Alpster

Hey Jim, Like earthworm77 said, check out Mudhole.com. You may want to start with a kit, comes with most everything you need and you can get some pretty nice ones. Mudhole sells St. Croix and G-Loomis kits. It's a great way to get your feet wet and learn if you want to continue building rods. Be carefull, it's addicting. LOL Ronnie

Robert, WELCOME! You won't be dissapointed with your expeience here. ENJOY! Ronnie

Bud, One of my best friends has family in Paducah, he's there now for Thanksgiving. I'll talk him into visiting his grandma and take you up on the fishing one day soon. Thanks! Ronnie

MBR 843 is sweet for soft plastics. I just sold my MBR 843C GLX, but I am going to replace it with the very same blank and spiral wrap the guides. It's the best all around baitcasting rod you can own. If you really want a 6' rod I have a CR722 GLX and a CR724 IMX on the fleamarket board that are beautiful rods and selling very cheap. Check out high end rods thread on the fleamarket board. Ronnie

Avid, You just ain't had my biscuits & gravy yet. I will hook you up at Lake Fork. You won't be the first convert, I have a couple nothces on my skillet. Hey, when's Bud takin me fishin????? Ronnie

I just sold 2 curados (old style) - very good reels. These are entry level for excellent fishing gear, easily the shortest casting distance on the list. I have 2 Chronarch 50 MGs - awesome reels. These are the lightest high performance Shimanos, smooth casting - I find I have to fool with the drag more than with the Calais. I also have 2 CL200 Calais s - best all around reel there is. These reels cast like butter. You can talk to a lure with the smooth fast retrieve, adjust the drag and brakes and forget it. Perfectly consistent cast after cast, day after day. I also have 1 Calcutta TE200DC - the best of the best (I am shopping for another). The most amazing baitcaster I've seen. Casting distance is much longer than the others and it's strong enough to winch the boat onto the trailer. Shimano has figured out what their reels are worth. If you fish with them you will see why a Calais costs 3 times more than a Curado. JMHO Ronnie

Don't worry 5, I won't tell anyone what you bought from me. ;D ;D I now fish almost exclusively Shimano reels, but I have had a several ABUs over the years and they were all great reels. It's a matter of taste, grab the one you think he will like best. Your friendly neighborhood Shimano Posse member, Ronnie

Tommy, I hear ya! The point of my previous post was not so much what I like best. It was more trying to understand what do you call a flippin, crankin, spinnerbait, etc. rod. I have just gotten to where I know what I like for these types of fishing techniques and I identify the blanks based on my own experience rather than the hype of the manufacturers. I think the reason they get away with confusing us so much is, that we don't all think alike, and we all have our own idea of what is perfect. You have to admire the industry, they have sure got a lot of my money. But hey, I love building rods & fishing and there is still a lot to learn. Sorry I can't be more help. Ronnie

Q, Sorry if I stated the obvious. :-[ I have been building rods for a while now and I am of the opinion that rod (and blank) manufacturers are happy with the confusion that you and I both have. I mean, if there are 127 different powers, styles, lengths, actions, etc. then I guess we must have one of each to be good fishermen? Right?. Well, I have (out of neccessity) narrowed it down to a few basics. I like long, med. heavy, fast action rods for soft plastics, spinner baits and cranking. I Like short, heavy action rods for pitching and close heavy cover. I like long, med. power fast action rods for top water and buzzbaits. I like real long (7' 6" and 8'), heavy power moderate action for flipping and swimbaits. I just have to sift through the bazillions of blanks out there to get down to what I know will work for me. At the end of the day, there are only a small few that "meet the need" you just have to make your own list and stick to it. LOL - JMHO Ronnie

Huskerto, Here's my $0.02 worth. Reels are the work horse of any fishing rig. Once you get hooked up the reel & line & terminal tackle are all that keeps a fish from the livewell, most rods don't fail once the fish is on. Reels are great and neccesary to the task of fishing and I love them, especially good ones. However if you look at all of the threads and topics on this board and others, you will quickly find that most of the discussion is about how to get bit. My humble opinion is, that a quality rod is the most important link in the chain. It's what makes you aware of a strike, it's the shock absorber that forgives all of your other tackle, knots and excitement, it is the backbone of the whole system. The rod is your connection to the fish, from the action of the lure, to the bump, to the strike, to the hookset, to the fight, to the landing. My humble opinion is, that given the choice of a good rod or a good reel, I would choose the good rod every time. JMHO Ronnie

