flechero

To follow up on my earlier post, I think that a higher % of big bass stay deeper. Yes, some move up to feed and I think that is all they are doing. In waters that have a forage available in deep water, I don't think the big ones go shallow to feed. (or at least most don't) This is one of many reasons that swimbaits and other large baits like the 6"-7" Senkos, jig & pigs, and large deep diving cranks do so well. You either catch them on a food route in shallower water or you get them in deeper water. I truly believe that some don't ever go shallow. I spent years studying bass movement and behavior (years ago) only to realize that it's as simple as hunting white tailed deer, bucks in particular. The big ones have routes they stick to and if you can pattern them, you can take them. Typically those routes are not the easy or obvious ones, that is exactly how they lived to reach the age of majority. I can't tell you how many hundreds of hours I spent sending jigs and large soft plastics by catfish, carp and other big echos on the graph, trying to find the big bass... It is truly a game of patience, I can fish a whole day looking for one bite but few of the people I take fishing are willing to do that, they just want to catch some fish. The other factor, most don't recognize is that big bass eat big meals, so you may be in the right place (wrong time) and the 10lb or 12lb that just watched your bait go by may have eaten an hour ago and will not eat again for several more hours or until tomorrow, but you dismiss it as a catfish or carp on the sonar and look for new water. I wish I had seen this thread 4 or 5 years ago, I only fish for fun these days and am not up to date on the biology, current patterns/movements, or lake trends like I used to be. These days I will Have "a feeling" of a bait or place to try... and it stems from years of study but most times I can't recall why I think it. Case and point - Sunday I went out and saw something in the water... I haven't even thrown Cotton Candy Chartruse in over a year but knew it was right for some reason (and still had a bag of them, deep in a bait box)... Boom, right off the bat, I started catching fish, one was a good one in the mid 7's. The place and pattern we were fishing hadn't supported throwing a 6"lizard in months but my partner was throwing the same zoom lizards in every other color with no success. I can only guess as to why that struck me and why it worked, other than something was familiar in the water color or weather... but several years ago i could have given specific reasons as to why. All I remember is that the water looked like a senario from years past, and it worked. Study your prey like you were fishing to feed you're family... it's amazing how much the lake and fish will tell you ... if you pay attention to them. Back to depth.... I grew up fishing HAWL and Fork, before either were a big name so that accounts for a lot of big ones without any extra skill involved. Countless fish in the 7-10 lb range lived in the shallows until fishing pressure caught up to them. I have managed to get a good number of big fish in other waters by using what those places taught me in terms of structure, cover and food sources. I now live in Central Tx and my home lake is Belton... lake record is 11 lbs and change, I think, not so great by my old standards... But this is a deep clear lake and we routinely catch fish in the 30' - 40' range. In the old days I wouldn't have even "wasted" my time fishing this deep but here it is normal to fish this deep. I have taken the past year and started to re-learn what the fish are seeking. Find available food and safety (in the form of cover, structure or just deep water) and you will find cooperative fish. Did I mention that Belton has a great smallmouth population?!!?!?!?! What an awesome fish!! Two keys for me have been to listen to my gut and the patience to stick with a plan, even when it seems to not be working. So much of this has to do with gut feeling that it's hard to pinpoint... although I suspect it used to be supported by experience or fact. Sorry to ramble, it seemed like a topic that required some latitude. -Keith

Based on the weights you posted above, you have boated more trophy largemouth than the average bear. Let me ask you this, what makes you believe that the majority of big bass live in deep water? Or perhaps I should ask, have you caught many BIG bass in deep water? First let me say that I have been priveledged to fish in some great water over the years, some public and some private and also been lucky on some occasions. Keep in mind that "deep" is relative. I based my post on the fact that I have caught more big bass deep than shallow... in my world deep is anything over 15 feet when bass fishing. I'll follow up later, I need to run.

