Delaware Valley Tackle

Agreed^^ I also ecourage hand turning the first coupe rods. It's inconvenient, but really shows you how epoxy behaves as it sets up.

Mom's cherish hand made gifts from their kids. With her being new to the sport and knowing that you did it yourself, she'd probably not ever notice the small mistakes you're bound to make. On the flip side, there is a learning curve and some investment in getting into rod building. It's a great craft, but not for everyone. You may want to farm this one out, and build another for her down the road if you get into it and like it. Call or email me if you want to talk.

Put that guy on your Christmas card list, one heck of a deal!

The problem most are referring to with Shimano's excessive grease is in the spool bearings. They're packed under the assumption that most reels will never get any maintenance.

"Plastic" has come a long way and isn't the dirty word it used to be. A lot of the new composite materials are tough and light. Excessive play that you may find in a cheap reel will shorten the lifespan of parts to some degree but that can be said for all the tolerances of all the parts. The minimal play in a quality reel's levelwind assembly is no problem. Actually, too tight a fit would not be good for the smoothness everyone covets.

They're nice blanks and that looks like a nice clean build. Boy are they pricey though.

MHX and Rainshadow are both fine blanks. St Croix powers run on the heavy side compared to others. An MHX H/F (4power) will be comparable to St Croix's SCIII (Avid) in MH. Stick with the standard MHX for heavier casting tackle and jump up to the Hi-Mod for spinning and finesse stuff. You'll be happy. The Rainshadow definition of MH vs Hvy is closer to St Croix's. They all have nice sensitive tips with plent of backbone.

It's odd that the sound comes and goes. Probably nothing a good cleaning won't fix when the time comes. It may or may not be due now. In the meantime, you can pull the spool and wipe the rim and frame with a swab to be sure they're clean. Keep the level wind clean and free of debis. Add a drop of oil if you want. Make sure the brake tabs and race are clean and very lightly oil the drum (cone).

The SX is a perfectly good reel, just different than the centrifugal brakes you're used to. I prefer cent. brakes personally but have both. As suggested, set the mag high and most importantly, don't horse the cast. Develop a nice smooth casting stroke and let the rod load and do the work. You'll get better distance, accuracy and backlash control.

Gear swaps aren't usually cost effective unless you're building a 1-off reel that's not commercially available. Putting 7:1 core gears in a 50E for example. There are so many Lew's models and variants I'd suggest just buying another reel or for that matter just using what you have. The IPT difference may not be that big a difference when all is said and done.

A faulty blank will fail the first couple of times it's loaded. After that failure is usually the result of compromised fibers (dents, dings, scratches etc from and number of impact sources) and/or user error. Boat flipping is bad for the rod and the fish and should be avoided. If absolutely necessary lift while holding the rod parallel to the water. Rods have surprising dead lift capacity this way.

Brakes of any design are not intended to eliminate the need to thumb the spool but rather as an aid to control spool start up and over run to get the most out of the reel. There's no right or wrong just experiment and find what's right for you

Anyone tried these? Looks like a new twist on a classic producer

You might find a Daiwa crazy cranker second hand. I have a revo winch that I like and on a budget the pq comes in 5.1 and 4.7:1. The curator e In 5:1 is another good one. You can't go wrong with any of them really

I agree that as long as the integrity of the fibers is not compromised by repeated impact you're fine.

Any reel can be pitched with. If the cover is heavy a metal framed reel with a good drag is good to have. Pitching in cover is about the only app I can tolerate a mag only reel for personally. Beyond that anything at your price point will work fine.

Everyone jumps right to spool bearing when these symptoms pop up but that's actually rarely the cause. Reels are often over or under lubricated from the factory. Start by pulling the spool and putting a very fine film of oil on the spool shaft end that faces the cranking side. You can do the same to the rim of the spool if you want. As a last resort add a drop of oil to th bearing on the spool and in the left side plate.

Set the spool tension to where the bait will fall slowly and the spool stops when the bait hits the ground. Activate 1/2 of the cent brakes and fine tune for wind etc. As you gain comfort and experience you may come to prefer setting the tension just tight enough to remove lateral play in the spool. None of these features is a replacement for an educated thumb though. That just comes with time.

I'd build a punching rod and 7'6"> XX-heavy blank with a moderate/fast action. The little give of an otherwise broomstick gets the fish hooked and coming up with plenty of power to land them. For everyday pitching/flipping cover, Hvy or XH fast work well.

There should be a thin washer between the gear and the mount. If that's there, that's about all there is. What exactly is loose and what about the reel makes it unusable?

The bait is part of the equation but cover, depth, water clarity, even wind can affect line choice. I like braid for sensitivity and line handling and occasionally run a leader for abrasion resistance. I'm trying some light fluoro in gin clear waters.

It's really just a matter of features. Both reels are are on the same platform (shared with ABU, Lews, BPS and others) and should serve well if they've been cared for at all.

The AR pawl is easy to pull to see if that's the problem. You can leave it out if you want to but adjusting it correctly is easy. Check the level wind to to be sure it's not catching on the end of the worm gear.

If you want something special, a rod built on a Rainshadow Immortal would perform very well and the titanium color would match the reel. If you go OTC St Croix is about as good as you can get at your price point.

Only that you can throw wet flies, streamers etc. too. You can fly fish the whole water column if you want to. Probably not the most efficient deep water method but possible.