Hey Tommy, There is a "must have" book for beginning rod builders that will be very helpfull. http://www.amazon.com/Rod-Building-Guide-Spinning-Trolling/dp/1571882162. Also check out www.rodbuilders.org and search the site. Sign up and ask all the questions you like. There are lots of experts there that will gladly answer your questions. I hope this helps. Ronnie

I like a curley tail grub or a 4" culprit worm on spinner baits. Along with the added action of the ribbon tails, I use them to cover the hook to avoid hang ups in heavy weeds & lillys. Just a trailer hook on Buzzbaits. JMHO Ronnie

I like your style, aim high, but be realistic. I hope you get the boat, but I will cheer for the Curado. My hope is, to get all the rods done that I have promised to build this Christmas. LOL Ronnie

Yea, what Dan said! Ronnie

I caught fish on a chatterbait the first time I fished it. I think it's an amazing bait. I fished it for 1/2 hour with the included trailer with no luck. Put an uncle josh yellow eel on and got bit on the first cast. You can pitch em, cast em, slow roll em, burn em, bounch em. I started using them late in the season this year and I am looking forward to studying this one in the spring. JMHE Ronnie

I would like to add that if it's REEAALLLYYY FREAKIN cold outside that you should get a good book about fishing, fly tying, rodbuilding, etc. and sit inside as close to a fire or heating appliance as possible and read it. If you must go outside, follow all of the instructions posted above. All joking aside, for those of us who belong to the "Broken Fin" club, that is, anyone with disabilities, it might be best to wait for a warmer season. I have Rheumatiod Arthritis and I cope with it pretty well. I take my drugs and excersise and on a nice warm day I can pull the boat out of the water and swim across the lake without a PFD. But when it's very cold and I am all bundled up, it's just plain dangerous for me to be out on the water. A man's got to know his limitations. As my disease has progressed over the years, I have taken up rod building, tying flies and I recently bought a Fordam woodcarving machine and want to take a crack at making plugs. I am thankfull to have lots of fishing related hobbies to get me through the cold months. It's just smarter for me to play it safe untill it warms up. JMHO Ronnie

Here's a good article from BassResource that will make it clear. http://bassresource.com/fishing/flipping_pitching_fishing.html Ronnie

For less than a $100 you can get yourself a ABU 5000 series reel for $50 or so at walmart and almost any 7' (or longer if you can find it) med. heavy or heavy power rod with a moderate action will get the job done. I used to flip and pitch with a Quantum Tournament grade TGC70MH (about $35 at walmart) and a ABU 6000 reel ($60 at walmart) and I caught a lot of fish with that set up. Very reliable and strong set up. I upgraded to a G Loomis custom IMX flippin stick and a Shimano Calais and retired the old rig to catfishing and it still works great. Hope this helps. Ronnie

You better believe it is! I'm not much of a Gloomis man, but my rod should be on my doorstep tomorrow when I get home from work. I now have as many swimbait setups as I have regular casting rigs! Fourbizzle, I also have a Calutta 400. What rod do you use for big swimbaits? I surfed a ton of West coast swimbait fising sites and boards and the G Loomis Back Bounce rod was reccomended more than any other I could find. I bought the blank and am going to build myself a spiral wrapped version of this 7' 6" swimbait rod. Just curious what you fish the big baits with. I bought a couple of Huds & castaics on ebay and want to try my hand at fishing them. Ronnie

Don't sweat that, my man. I have enough hair on my chest and back to stuff a sofa. LOL It's more trouble than it's worth. I am considering a transplant to the top of my head. Now you talk about cueball, I gots me one of them. Ronnie

I have a dozen Shimanos and 3 of them are Calcuttas. If it starts with Shimano and ends with Calcutta you cannot go wrong. ENJOY! Ronnie

Your in CA. Let me guess, we are looking at a reel for casting big swimbaits here. Now you need to show the lady a picture of a Loomis Backbouncer to mount that baby on. Keep on keepin on. Ronnie

Andy, Give "GoJo" or "Goop" hand cleaner a try. Be sure to get the kind without the grit in it. Use it with a stiff scrub brush. I spent a fortune on fancy cleaners and chemicals to get the road grime off the aluminum on the side of the RV and nothing would touch it. A friend turned me on to the hand cleaner, it's amazing. Give it a try, it's cheap and I think it will work for you. Ronnie

Good Job Nick....Just keep on keeepin on!!!!!! Ronnie

I grew my beard after shaving for my wedding in 1980 and I haven't shaved since. I guess that's kind of a long season. LOL Ronnie