TiNuts

So Cabelas recently came out with a line of rods made in America, which I think is awesome. Does anyone know anything about these rods/blanks? Playing with them in the store, they feel very *** like. I gave them quite a good look over and they seem like good quality. The only thing I could notice was sloppy thread trimming on guide wraps. The wrap itself was fine, but you could see the tag end hanging out in the epoxy. They're a non-coated blank and feel just as light as Omens. They are overrated similar to falcon rods (ie a MH lure rating lines up with a medium rod). Has anyone else noticed these? I'm very tempted to pick a couple up.

I may have found my solution. Apparently cabelas has come out with a new line, American txs. The blanks are made in America. I played with them today during a surprise trip to cabelas. They seem to be very similar to omens; uncoated blank, similar handle design, etc. They felt like very nice rods at $159. Anyone know anything about them? I also had to stop myself while walking up to the checkout with a legend tournament. I'm pretty much in love, but pretty sure my wife would divorce me if I showed up with a $250 rod.

I'm pretty sure it depends on the type of plastic. I've had acetone eat through some plastics with a quickness, some plastics slowly, and some it didn't seem to bother at all.

Here the max rods in the water at one time is three. You can take as many as you want with you though. A lot of the time I will cast out two rods for catfish, then bass fish with a third rod. That's double the amount of fishing in one trip ha ha!

Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate it.

I have revo3 sx on it. I do have a second gen sx. I'll put that on and see how it feels.

I thought about an Aetos, but I would really like to try to avoid buying Chinese gear from here on. Plus my BPS doesn't carry them and without rod trade in and a bunch of reward points I wouldn't have been buying a new rod.

To me it feels quite tip heavy which puts a strain on my wrist when casting. Don't know if I have weak/bad wrists. Maybe I don't cast correctly, who knows. It also just feels a bit more heavy (weight, not power) than the ***. I'm not sure when I'll be able to actually get out and fish with it. I'm a full time student, work a few days a week, and a couple kids ha ha. Not much time for fishing unfortunately, hence the yard/driveway comparison. My thought that dragging plugs through the grass and asphalt could somewhat simulate dragging a jig across the bottom . I do really like the rod. The handle is quite comfortable and I love the cork. I prefer split handles, but I prefer it for cosmetics only. I was hoping the full handle would lighten the tip a little. I'll see if I can't find an hour or so and run out to the lake with it.

So I bought a St Croix 7' MHF Avid today to replace my 7'1" MHF *** that I agreed to sell to my brother. I did this with the idea that I'd be upgrading. However, after comparing the two in my driveway, I'm not so sure. I know that playing in the driveway and fishing it aren't the same, and I expected to pay a premium for an American made rod. Can someone who's used both convince me I made the right decision? Or should I take it back? Thanks.

I looked at the Rage's today quite a bit and holy hell the guides aren't even close to being lined up. I'm pretty sure you could line them up better drunk with no previous experience. I've never seen guides so misaligned. Even on cheap ass throw away rods. I was quite disappointed as I really liked the rods otherwise. I ended up buying an Avid, with straight guides.

Avid

Saw this at BPS today looking at rods.

I've noticed this a lot looking at rods at several different stores (all big box stores), of varying degrees. I've seen it quite a bit on spinning rods. You might be surprised how often you see it if you look. I bought one like that because it was on clearance and it was all they had. I just toothpicked some new epoxy in there. I wouldn't worry about it enough to go through all the trouble it seems that you will have to to exchange it.

Dammit I had myself convinced I didn't need a new reel.

I was out in the dark once and could barely see where I was casting. I made a cast and when I thought it should've hit the water a flock of geese took off. d**n near ripped my rod out of my hands. Luckily my line quickly broke. Felt bad for the goose I hooked. I caught maybe a 3 pound blue cat on a lipless crankbait once.

Thank you.

This is just the beginning. I have some other ideas that I'm working on. Mainly to lighten up my second gen SX. I'll update as things progress.

My wife has gotten two fliers so far and I've yet to get one.

For what it's worth, I very much like my SXs.

I've gotten a falcon bucoo from Walmart that was marked down to $30 and another that was marked down to $20. Different wal marts, but same relative area. I don't know if they were mis marked or what.

It is not a pistol grip rod. I'll post a pic of it tomorrow.

I was given a rod from my father in law a while back and recently came across it cleaning my garage. It's a Mike Cordell 5'6" MH rod. It says crankbait on it. My question is what can I use it for? What size/depth of crankbaits can I use with it, as it seems awfully short to me. I believe it's from the late 80s or early 90s. The reel that was on it was dated 89.

I bought 2 tourney specials a couple years ago and I couldn't get either to cast much further than maybe 20-30 feet and this was with 0 braking engaged. I suppose maybe a bearing cleaning/upgrade may have worked. I was impressed with how smooth they retrieved and they look pretty spiffy. I ended up taking both of them back though. I've noticed the tourney Zs and have considered them as I have a couple reelless rods laying around that I wouldn't mind using.

Mount it to a rod! Ha ha ha I take it out either to my driveway or out fishing and cast/fish with it straight out of the box. Just to get a feel for a performance baseline. I'll keep a reel stock so I can get to know it and have something to compare to after I do a cleaning/relube.

In my own "testing" I've found that cleaned and lightly oiled stock bearings in my revo3 sx cast pretty much just as far as new, dry, boca abec 07 orange seal bearings with the seals removed. I used the maximum weight rating of the rod I used. The only significant difference I could notice was the ease at which I could cast that distance. The bocas took noticeably less effort to cast that far which resulted in nice, smooth, controlled casts over the stock bearings, but again overall distance was close to the same. Trying swing it like I did with the stock bearings just ended up in backlash. I suppose someone better at casting than I am could possibly get a further distance than I could.