.ghoti.

Didn't mind the time in the waiting room. It took three tries to get it all. What I didn't like was when the anesthetic wore off. Talk about a pain in the membrane!! It hurt so bad I could hear it. Literally. I know you can see the happy look on my face.

Don't have one.

I built a rod for my brother just for An Arbor reel. He let me have it to play with and get the seat in the right place. That thing was an excellent casting machine. I was impressed. I compared it to my Pfleugers; two Supreme XTs; one 25 and one 30. The Arbor outcasted both be a very noticeable margin.

the short answer is: only once.

want to see what skin cancer surgery looks like the day after? And I have more to go.

I used a Fuji ECS seat for that build. Wanted to save a little weight. The ECS is lighter than the MVT, which is lighter than the textouch. Kent requested a tip neutral rod. With that blank, 7'6", tip neutral would require one of two things; a stupidly long handle, or a heavy handle. Since he wanted a 10" handle, the rod needed a heavy rear end. I have a rod that I built with that MVT seat. I'm a big fan of Batson products. Love the Eternity and Immortal blanks, F series guides, textouch seats, etc. my power wrapper is a Alps. But that MVT reel seat is not worth the price of admission. I put it in the same class as Fuji's Torzite guides. They are for the guy who's ego demands his toys be the most expensive.

A dropshot rod? Now there's a surprise. LOL

You don't need a pic. Take a file and turn the round, leading edge on the lip into a knife edge. Make sure you keep it symmetrical. Test it in the water to fine tune the side to side balance.

Shad, perch, baby bass, and something with some red or orange in it.

A-rig; because regulations in Illinois say so. Rattletraps; all I can catch on a trap are dinks. Don't even carry them with me these days. In fact, I gave them all away. C-rig; just because.

Dry nice Scott. You do beautiful work. love that cork

Built on the new Rainshadow Eternity2 blank, the unpainted version. Medium power, fast action, 6'8", 1.7 ounce weight blank. Batson calls this a medium. It has a 10-17lb line rating, and 1/4-3/4oz lure rating; the classic Loomis medium-heavy power ratings. In hand, I'd call it a medium. As built weight is 3.5oz, and about 90% of the added weight is on the back end. Ill put put up some pics after it's delivered to Kent. It ain't right if he doesn't get to see it first.

I'm with you on the C-rig. Can't remember the last time I had one tied on. It's been quite a while. Necessary evil. Nope. Not necessary, just evil. LOL

Seems to me the majority here use braid. I despise the stuff, and refuse to use it. Blasphemy? If you say so. Alao, Ive never caught a Bass over 10" long with a trap, or any other lipless bait. I quit carrying them with years ago. Then went on trip to Stick Marsh with George Welcome. Caught nice fish on a trap, so I dug out a box full from the garage and put it in my crank bag. Took it back out at the end of the season because all I could catch on them were dinks. This time I gave them all away. Blasphemy? Maybe so, but these baits have no place in my tackle bags.

In that price range, you should consider a custom rod. Contact Mike at Delaware Valley Tackle. He's a Bass Resource sponsor. Tell him what you want, and let him tell you what you need. $300 will get you a fine reel. Stick with Daiwa or Shimano. They've both been around for a long time. There is a reason for that. The remaining $500 will get you a top shelf custom stick.

I built that thing to be as light as possible. Spiral wrapped Recoils, a rear grip and butt grip just large enough to be useful. I'm delivering it Monday. The rod is schweeeet. If Kent hadn't already paid for it, I'd keep it. LOL This may very well be the next rod I build for myself.

It is extremely difficult to time the buzzbait hatch.

Ronnie, you would like my dryer setup. I had a lot of trouble at first, with getting a nice level finish. I found the only way to results that make me happy was to turn by hand. Let it sit, turn 180 degrees, let it sit, turn 180 degrees,....... about two hours in, I could turn on the dryer, and walk away. That works nicely. Now, I apply finish without a motor, like before. I let it sit for bit, wick the sags off the bottom of the blank, rotate 180 degrees, let it sit, look for sags again, wick them away if necessary, then flip the switch on my automated dryer. And walk away. It sits for 30 seconds, then rotates 180 degrees. Then sits for 31 seconds and rotates. It adds one second to the wait time each cycle, until it hits two hours, then turns the motor on continuous. Works like a charm.

Ive been thinking about giving them a shot, but have not. Tom Kirkman has said, on his rodbuilding forum, that if PacBay made all the sizes he needs, Minima guides would be all he would use. I believe an excellent rodbuilder, Scott Hovanec, who is a regular here, has posted that he has had grooving problems with these type guides. I don't remember if his problem was with Minima guides. Might have been another brand. Maybe he will chime in on this topic. I tend to take most negative online reviews with a grain of salt. Or with a handful. Ditto for rave reviews. I suspect a large percentage of such "reviews" are from people repeating something they've read online, and want to appear knowledgeable, without have any actual experience with the products in question. Having said that, I do believe, implicitly, both of the people I mentioned. They both have a lot more experience that I, and are both much better rod builders than I will every be. So, what to do, when two such respected people disagree? Buy some of the guides and try them for myself. My own opinion, when based on experience, is more important to me than any opinions I may read online. Try them yourself. The low cost is a plus. The light weight is a big plus. You may find a new favorite product. If you want another recommendation, try some Alps, F series, titanium frame guides. Very light. Very strong. Hard ceramic rings. And lower priced than comparable Fuji titanium frame guides.

You should also look at what some companies call popping rods.

I'll use a leader occasionally, when trout fishing. I fish Taneycomo every summer while the wife is doing whatever she does with the grandkids. Summer on Taneycomo can be tough fishing. I use 4lb test Invizx, and that is too visible at times, and out comes the little spool of 7X tippet. 2lb test fluorocarbon leader. Some times that's the only way to get bit. Other than that, I don't need a leader. My main line is good enough. I do not use braid. I despise that crap. Other than the two reels I use only for trout, all my reels are spooled with mono; from 4 - 8 for spinning reels, 8 - 14 for casting reels.

None.

Subsonic fantastically well as a bar, of course. When the Bobcats turned to catch Messenger ideal job Finesse then see many of you will understand without having to explain anything to protracted. Sign me up. How can I resist, when the Bobcats catch the Messenger?

There have been years when the ads were better than the game. Thankfully, that was not the case this year.

Have great time celebrating the day you came kicking and screaming into the world.