S Hovanec

Truth in advertising. Vanish......your lures Vanish.......the fish Vanish.......your money Vanished!!

I have a hard time saying no to a LE! My wife has one of my old ones and I think I have 4 in various stages of completeness.

I don't think the difference is as noticable as going from a Premier to a LT. The Avid is a fantastic rod for the price.

We're almost home. About a half hour to go. Nice meeting you Gary. We got halfway home and my eyes were almost cleared up. There had to be something in the air in the Winston Salem area that was messing with me pretty bad. I snagged a Rodgeeks blank, an Alps reelseat, some EVA blocks from Billy and a bunch of cork blocks. Ordered an Eternity blank from Karen on the way home. I see some of the new Fuji Black Titanium guides in my future. Stay tuned for some new projects! @clayton86, your grip was well received. I could have sold it numerous times!!

Just got back from Foothills. Had dinner with Billy V and the NERBSs crew. Good food, good beer and great conversation! Did a little pregaming with Gary in the hotel lobby.

The fades came out nice.

2" SDR-21 for blanks 3.5 or 4" SCH-40 for rods. I get it at Lowe's.

You'll do just as well to ditch the cardboard tubes and ship the rods as they are for all the protection the cardboard offers. My failure rate is 100% with cardboard. Only PVC from now on. Depending on length and destination, I've paid $25-$35 with FedEx.

3 mlxf spinning 1 mxf spinning 1 mxf casting

I considered mine new til it was paid off (about 6 years). People are always surprised when I tell them I bought it new in 2005!!

@.ghoti. when are you going to arrive in NC??

The rest if the grip came to me in a dream earlier in the week. Cut and glued up 36 cork squares yesterday. Those blocks will sandwich the herringbone inlay.

When I say not one, I'm speaking of "micros". I've had many bent up 6mm and larger guides. Probably because they're easier to catch on things.

Not a one. I can say that, but I think I use better guides than some of those OEMs. I may baby my equipment more than most too.

I use St. Croix as my baseline. From their M and up, they seem to fish one power heavier than labeled and there is a gap between their ML and M in the freshwater line that is filled nicely with their inshore ML.

Not everyone likes them. They wound need to introduce a whole line of rods with them or have every model with both guide types.

Beat me to it. One company's MH is another company's H.

The KBs are a very stout guide and I wouldn't be afraid to use them all the way to the tip. I actually have done that on a XH flipping stick I built for someone last year. I think I used KW6 for the first 4 til the line transitioned to the underside of the blank, then KB4 to the tip.

I buy very little tackle through the summer, unless I run out of something while on vacation. The last couple years, my backstock was great enough I bought nothing, even in spring. Having said that, I'm gonna pull the trigger on a '18 Stella 2500SHG when they become available in March. That should do me for the year! I take that back, I'm also getting a half dozen Tekota 300LCs for my newly found love of walleye fishing.

I like when my truck and boat match or compliment each other. I used to have a pewter truck and it looked good with my green boat. Now I have a black Tahoe and I absolutely hate it, both the vehicle and the color. I'm holding out for a 19 Silverado in white, silver or whatever that sharp looking charcoal color is that I see in the marketing pics. Any of those colors will go with my green boat and my next boat, which will be white.

Haven't messed with that model, but I have a box full of Bushido 7'2" 4-8# blanks that I build for panfish. Not super high-end, but nice for the money.

To me, they're Tennessee with rings or without rings.

I wasn't gonna go there.

Exactly. He was consulted in their design and allowed his name to be affixed to them.

If I were to do one for a customer, it would be something like this, or even longer. I don't remember the length. I'm sure @Lucky Craft Man can interject that bit of info.