You asked Raul, but I wanted to add this... I will agree that a majority of big bass are usually deep but having caught 2 over 10lb and lots of 8-9lb bass in 2-6 feet of water, NOT during spawn and in different bodies of water... I feel comfortable in saying that you absolutely CAN catch big bass shallow. But I also think you will catch more big bass in deeper water. And to keep with the original discussion, I think bass are a lot like dogs or people... some are very intelligent and others are well, just not! ;D

The funniest part is that I forgot my sunscreen (well, it is January, right?) and got a sunburned! But the temp dropped a good 20 degrees right after the sun went down and I QUICKLY got out the long pants and sweatshirt!! I always wear the shades... I had a scare about 10 years ago and the opthamologist told me NEVER fish w/o them, to easy to damage the eyes on water. Thanks a lot guys, I really appreciate the kind words. ReelMech, You could claim a "slight delay in deliveries due to a parts shortage" and bring your wife down here for a quick fishing trip! ;D Looks like we are going to have another good weather week. (although it has been pretty windy) -keith

I had that exact same thought right after I landed it, because we had talked Sat. night about skipping Church and starting early! Thanks for the sentiments, guys! I am for sure hooked on rodbuilding. I am starting on a casting rod tonight!

After Church today, I was able to hit the lake with my first custom made rod... and what a great day it turned out to be!! I was a little nervous since it was my first build and didn't really have any idea what to expect but the rod performed better than my wildest expectations or hopes. About 30 minutes into the trip, I hooked my second fish 7 Lbs., 7 oz. (see her below) on the new rod... talk about a true feeling of acomplishment. I've caught many bigger bass in my life but none more satisfying than this one. What would have just been a good fish, became a memory that I will never forget! Sorry for the photo quality... forgot the camera and had to use the phone.

Jim, Impressive work! I'm not even in your league... my grips are only "trim rings" of foam to add some color.

Personally, I'm terrified of lightening and have had several VERY NEAR misses on the lake. This is one of those things you will need to develop a comfort with. First off, use weather underground, it is infinitely more accurate than any of our weather people in texas. If they are calling for severe weather, I usually will cancel, unless they are pretty confident about late in the day or just early morning... then I will plan around the times. The bottom line is to use good judgement... and having lived in East Tx do not consider the other boats/fishermen a good guide on when to leave!! Central and East Texas are notorius for having storms whip up with no warning so you might just stay within a few minutes of the ramp and make sure you are proficient at the ramp. And when your graphite rods starts to hum and buzz... drop it quick and hit the deck!! (no kidding) Be patient, spring time in Texas usually means good weather on weekdays and a cold front with storms normally hits on fridays, followed by a cold windy Sat./Sun. Then the cycle repeats. It seems that way every year but you get one or two decent weather weekends to land a hawg or two and it will all be worth it. Welcome to Texas!

I went ahead and used Sureform blade (looks like cheese grater) to rough out the grips and then sanded down as I normally do. It left the foam raised since foam doesn't sand well... when I tried the screen, it worked ok but again, the cork cuts much faster. I ended up cutting strips of the screen exactly the width of the foam rings and had to final shape independently. I got the foam where I wanted it and then brought the cork down to match. I lightly burnished the foam with a piece of leather for smoothing, since the screen left it like the texture of suede or velvet. I am surprised at the end result, it turned out very nice. Although now I wish I would have used thinner foam rings and had two or three color trim bands.

I know nothing about chrysler motors but you can call the MFR or whoever has the records and find out by serial number. I had an old merc, and with a single call to merc and the serial number found out it was a 70/71 model. Google is your friend. ...lol And just for the sake of mentioning this, why wouldn't you take off the prop when painting the motor?

I have resisted this thread as long as I can. Maybe in some remote waters, in a land far away, a largemouth is equal to or surpasses a smallmouth... but having lived in 5 different states in different parts of the US and also in Canada for two years, and being primarily a largemouth fisherman I have to say I have NEVER caught a largemouth that outfights a smallmouth. I fish the same tackle, day in and day out, I just happen to fish water that holds both and they are in the same areas. So same rod, reel, line, lure and some times on consecutive casts, the smallie always wins. There is no room for debate. Yes the smallies are more acrobatic... but they also hit harder, fight better and last longer when hooked. There is a God given reason that smallies have red eyes...

