S Hovanec

Garnet and gold is such a classy look, especially on grey blanks.

My first spinning and casting build were on $5 mudhole blanks. I gave them away. My first fly build was on an old Fenwick root beer blank. I still have it cause I'm not too embarrassed to say I built it!

If you fish it like your Ugly Stick, you won't be fishing it very long. HM rods are eggs compared to the fiberglass you've been using. Don't bend it beyond 90° and you should be good.

Alconite is the cheapest guide I will use or recommend. My personal rods all get Ti/SiC or Torzite.... Just cause like the Ti color! I know there are Ti/Alconite, I just haven't used them. Not that big of a price difference between them and SiC.

Think of this when you're looking at rods: one 6mm guide weighs more than 3 4mm guides (Fuji Alconite).

I'm not gonna beat this dead horse too hard today, I've done that enough in the past. There are people that don't like micros and have made that decision based on poorly executed rods or using micros for an application where they have no business being used. From a cost standpoint, Fuji 4mm thru 6mm guides are exactly the same price, so there is no difference there.

35mm spigot jaws on a Nova G3 chuck.

Tigers are a Brown/Brook cross.

Yep. Tiger

That foam one was a full grip musky rod the guy wanted made to a split grip. Imagine my shock when I went to remove the cork and found this. Was a little more difficult than anticipated cause I had to install a real cork grip from the back.......almost 18" from the butt.

Be very cautious of cork on less expensive rods. Not all cork is actually real cork. Some is foam with a cork veneer. Some is a kind of particle board with a cork veneer or a printed cork pattern. Looks like low quality cork. Nope.....veneer over foam. veneer over ground cork. https://www.facebook.com/mike.joyce.161/videos/913560725346336/

A nice, dense 2"x2"x18" EVA block is about $12 on the retail market. High quality cork rings are $5-$7 per linear inch.

If you ever do any rods with reel seats, i think you'll find the lathe is the best way to trim the seat to length and bore the arbors to keep them concentric. Trimming. Boring.

Yea. Here's what I do and I never have grips that are not concentric. I have a set of 5 mandrels (actually 2 sets and a few threaded ones too): 1/4", 5/16", 3/8", 7/16" and 1/2". I'll measure the blank where the grip is to be located and select the next smallest mandrel. I bore the rings to fit that size mandrel and then glue them up. Also, using larger mandrels means less flex when turning them. After turning, there is very little reaming required. How I ream the grips is by using drill bits in my hand drill, followed by a tapered reamer to finish. I start with the next biggest size drill bit from what the cork is bored and work up to the next smallest from the blank diameter. Then I finish it off with the reamer. It sounds more complicated than it actually is. Boring the rings. Glued up on mandrels. Note the butt and grip are on 2 different size mandrels. This build was to be extended from 6'10" to 7', so the butt grip was going on a much smaller piece of blank than the front grip.

Are you boring your rings prior to gluing them up or are you using them as-is with the 1/4" bore?

Found a PA dealer with Lund and Yamaha. It's a little over 3 hours away. Glad it's not closer!!

Postup some pics once you get it wrapped up!

Does the primer ball get hard? If not, that may be part of the problem. You make no mention of a choke? Every carbed motor I've had required choking.

I'll start with a few of my earlier works. My rod building and photography skills have improved over the years.

back when I had jet-skis, i would top off the tanks and double dose the sta-bil, as per the instructions and run the motors til i knew the stabilized gas was in the system, then fogged the cylinders til it stalled. once I graduated from fun boats to small fishing boats, I had small 2 strokes. '79 9.9 Johnson and a 90's 25 Johnson, I would remove the fuel line and run the gas out every time I put the boats on the trailer. Never did anything else with them. 20hp Honda, I did the same. run it out of fuel after every outing. Graduated to a larger boat and that procedure wasn't as easy. Now, at the end of the season, I place a small amount of stabilized gas in an auxiliary tank. I disconnect the fuel line from the permanent tank and place it the small tank. I run the motor for about 5 minutes to get the stabilized fuel in the motor and shut it off. I then drain the fuel tank and put that gas in my truck. The first couple years I owned this boat, I would fill the tank for winter, but come spring, it would be 3 or 4 gallons short.......I guess due to evaporation? I'd rather start each season off with fresh gas instead of crappy gas that has been sitting all winter.

The closest dealer only has Merc. The next closest dealer that has Lund has Yamaha, Merc and Honda, but I won't deal with him. The dealer where I got my Lund has Honda, which is GREAT, but Honda doesn't make a 300.......yet!

My question is gonna be where is the closest dealer that has Lund and Yamaha?

Had a voicemail on my home phone today from Lund, asking if I had any questions about the new models.

I'd step up to the 5S610MXF if it feels too light. I believe,there is a typo in the catalog because they have the 5s610MLXF rated to 1/2 and the mxf rated to 5/16. The 3C69mlxf is rated to 1/2 oz too while the 3s69mlxf is only 3/8. Sometimes the casting version is a little beefier I disregard lure rating because im never casting. I have fished up to 2.5oz weights on my 5s69mlxf.

I'll throw a tube for maybe a dozen casts and a jerkbait maybe 2 dozen casts a year! Lol. The rest is dropshot.