Alpster

Hey Matt, I love fly fishing and am just as crazy about the related equipment. You will get a lot of suggestions, so here's mine. A 6 wt rod will be enough for most bass, panfish & trout in your area. I have no idea about fly fishing for carp, never done it. Unless you are fighting fish more than 3 or 4 pounds, a fly reel is just a line holder and most any will do. Get the best rod you can afford and the best line. The Temple Fork outfit will certainly work fine for you. Cortland 555 in a rocket taper floating is the line I use (line size will match rod size). The Cortland 555 is about $60 but I have found it on ebay for half that several times. The white river tapered leaders or tippits (in your link) in the 4 lb class will do the job. I like accardo bugs for panfish, poppers & wooly buggers for bass and the list of nymphs and dry flies for trout is endless. (I tie my own). You & I are pretty close neighbors and when you get your rig together, I will hook you up with some bugs and flies. I hope this helps. Ronnie

Ice suuuuxxxxxxxxxxxxxssssssssss! Ronnie

You are in the right place. WELCOME! Ronnie

My apologies to all blonds (BTW I am a bald guy, but what hair I've got is blond) who might read this, but these are too good not share. A blond walks into a resteurant and is shouting '52 days', '52 days'. A few minutes later 2 more blonds arrive chanting '52 days', '52 days'. A few minutes later another blond shows up with a cake that has written on it "52 days" . They are high fiving each other and celebrating. The resteurant manager's curiosity finally gets the better of him and he walks ovet to ask "what's the big celebration about"? One of the blonds replied, "we assembled a puzzle together, on the box it said 3 to 4 years, WE DID IT IN 52 DAYS!" ;D OK, if that wasn't rank enough................ A blind guy walks into a bar with his cane tapping the floor to find his way. He finds a seat and notices a young lady is sitting next to him. He asks "would you like to hear a good blond joke"? She replies, "I am a blond female body builder who could squash you like a bug, BTW the blond bartender is a black belt in Karate and the woman on your right is a blond cop wearing a gun. Are you sure you want to tell your blond joke? He replied, "NO, NOT IF I HAVE TO EXPLAIN IT 3 TIMES". ;D All in fun, don't kill me. Ronnie

I have a couple of 200s (right handed). If you got a new one for $40, you stole it. Good for you. It was a great reel for the money at the MSRP of $100. JMHO Ronnie

If you spend a little time on ebay you can get a Calcutta TEDC in the same $ range as the Pixy. Only a spinning reel casts a light bait farther, and it has the guts to drag home a 20lb fish with ease. The braking is computer controlled and absolutely amazing. Round reel with lots of line capacity. JMHO Ronnie

I agree with Avid & Catt, you are much less likely to get snagged or tangled up with a T-rig. I like a C-rig in deeper, open water and T-rig in shallow heavy cover. JMHO Ronnie

I love braid and have swithched nearly all my reels to braid. If you must use mono, I like the Trilene Big Game. I have tried nearly everything and I still think it behaves better than most and it's not very expensive. JMHO Ronnie

Like 5 basslimit said, let a big jig & trailer fall down those bluff banks. JMHO Ronnie

I use a G-Loomis MBR843C GLX rod and a Shimano Calcutta TE200DC reel (5:1). Very expensive, but it's the ultimate cranking rig. JMHO Ronnie

Chronarch 50MG looks like a toy, but fishes like a tiger. JMHO Ronnie

Pull the prop and make sure there is no old fishing line or weeds wrapped around the shaft. I was about to throw a TM away when I discovered I had picked up someones discarded mono and it was wrapped neatly around the prop shaft. I ran it that way for a long time, but when I removed the line it ran like new. I hope that's your problem. Ronnie

Black Shad Culprit worm 7" - 10" & 12" Ronnie

Got myself a Lamiglas 7' fly rod blank and I'm turning it into an ultra light spinning rod. I have another 7' Lamiglas blank that will be a spiral wrapped casting rod for a friend. I also have an 8' G-Loomis Back Bounce blank to build myself a swimbait rod. Several rod building projects. I am also going to fabricate a trailer hitch rack for the motorcycle and a rod rack for the RV, gonna be a lot of rods riding to Texas in the spring. I am blessed to have a large heated garage/workshop for winter projects. Winter depresses me, so I will try to get as busy as I can to get through it. I will spend a lot of time dreaming about the Lake Fork trip. Is spring here yet??? Ronnie

Tommy, I'm sorry I never really answered your question. No, I have never seen a reel seat exactly like the one in the picture. Sorry! Ronnie

