spoonplugger1

Remember the weight difference is the weight times the distance in feet from your hand while the rod is static, and the weight times the distance plus the kinetic energy of the cast and having to stop and then stop at the ends of the cast. Want the lightest rod to be less fatigued? This isn't it. Want a more balanced rod? This isn't it. Want a rod with more snap? This isn't it. Want a more sensitive rod? This isn't it. It's your build though and we have no idea where your priorities are, all I know is you can't buy success here, you build it.

It's your rod, but when I'm building a rod for its performance, the last thing I worry about is how it looks unless I can improve that without impeding performance in a noticeable way. There are a whole bunch of sponsored pros out there using custom non-descript rods you don't see till they are on the water. A sponsorship is one thing, a win and the 50,000+ bucks in nothing they mess with.

Any guide that continues to the tip that is the same size as all the rest is a runner, type and configuration is not important. A thing to think about when selecting guides, your first few guides from the tip at no time have any real load on them, it's been measured by Rich Forhan decades ago, his MH builds all had less then 1/10 of a pound load on the first 3 or 4 guides at all times. Since a SF fly guide can withstand over 20 pounds of load without deflecting let alone being damaged, I believe you have a reasonable safety margin no matter what guide you choose. If this is to protect the rod from damage by you or in the way it is stored or transported than you have a viable concern. Secondly, as guides get smaller and use less materials to build the difference in weight drops dramatically, my mail scale needs two complete sets of guides for a MH like you describe for it to register in a repeatable fashion the difference between my SS sets and a Ti set, you would never know the difference on the rods.

Quality also goes down as profit margins are maximized, drive and innovation also decreases, Am Tack has done some pretty innovative things and been recognized for them, winning many awards. Not surprised by both being bought, they are after all next to each other. Hope Mudhole keeps their staff, a great brain pool there.

Depends on your rod and how much it will need, if you are making the standard mix of 3 cc each component for 6 cc total which I recommend for any mixing to ensure correct and consistent results, you should get at least 17 batches from 4 oz. could get up to 19 if everything was in a perfect world.

I made a rod many years ago for what you are doing, the part number has changed but the blank is the same, and still striking to look at in it's dark titanium finish. The Batson/Rainshadow IMMP70UL-TC. Won't disappoint on the backbone to sink a light wire hook in anything I ever encountered.

Depends, if you have your own vision of what you want, select everything, guide kits are better than they used to be at Mudhole, they don't give you the old style guide systems like everyone used to. It comes down to what you want as an end result. Tom Kirkman's book gives you all the info you will ever need, well written in plain English with nothing you don't need, lots of great pictures and it's in the $15 range to buy from Amato Press. I built my first rod in the early 80's, no books, no sites like this, no mentors, it turned out great. Pay attention to fit and finish, don't be in a hurry and you will have a nice rod too.

Doesn't Loomis still build the SJ 902 rod in IMX Pro? Looks like the SJ 902 of old isn't this design.

The SJ 902 was a Gary design and around for 25 years or so at least. 8 to 17 lb. line, 1/4 to 5/8 oz. lures, fast action and made with IMX only. It was a great walleye rigging rod, so we appear to be in the same ballpark as my suggestion. The NFC SJ 804 is rated for the same lures and is shorten by Edge Rods to 7 1/2 ft. and made into a salmon rod that I know of for sure, so their blank line ratings are way off. On the Edge site it is rated 12-20 line, X Fast Action. The lure rating is for soaking bait and weight not throwing a lure, the Edge FSC HVR 763-1. Again these are salmon rod ratings not bass or walleye. I bet the blank in full length would make a nice shoreline pompano rod.

The MH rating really doesn't exist in the industry, it is all up the manufacturer to rate a blank and if they spend more time down in heavy trash waters, or the nearshore ocean, things can be skewed toward their favorite fishery. A travel rod can go anywhere, be used for many things, looks like it would be a correct rating for something like peacock bass in South America, or larger touchy critters, the Batson RX7 3 piece travel rods they used to produce were designed specifically for those fish and came in 6 ft. 2 in. and a 7 ft. version, the shorter for throwing the big heavy plugs and other stuff all day.

The MB 661-1 HM is virtually the same power as the DS 721-1 but is much faster, the IM version of the MB661 is considerably more powerful and slower than the DS. Sounds like the MB 661-1 (IM) would be a decent stream smallmouth rod, just the right power to throw just about anything. The MB 7108-1 is a jig/flipping blank, the DS 721-1 makes a decent Ned Rig, dropshot, finesse rod as mentioned before.

