Tim Kelly

The reels listed above are also different retrieve ratios as well as left and right handed. Choose the right retrieve ratio for the intended applications.

When you build your own rods the weight of the guides on the rod becomes a very obvious factor. When you have a bare blank and give it a wiggle it feels super crisp snapping back to straight in an instant. Put a set of guides on it and that feeling is reduced. The bigger and heavier the set of guides is the more profoundly you feel the difference. For a rod to feel super sensitive you want that snap back to straight to be as crisp and dampened as possible. Anything you add to the bare blank reduces it.

On the other hand, I think the lack of weight on a blank, especially a spinning blank, makes an appreciable difference to the rod's sensitivity and learning to tie an FG knot gives you a far superior knot to an Albright or double uni. The end result is just better. More sensitivity and a stronger knot. The cost is a little bit of learning and a small increase in time, though you so rarely need to retie an FG that I would guess the time taken is actually shorter over a season of fishing.

What a great looking boat! That would suit me down to the ground.

I think glue sounds unnecessary. I make my last half hitch a double turn and haven't had a problem with the hitches coming undone. The half hitches are what secures the knot, so it's worth doing a few of them. If you only did a couple of half hitches then I expect glue would be insurance against it coming undone, but it's a loads of extra work and mess.

It's much easier to do the weaving if you weave the leader round the braid.

How many half hitches are you doing? The weave takes no time at all, I then do at least 4 half hitches before trimming the leader, then another 4 half hitches to smooth out the transition over the leader and finally a double half hitch to lock the whole thing down. The half hitches are the time consuming part.

It's a great knot and I've been using it for a year or so now. My comment above was pointing at the speed you say you can tie it compared to a uni knot. A uni knot is a very quick easy knot, the FG is always going to be a slower knot to tie, though it will last much longer than a uni, especially if the uni is going through the guides.

You really need to practice your uni knot tying! LOL

If you picked up a walleye/multi species type boat you can put a 9.9 kicker next to the main motor. That way you can fish restricted lakes and still have the power for the big lakes. Some of them have quite good bass fishing layouts inside too.

Living 3000 miles from the nearest bass is a problem for me!

Maybe wrap some PTFE tape around the treads before you put the cap on. If the threads are loose then it would help take up the slack.

I'd get the 6500 size if I were you. You will probably be using 80-100lb braid and the line level drops more dramatically on the smaller sized reels, which means your retrieve speed is significantly reduced at the beginning of the retrieve with smaller reels. I ended up using ABU 7000 reels for their strength and spool size, but the 6500 is a good compromise size.

There's a Canadian company, Stringease, that developed these and the two best styles of snap clip as well. I've been buying directly from them for a long time. I wonder if they've folded though, or been bought out as I can't find them any more. I have some of the weights that go back at least 5 years, probably more.

I just got back from a great trip to Canada and we caught exactly 400 over 106 hours during 7 days fishing. One fish was 20" and four and a half pounds, the next best was 17.5" and we had a good number of 17" fish with the average five fish bag each day consisting of 15-17" fish.

Well good. I'm glad to hear it. I'm not a massive fan of his, but would hate to think his business had suffered as a result of that daft incident.

From all the coverage I've seen of Icast I haven't seen anything of the normally ubiquitous Ish. I hope he hasn't been dropped by his sponsors or anything after the Poche fiasco? Was he there?

I thought they looked like a gimmick, but eventually couldn't resist giving them a try, so I put them on a light spinning rod I built recently. Have to say, I'm very impressed. The choking system seems to work very well and the running guides are about a size 5, so small and light without being micro guides which can make fishing braid with leaders tricky. The guide frames are also a good design, so like the fuji K series, they are very resistant to being bent.

Not sure that's entirely true. If you want to build yourself an exact copy of a St Croix Legend for example, using all the same bits, bought retail from Mudhole or somewhere similar, I bet it would cost you more in parts than the cost of the factory rod. The point of building it yourself is that you don't have to put up with those horrendous factory builds and can build it how you like a rod.

I sprayed WD40 in some reel bearings a few years ago and it ruined them. It seemed to leave a varnish that coated the races and the bearing rumbled like mad. Couldn't clean it off, so had to get new bearings. I would clean them if you can and put a reel oil in. I like rocket fuel, but even 3 in 1 is better than WD40.

St Croix do a few spinning rods in 2 piece in their avid and legend ranges.

Maybe your knots are bad or you burn the line near the hook when you're tightening the knot? If you're not fishing in really rough places and you check the line for nicks regularly and the line breaks near the knot, I expect you knot tying is the issue.

For your budget I would be looking for a secondhand curado 300, lexa 300/400 or Revo toro 50/60. Non of them are round, but there's nothing inherently stronger that's relevent to bass fishing. An older Abu 6500 would be a less refined choice, the newer round Abus seem to be less well built. I'm gun shy of cheaper round Shimanos after buying one of their corsair reels a few years ago. The Calcutta and conquest reels though are excellent.

I have a few rods I'vebuilt on MHX blanks and am very happy with them generally. I have 7ft 2 piece mag bass blanks in M, MH and H. I would say they're a bit lighter power than my St Croix one piece blanks, but not a whole power. The one piece versions, and 7'3" versions may be different though.

Did Evel Knievel ever actually jump anything? I only remember him crashing and smashing himself up every time. Still a legend.