The reality is, that for the ultimate sensitivity, you must be able to touch the blank. This has sold a gazillion exposed blank reel seats (and rods that have them). It's the truth, the more in touch with the blank, the better the sensitivity. However, if any 'quality' reel seat fits properly and is carefully epoxied, without voids it will transmitt rod vibrations to the angler's hand as well as most exposed blank seats, at least the difference will be negilgible. As with most products, quality and craftsmanship are what sets a fine fishing rod apart. Everything else being equal, exposed blanks will be superior, in terms of sensitivity, but don't throw away a well built rod just because you can't see the blank through the handle. JMHO Ronnie

I am wondering how you plan to fish your jigs. If you are casting long for swimming and bouncing them on the bottom I would go with 6"6" MH Med action St. Croix Premier, they can be had for under $100 with an old style Curado (green reel) for another $100 you can catch a lot of fish and stay in your budget. If you are flipping/pitching short range jigs, get yourself an ABU 5000 series reel for about $60 and the best 7' heavy rod you can afford. There are a lot better rigs out there (I have a small fortune in jig rigs) my suggestions are meant to stay within your budget. JMHO Ronnie

Shimano Calcutta TE200DC, casts as long as a spinning reel and strong as a boat winch. JMHO Ronnie

Muddy, check your PMs

For the most part, I agree. And like most threads, it's no more than an interesting disussion for those of us who are crazy about fishing rods and how they work. Take note that 1/2 of the posters on this thread are rod builders and are a little more passionate than some others. And my guess is, Reel Mech, who I agree may be THE most knowledgeable about the subject has had to eat or resell a cutom rod at a loss because a customer insisted that "it's not a Med., it's way too stiff" or something like that. It was a custom rod builder that came up with the "common cents system" to help solve this kind of problem. No one intended to offend or upset anyone with this exchange of information. At the time, it seemed more productive than watching "Oprah". It's an interesting disscussion, nothing more. BTW I bet at least one Ferrari owner somewhere, has called his dealer and complained because the boat trailer scrapes the pavement when he hits a dip in the road. Ronnie

If you have a reciept for the MO file a claim with Ebay as "item not recieved or not as described". If you did the whole transaction through ebay and not off line, they will have to refund all but $25 of your money. It takes a long time and ebay will make you crazy, but if it's more than a few bucks you should pusue it. I would also send the seller another email and let him know that you are contacting the local district attorney in his town to report the mail fraud and theft by deception, it's a federal rap. This happened to me also and after about 3 weeks the money order showed back up at my house as no such addressee, boy, was I relieved. Don't give up, you can still salvage part of this. I hope this is helpfull. BTW, I don't buy from anyone on ebay with less than 25 feedbacks and less than 98.5 % positive, no matter how good a deal it is. That's the line that I drew, your milage can vary. Also watch for a large # of feedbacks for low dollar items. The guy that got me had 50+ positive feedbacks and I didn't look close enough to see they were all for $0.50 and $1.00 baseball cards. After he ran up the cheap feedback he posted many high dollar items at once and scammed a lot of folks. Be carefull out there, it's a jungle. Ronnie Ronnie

If you are using braid make sure the line is not digging in. Increase the braking on your reel. If that doesn't do it, tighten the cast control. Make sure your lure is heavy enough to use with a bait caster. No one can cast a fly with a BC. Practice letting you thumb make a little friction on the spool near the end of your cast. Practice, practice, practice. I hope this is helpfull. Ronnie

Those of us who fish with them, know the difference. Congratulations! Now go get em. Ronnie

WELCOME! Greetings from the best Bass board on the net. Ronnie

OK, here's the objective measured data on the 3 rods I listed in the previous post. Because I can't locate an ERN chart that converts more than 173 cents, I will only show the cent count, which is still a valid relative comparison. All 3 rods were measured under the exact same conditions and used the same procedure. Rod 1 - G-Loomis GLX - CR 722 - 6' Med Fast casting factory made Action Angle= 78 degrees - Cent count =205 Rod 2 - St. Croix PC60MF - 6' Med Fast casting factory made Action Angle= 75 degrees - cent count =185 Rod 3 - G-Loomis - IMX - CR 724 - 6' Heavy Fast casting factory made Action Angle= 68 degrees - cent count =270 According to the "Common Sense System" which is widely accepted as a reliable method, all 3 rods are pretty much what they say they are. If anything the G-Loomis is a slightly heavier power than the comparable St. Croix, but has a little faster action. The Heavy power rod is included to show that the system works. I hope this data is helpfull to you guys. Ronnie