S Hovanec

I couldn't imagine living somewhere that you weren't allowed to target bass during the closed season. In Pennsylvania, you can fish through the closed season but It is immediate catch and release.

Yea, just priced them out. Might not be doing them this season! Lol. I want to put a Trick Step on too and doubt I can swing both.

@A-Jay does the aluminum channel make these sit higher than the original wood bunks? I'm thinking a winch post adjustment might be required if they do.

Inspect them every time I launch. I have a patch of torn carpet, but other than that, the boards are solid. the price on those aluminum reinforced ones seems pretty reasonable. I need to see what size mine are.

Great, now something else I gotta get for the Mr. Pike! I still have the original bunks on the Trailmaster from 2005. I think I'm on borrowed time!

No lie there @.ghoti., I never picked up a Minima or SK2 equipped rod that I liked. 3rd place for most uncomfortable is a Fuji ACS.

If it didn't weigh as much as my rig, why not!

I paid $74/HP or $2500/cylinder 16 years ago. Those current numbers aren't all that bad! Lol

And it only weights 1260 pounds!

I've built a few. It's not rocket surgery. I started out by doing some guide repairs.

I want to be able to afford a boat with a pair of them someday! Lol

Plastidip can give that similar feel, but I think it's kinda heavy and not very durable.

Not possible to replicate that without some specialized equipment. Maybe foam core and heat shrink tube, but you won't get the rubber tac of the St Croix grip.

I think I'm the opposite of most. When I ordered my Lund, I wanted nothing installed. I am very particular about how I want my stuff rigged. When I picked my boat up, It was boat, motor and trailer. There wasn't even a battery in it. I had a pallet of accessories waiting in my garage when I got it home.

My reply is for them to go buy that production rod because I'll never match that price. The biggest request was to duplicate Avids back when you could buy sc3 blanks. What I would do was look up the price of that particular model rod and add $100. They would then just go buy the Avid.

Without the luxury of a static test, my recommendation would be 10 plus tip. That's solely based on the formula of rod length plus one. My go-to guides are Alconites. Sometimes I'll use Fazlite to save a couple bucks, but the price difference between those two is negligible.

E? And I thought D looked like rope!

Every time I've ordered from digitaka, I had it in my mailbox in 4 days

In the spring, i built a casting rod for the exact purpose you mentioned. I used a St Croix Inshore 7' MLF. I haven't had a chance to throw soft plastics on it yet, but it works fantastic with LC Slender Pointers.

The 68MXF has always been my go-to tube rod. I think the MLXF lacks the power to drive a tube hook on the hook set

Yea, it's a truck cap He's a nominee! I'm sure the winner did something way dumber!

I wanna see that outboard mount..... clamped to the glass?

He might be in trouble soon, my Leer cap leaked!

I don't think a bow mount with spot lock mounted on the transom will give you what you're looking for. It will hold the spot, but I think you'll end up facing backwards when spot lock is engaged.

Manufacturers shop blanks from various sources. Buy a rod now and it was made with Brand X blanks, buy that same rod in 6 months and it's in Brand Z blanks. Very few rod makers roll their own blanks. I posted this before, I did a regrip job in 2014 on a Kistler. When I stripped the old cork off, there was a Rainshadow label on the blank. They also used Rogue and another I can't remember. I know of another company that was using Rodgeeks, but was having problems with breakage, so they switched to NFC. Blank suppliers do this too. Back more than a few years, Rainshadow had the RX8+ line, those were rolled by St. Croix. More recently, the now discontinued Eternity line, those were NFC. I'm not 100% certain, but i think the Judge series is rolled by Lamiglas.