I have been fooling around in the garage making some cork grips, mostly trying to come up with something a little different, to call my own. I have a few grips with different materials, machined out to be trim rings, bands, etc.... anything hard like wood or plastics are pretty easy but my question for you is about eva and closed cell foams. I have one that I glued up the other night with some exotic burl cork and a tight, closed cell foam used in small accent bands. I think it looks pretty cool and matches a spool of blue thread perfectly. Should make for a great look on a matte black blank. I know that cork and eva do not sand at the same speed or rate so how have you had your best results? I have read that the sanding screens used for drywall work well on eva, any idea how well they work on cork? Could it be as simple as using a sanding block to keep things even? Thanks for any ideas, Keith

If you have the money for a guide, I would recomend it. Having lived and fished in Texas for the past 25 years, there is one constant... our fish are wildly sensitive to spring weather and it's daily (sometimes hourly) changes... Rayburn has 50,000 acres that "look great" on paper and are not. You could easily spend a week fishing good looking water before you ever find a decent pattern. On the other hand, you may hit the jackpot on your own. I think your odds are 10x better with a guide though. Either way, have a great trip!

I suggest you find a different hook. I say this because while it maybe possible, you will most likely break a lot of hooks or impale yourself. Owner hooks are tempered (as are almost all, if not all) almost to the point of being brittle. If you do get it to bend where you like it, it will be so much weaker that you will probably break it on the fist good fish you hook. Look around on-line, there are probably high quality, name brand hooks already made in your preferred style.

Well, here goes attempt #1 at posting a picture... I can't get a good pic yet since the rod is still turning, I tried to time the delay in the camera to catch the butt wrap and sticker. I'll set it against a good background when it's dry and try to get a few decent shots for you. Well that didn't work. How about I just email it to you. I don't know how to edit the photo and the size limit here is 150 kb. Sorry about that.

ReelMech, I went ahead an used the sticker anyway... there was going to be no waiting another week for a sticker! ...lol I had to cut it in half and then ended up getting the goofed half usable again... it looks fine now except is cloudy underneath part of it of it from my fingerprints... it got pulled against the rod from static and literally jumped from my fingers... and of course it landed at about a 45 degree angle... and now i know to be more careful with them! I give St. Croix credit for not skimping on adhesive!! I didn't think I'd even be able to remove it, let alone actualy salvage it. ...lol I inspected the rod closely this morning under a bright light and the finish (I used Andy's Theadmaster) turned out great! The only flaws I have are a few fuzzes from the tread sticking up... I admit not using a fresh razor blade when wrapping. : It leveled unbelievably well considering how uneven I applied it. I see the immediate need for a finishing stand with hand rest to keep steady. And much to my surprise, I couldn't find any bubbles... all I did was breath the bubbles out when applying the finish. I guess I need to give Andy the credit for the finish! I did find 3 spots where I didn't get the Forhan locks completely coated on the backside so I touched those up about 6am and gave the butt wrap a second coat since threadmaster is a light build, I wanted it a bit thicker on the butt wrap. Have you tried Threadmaster yet? I am curious how "user friendly" it is compared to others. I was impressed but have no basis to compare it to. Ummmmmm........yeah spiral wrapped pitchin stick. Split grip, no fore grip. Now you got me wanting to build one of the blanks I have hanging. Ahh but the reels come first. Your Hooked Now! You got that right!! I have those All Star blanks I bought... they are dancing around the garage screaming "pick me!, Pick me!" I took another piece of your advice last week, since you are sold on alconites, and they are affordable, when I placed my last order I got enough guides to do 3 rods (already have the cork and reel seats) So I'm ready to start a pitchin' rod as soon as I catch up on my "honey-do's"!! And yes, it will be a bumper wrapped, split grip, no fore grip... Can you tell that I'm fired up?!?!?!? ;D I'l try to get some pics when I get back to the house. Thanks again, for everything!! Keith

Sorry Mike, I don't mean disrespect to you, but if any of that were true, it would not have required a call from their friend to get a response to a simple customer service issue. I think that Chris got motivated by your call and the bad publicity on the forum. In the end, it worked out well for the kids and LBH got his shirt.