Once you install a foregrip like the HPS you have an almost smooth transition from front to back that is also a larger, more comfortable diameter than a DPSSD seat can every give you. Almost like a Tennessee grip without the tape to hold the reel on and stick to your hand. The fore grip is almost two blocked to the IPS/VSS seat when you install a reel and is the identical diameter of the cork/reel seat.

The VSS and IPS seats have been used uplocking for many years by many companies, G Loomis right now is using the VSS extensively. what you put behind the seat is of no real concern except for your aesthetic pleasure. many have used a hidden thread option of many kinds, I have used the HPS option the most because it has been around much longer for both the VSS and IPS seats.

My top picks wouldn't be yours possibly because I fish in the west where the water is much clearer, cooler, and deeper for the most part. Your location and conditions would narrow the field. I know if I was ponying up that much money and blank inventory, I would want to get it right.

Schneider's Rod Shop has a few RX8 XMB 944.5 -TC on sale in the Hot Specials section, they are now called Immortal blanks, but RX8 is samo, samo at half the price.

Simply put when looking at the butt and tip diameters, the spinning blank are smaller in diameter on both.

A buddy of mine thought that blank and the 7 1/2 ft. versions would be good snook rods, they were awesome at it.

www.rodbuilding.org has a lot of great sponsors all listed on the left, all mentioned above are linked there and others also. They also have a free library of articles from RodMaker Magazine that you can download or print in .pdf format, Common Cents power and action angle listings, and about 20 years of knowledge from other tournament angler/rod builders in the archives. New innovations and materials are discussed there years and sometimes a decade before you see them used on production rods. Examples: Carbon tube grips, foam/carbon skin grips, skeleton reel seats, micro guides, spiral wrapped casting rods (multiple ways), rod balancing, split grips, etc.

Read your first post, you gave us no info to start with and still haven't, we can't read your mind. 2" wheel like what?

They are on the internet in many varieties, and some have used skateboard wheels. the wrapping stations at Lamiglas don't even have wheels, just V- block uprights like your hand wrapper.

This always comes up, I assume you are talking total length of all grips and reel seat. The thing is not all reel seats are the same length and the rest can be a combo of long rear and short foregrip, or any combo really. Would it make more sense to just mention how long the rear grip is than the rest makes no difference, do what pleases you. There are some longer "musky" grips out there.

Tensioners that tension the spool itself increase tension as the spool is depleted, realize that and they are fine, some say the sewing machine type disc tensioners cause thread fuzzies, I have not experienced that over a few decades of using one, but it's worth mentioning. Pick your poison.

If I remember right when we weighed skeleton vs ECSM seats back in the 90's when we first experimented with this stuff, including trying to build BFS setups by machining the crap out of existing reels. The difference in reel seat weight was 1/6 oz. and that weight is balanced under your hand not out on the ends of the rod where it is exaggerated by distance from your hand, we also found that reel seat failures under abusive tests were much greater for skeleton seats, you can't overcome the increased glue area of a one piece exposed seat, that bridge under the reel increase strength a huge amount. The reel and line you use can make up any difference between the two. We were also experimenting with grip lengths and balance within the lengths we were using then.

I use a spatula, no bubbles to pull from between brush fibers. I however have some short hair straight cut sable brushes, maybe 3/8 inch wide that live in a bottle of brush cleaner.

The Lamiglas and Edge Black Widow tubing are not the same in any way but shape. The Lamiglas stuff can be bought from many sources in many different "K" styles which is only the size of the pattern, the larger the "K" the larger the pattern, I've used it to 12 K. The NFC tubing is hand laid up with the higher modulus materials they build their rods out of, they pull off strips of the prepeg and lay it up on custom mandrels, all the work is done by one highly skilled lady, US materials built in the US. Makes a thinner walled, lighter product with all the strength and durability needed. The Lamiglas rods had weighs in the butt to make the rods feel more balanced, if you look at the posted rod weights you will see they weren't particularly light. Comparing like powered rods in the steelhead category the medium power G Loomis rod was a full ounce lighter, even though the Lamiglas rod was higher modulus and had better, lighter components. If you look at other species, you will see that the tube grips used by Lamiglas are now virtually the industry standard. Dick Posey was never one not to push the status quo further up the scale. Nothing is lighter and slides out of a rod holder/rocket launcher slicker than a carbon grip, the reason all my Kayak rods have them. The same with Rich Forhan and others that changed the face of bass rods and tackle, the norm today wasn't so 20 years ago.