S Hovanec

I prefer 5 minute epoxy but the hot melt works great if used properly. My procedure for using hot melt is: cut slivers of the glue stick small enough to fit in the tube of the new tip. Pack as many as will fit in the tube. Carefully heat the tube til the glue starts to bubble out. Place new tip on the rod and align. If you don't get it aligned before the glue sets, CAREFULLY re-heat the tip and align.

I have a pearl, but its a custom. 6'8" mxf. You may want to check them out before you buy because the factory built pearls have smaller reelseats for smaller hands. St Croix's mlxf rods are my favorite for dropshot. My wife has a 4c69mlxf and i am using a 5s69mlxf. I'm giving her mine this year once i finish my new 5s610mlxf. I'm a Croix nut if you couldn't tell!

#3 . . . . 6#3oz, 21.5" #2 . . . . 6#5oz., 19.5" #1 . . . . 6#11oz.

Put your normal salt in a blender. POOF.....flowered salt!

That thing is bigger than my PB largemouth!

That's why I'm just a pee-on draftsman at a no-name civil.survey firm. Ya know....the one's with the 'good' ideas go NOWHERE!!

I would think it would have worked like the 'hole-in-one contests' that I see run around here from time to time. The promoter buys an insurance policy to cover themselves in the slim chance someone actually pops one in. Noone wins, you're only out the insurance money. Someone wins, you're still only out the insurance money.

Could probably sell it to an annuity company and get more up-front.

Make sure the line is running on the roller on the retrieve. I've experienced this before on some of my old BPS reels where the line wasn't in the roller and began cutting through the plastic of the bail arm. There was a small ridge that prohibited the line from sliding to the roller and it hung up there and really made a groove.

Those white rods still throw a shadow! Don't let my comment make you think that I'm against white rods though. Actually, I'm gonna build myself a couple once I get caught up. Only because I think they look cool looking

I don't buy it being invisible to fish, but a white rod would be more visible and easier to locate if you happen to toss it overboard!

Probably the same guy that was trying to heave a 30oz lead weight over my back fence with that rod pictured above!

For throwing one of these: It's called a 2 Pounder....but this one only weighed 26oz!

Gudebrod Royal blue with no CP matches the SCIV's of years past. Haven't built on the new ones. The color is slightly different since they changed the painting procedure. It's more purple than the old ones.

Sounds about right for a higher-end stick. Custom prices can vary from the low $200's to........?

IMO, Alconites are the best bang for the buck. With that being said, on all of my personal high-end builds, I use Fuji TiSiC's. If you want to save a little money, the K-Frames are available in Ti/Alconite. I was contemplating using them on my next two spinning rods, but i ended up ordering the SiC's. It was only going to be about a $25 savings per rod.

Here's a little boat ride for ya! http://youtu.be/y_2V2H8cQks

As much as I LOVE my SCV's, I don't feel, for this application, it's worth upgrading from the SCIII. If it was the 610MLXF, I'd say go for it, but not for a cranker.

My truck said -1 when we left Capt. Matt's house. It was 5 at the ramp and worked it's way to the lower 30's by the time we pulled the boat out. Water temp was.........ice!

It's amazing how that water will push and pull a boat, even on plane. The jet tours make it interesting too. it's tough to fish the shoreline with the big wakes coming off of them and then the heavy current right above the plants.

Can you believe there was a 15' deep-v Tracker with a 25hp and another 16' something-or-other tin with a 30hp up there in the hole? I've fished it a few times in May from my 17' deep-v and it was unnerving. One thing is almost a guarantee in that stretch of river: If you fall overboard, you're gonna die.......winter or summer.

Took a trip to fish the Lower Niagara over the weekend. Here's the story that my buddy Capt. Matt attached to his album of the trip.....I couldn't have said it any better myself: Scott, Alex and I grew up together and were basically inseparable. Over time, as we got older and went our separate ways, it has been harder to get together. The last time we fished together was about 6 years ago. We have been planning another trip since then but it never worked out. Well we finally were able to get together again to do some fishing. We were hoping to fish 2 days but a "few to many" and watching the sun come up put a little damper on Saturdays fishing. Sunday was a different story. We were up early and ready to go. With temps in the single digits and few jam-ups at the launch (due to the cold), we had a slow start but that didn't last long. We hooked up on the first drift and the action stayed pretty steady all day. We had a good mix of fish Steelhead, Browns and Lakers. All in all it was a great visit with my two buddies. We told old stories, made new stories and learned a few things. Now that we are all "40" and the "baton" has been passed down...it makes you think about a few things. As we try to hang onto our youth and try to avoid the inevitable, are you ever really ready? Well, we may not be as good as we once were, but one thing still holds true...WE CAN STILL FISH! Here's a few pics from Sunday's fishing portion of the trip. My first laker....ever. Me and Alex with a double. Alex with a little brownie Capt. Matt providing some moose antler action We got the boat in the water about 9:30 and fished til 2pm. We had 20 hook-ups and landed 13 of them. One of the lost fish was a monster laker that could have eaten the one I caught for a snack! Alex hooked it too low in the drift and we couldn't get it up through the ice.

Based on the one that i repaired and the couple I've handled since then, they have the worst fit and finish of any rod I've ever seen.

Custom St. Croix 5S69MLXF. Out of all of my DS rods, it's my favorite.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it! I fished the 69mlxf for years. GREAT dropshot blank! I have a 5s610mlxf in the works right now, but I'm gonna get a Sustain for it. My CI4 is on a 6'10" Mag-Light North Fork at the moment.