Well, after a bunch of newbie mistakes and challenges, I finished my first rod today and it's turning/drying as I type this. A special thanks to ReelMech, who has patiently answered so many questions and gone out of his way to help me. You are a true asset to all of us in the forum, thank you. The wife let me off of work early today so I was able to wrap and finish the whole rod this afternoon. It's not perfect but it's as good and clean as most of my factory rods so I guess it's a great start in rodbuilding. Except for the nice St.Croix sticker... oops! I pretty well butchered that, oh well, I don't think the fish will mind. ...lol I guess it may need a second coat on the threads but won't know for sure until morning. It's amazing how thread finish highlights even the smallest of "imperfections" in the wraps. To anyone interested, this rod is a St. Croix SCIII blank, 3C66MLF with Fuji SiC guides in gunsmoke. It's labled as a casting blank but I built it as a spinning rod, to use for dropshot, small cranks. etc. I'll try to get a pic or two tomorrow, have to charge the camera batteries, and figure out how to post a picture! Next up: swimbait/ledgebuster rod or a new pitchin' rod. I am addicted!! ;D

Well i got to do some wrapping last night before bed... I wish Ihad read your post before I started.... I only started about 1/8" or so from the foot but with A thread packed down, that is about 12-15 wraps. I need to remove it so I can make it shorter and add trim wraps. I like the overall length but it would be too long if I added trim to it. The first couple guides have really long feet so the overall wrap is long anyway. Hopefully I'll have a couple hours free this weekend to get into it, I'd really like to fish this rod next week!!

That's exactly right... I was looking at several of my older Loomis' last night and they were charcoal w/ black trim. My newer ones are black with a few single strands of metalic gold for accents. My guides are the (fuji concept w/ SiC) gunsmoke finish and at the moment all my thread is NCP and metallic so I don't think it will wash out the colors too much. The SCIII blanks are pretty dark so I think black and charcoal thread will be a subtle but classy look. I'll get you a pic asap but it may be the weekend before I get to do any more work on it. I was pretty worried about guide foot prep based on some of what I had read but I took my needle files and some 600 grit wet dry sandpaper from the gunsmithing box and fixed em up in no time! I assume the thread will hide the shiny areas from foot prep, I haven't tried to recolor them. How close to the foot should I begin my wraps? I've read anywhere from 1/2 inch down to 1/16, I was thinking about 1/8 or 3/16 would be plenty on a med spinning rod. What do you think? Thanks again!! keith

ReelMech and Jim, Well I balked on taking off the grip & reel seat, since my "learner" rod is an SCIII I was afraid that I'd hurt it. Once I got it taped up and did some test casting I decided that the grip was too short. I ended up taking the butcap off with a razor blade and adding 2" of new blank (which I pre-corked) to the butt and reinstalled the cap ring. I took the butt area to my bench grinder with a featherlike hand and shaped it all up. Finished with some real fine sandpaper and presto, problem solved and it looks like it was always one piece grip. (a woodworking bacground has proved invaluable to cork work) Oh, I also balanced it out while I was extending it... it took only anout 1/4 oz to balance it with the new Diawa Fuego I bought for it!! Since the Dr. cleared me to start fishing with a spining rod, I decided to spoil myself with a good reel! ;D I got all my guide feet prepped last night and got them back into proper position with tape... so now all i have to do is wrap the giudes with thread and finish! I'm getting pretty fired up! I started some butt wrapping last night, but ended up removing it... didn't like the color combos. I may just wrap this one in black and charcoal, so I can get it done... and worry about pretty stuff on other rods.

That's a great workstation!

Actually a bunch of guides were backordered.... At least one guide in each set... and a few tip tops, in 6.5. They said it was because Fuji was shut down for the holidays and everything is a week or two behind. They thought it would all be replenished by sometime next week. I actually called on my last two orders to be sure everything was there and they said it was... then got a call a few hours later saying the computer showed 1 or 2, but they actually were out. It won't be a big deal later on, but for now I'm dying to get one finished!!

Thanks for sharing all of these rods... threads like this inspire me! Makes me want to stay up all night and head to the garage... I am still truly just begining but so far, my homemade lathe and Andy Dear's exotic burl has me pretty fired up! If some of my backordered guides would hurry up and get here, I might actually get to finish one of my own rods!!!! Thanks guys!