kickerfish1

Thanks for the kind words! I think it will be too. The blank seems to very good for the price. I would probably say it is somewhere in the middle between a budget blank and something high end as the price for the blank was $113. Today was a nice spring day here so I decided to test cast it in the back yard. I tied on a 1/2 oz practice casting plus and was trying to get an idea for how it feels and how it handles. It seemed to have very good feel but I will reserve further comment until I get to try it in a lake setting. On a positive note, the red casting plug seemed to attract the attention of the neighbors yippy dog.

Wanted to finally update everything with this build. Some of you may recall me asking about a gloss black painted reel seat. After running into some fitment issues with one I ordered due to the size of blank I had to scrap that idea and move on to the standard Fuji seat. Thanks for the help and suggestions to try to locate one though. Anways more on the rod... The wait was finally over for my dedicated jig rod and reel as I was informed by my builder it should be delivered on Saturday. Took a few weeks of planning and sourcing parts to get the things I wanted to do visually and fitment wise. Parts were sourced from Mudhole and Matagi to add further appeal. The blanks was the MHX Hi Mod 7'3 Heavy and the guides are Fuji alconites. Paired with an Exscence DC with a few gold pieces added, this should be a fun rig to use.

The wait was finally over for my dedicated jig rod and reel as I was informed by my builder it should be delivered on Saturday. Took a few weeks of planning and sourcing parts to get the things I wanted visually and fitment wise. Parts were sourced from Mudhole and Matagi to add further appeal. The blanks was the MHX Hi Mod 7'3 Heavy and the guides are Fuji alconites. Paired with an Exscence DC with a few gold pieces added, this should be a fun rig to use.

Honestly, I too really wouldn't consider any of those exact baits. For shallow fish a Super Fluke or Senko weightless and for deeper fish a drop shot or a Texas Rig depending upon bottom composition.

If I had to fish with one rod, one reel, and one bait for the rest of my life I would probably look for a new hobby. Too many fun rods, reels and presentations to be confined to just one.

When the NRX rods came to market they only came in the blue flavor. Green never even existed. In the early stages there was a bad batch of rods that had reel seat issues. Loomis corrected this problem with new reel seat components for the blue rods. Around the same time they introduced the green flavor which featured a painted blank and a slightly different visual look. After the past few years the sales data reflected much lower sales for the Green rods as they were just less popular. Some claim they feel the green rods aren't as sensitive and others feel no difference between the two colors. I really believe they probably won't replace the green rods yet or give it a complete overhaul. By doing so one would also think the blue rods would get the same treatment in all areas except for the cosmetic details. It would not make sense to only change the green and leave the blue rods as is so I would say they are just moving away from the green flavor for the time being. I could be wrong but with all the new products being launched I around the Classic/Spring I would have ventured something would have leaked by now. Guess we will have to wait and see...

I don't know if I would throw something too large in size. Personally I would probably be tossing a 3/8 oz spinnerbait to help keep the bait from getting buried in the weeds. SK offers a burner series spinnerbait that may be a good choice if you want to fish the bait fast and high.

Love these kind of baits and glad SK/Rage has added their own take on it. I wonder when they will be officially released and have the colors and sizes available?

Got a few gold pieces for my 2nd Exscence DC. It's mate should be arriving today and should be well worth the wait. Additional photos to follow but here is a tease for now...

Not a huge spinnerbait guy but the Zoom flukes and SK caffeine shads are my picks for a soft plastic jerkbait.

How about $435 delivered per your own post? http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/142505-custom-rod-from-d-v-t/?page=2

The mention of a geary feel or needing a new set of gears was never mentioned by the OP. He just wants to make sure it is the smoothest and furthest casting reel he can get out of his Calais. Supertuning would absolutely help achieve that assuming nothing is damaged or worn. I know in the reels that I have had this do I can feel the difference.

I would learn a technique well enough before jumping on to something else. Spend a few months learning each of these: jigs, weightless plastics, hardbaits, frogs, drop shot, etc. Then try to understand what conditions, depth, and structure it would be best to choose one over the other. When I started fishing many years ago my uncle and father taught me the Texas rig. I was probably 8 or 10 at the time. It accounted for more and larger fish than the spinnerbait which was the old thing I knew how to use prior.

Thanks for the update and the prayers for healing will continue! A return trip to Bacarac should take care of the rest!

Couldn't have said it better myself "iabass8"

New bearings won't but supertuning and polishing will help smooth out the retrieve. I have supertuned Shimanos that the handle will spin for days effortlessly over non supertuned reels.

Send it to Mike at DVT and have him supertune it. He can thoroughly clean, polish, and relube everything to help get you the max performance out of the reel. He offers a 10% discount for members here too!

I use a 3/0 or 4/0 for a traditional texas rigged weightless 5 inch senko. I would personally never use a 2/0 for these as the gap isn't great enough.

We don't have the independent local shops around here much any more. We have the chain retailers like BPS, Cabelas, Scheels, Dicks, etc. We used to have an Omaha Sports store and an Anglers Supply. Neither are around any more. These shops have probably fallen by the wayside for one main reason - the presence of online retailers presence. I would never complain about paying a touch more for something I needed from a local shop. It only would bother me if I was dropping significant money. Say I bought $300 worth of gear from the shop. Lets also say I bough 50 bags of plastics and each was $.30 more per bag. In this example I would have paid more than $15 vs an online retailer like say TW. Also take into consideration sales tax which would probably be around $20. The total of $35 is a good amount of money in this example. I really believe that for this reason many people have choosen to take their purchases online. The selection is also usually better online. Really the only downside would be the wait time associated with shipping. If we had local shops here that were independent specialty shops I would probably help support them but since we don't I would rather buy online than give the $ to BPS and Cabelas.

Outstanding as usual. Very nice work!

The Extreme and Champion have both been redone this year with better components. The Fury was just recently released so I would consider that rod pretty up to date as well. While the Savvy rods are nice they are the only Dobyns rod that hasn't been re-done recently. Swimjigs and Dippers aren't techniques requiring high levels of feel at least to me. I think in this case you could probably be satisfied with the Fury line of rods.

PM Mike at Siebert Outdoors. Tell him the head style, color, and hook preference and I am sure he could probably build some heads for you without the skirts.

I have fished quite a few. My must have baits would be: 1. Jackall I-shad 2. Jackall Cross Tail shad 3. Roboworm 4 inch strait tail worm 4. Yamamoto Shad shaped worm If you can't get bit on one of these it's not the bait.

This, plus you can snap a photo or two of the spreadsheet to have on your phone for quick reference on the lake.

You got to do it! I want to see it broken. I tried counting just my jigs only tonight and the number is around 1100.