all change when some custom builder, tournament angler using custom rods, etc. starts making money off the rods and their performance. All the rod building trade shows and the rods displayed by the builders are photographed and looked over for ideas to put into production, rod building forums and publications are watched and subscribed to all the time. The split grip, skeletonized reel seats, new guide layouts, no fore grip, etc. designs were on custom rods for years and sometimes almost a decade before you seen then on the store racks. I was always able to make good money on a high end fly rod, and some types of gear rods. Sometimes you just get just above break even, then you are doing it to keep busy and learn a new decorative layout or technique. It's also regional, and species specific to whether you have a decent sized buyer base, the eastern areas and southwest salt has a decent base of people receptive to custom rods, much of the west and Pac. NW not so much.

Two out of over 25, they were bartered to me for work done, G Loomis IMX steelhead rods. One less then a year old the other brand new still in the wrapper.

Just some information, the Batson Revelations I mentioned being like the Traditions II, they retail for $167.76.