MickD

I've tried them on St Clair with no success. Closest I came was a walleye follow. A guide friend says they work best when it's really calm, which isn't very often. A friend had some success on them by counting them down in the summer when the fish were deep. I don't know about color. I'll try them again in spring when the fish are shallow.

Have a few Neds in your pocket. Some guides don't believe how good they can be. Until the guy in the back of the boat starts embarrassing him.

This advice is totally wrong. There are still a lot of myths about rod building, but these two, spine and spin/cast crossover with blanks, have generally been debunked. Many years ago.

Beetle spins and the rigged worms, the ones with three small hooks and the dot on the front. Using these is easy and they will take fish of almost all species and sizes. I don't see trebles on a crankbait as being a big risk as long as there is an experienced fisherman in the boat to provide assistance.

There is an easier way, and most likely cheaper, way to rig the tube weedless.

Find out if the guide is going to provide the lures, most do not until they find you don't have what is needed at the time. Get his recommendations on what to take. Hard jerks with long pauses, tubes worked very slowly (try some small ones as well as the big ones), Ned rig. Some St Clair fishermen only use shades of green, mostly dark.

Rather than reinventing the wheel, let's try to get the braid/leader to work. Most likely your double uni is not tied well. Watch some videos on line on tying the double uni., With the light line and leader you want to use, it should work with almost any guides. But if not tied properly, it can get big and ugly. As you pass the tag ends through the loop they should not ever be on top of each other, and when you get the one side done, gently snug it up before going to the second one. When doing the final set, be sure it's well lubed with saliva. Cut the leader tag end quite close to the knot. If tied properly it will not come out. If you are not a good knot tyer or "learner," forget about other knots , especially the FG. Just concentrate on tying a neat, tight, double uni and I think you'll be ok.

I don't remember anyone mentioning Payday candy bars. Nice even energy from the peanuts, sweets from the caramel, and they don't melt. They last a long time without getting stale, so when I don't eat them, they are still good the next time. And for a long time. + gatorades, frozen water bottles, a sandwich, an apple, and a cup of fruit in those handy little containers (refreshing).

I'll bet rubber will not sand well. It also may deteriorate due to ozone. I think harder is better than softer here. Ideal would be discs cut from a black plastic sheet of the right thickness.

I doubt if it would make an appreciable difference. What I would recommend is to tape on some guides and place the reel seat as if it's a 6-4, try it, then do it over for its 6 -6 length. I'll bet you won't tell the difference on power or action. But the two inches might be significant simply by giving a little more clearance to the water. If the latter is not true, then simply leave it alone at 6 - 6.

It has been suggested here before to use a paper punch to punch out discs from plastic lids, like butter or margarine tubs. You can pierce or drill a small hole in the center, or just let the hook penetrate them. My son mentioned to me that he does that and find they work just fine. Small, light, free.

Probably a real crawler. Can't remember, about 75 years ago.

This is what you are trying to accomplish, right? One way to attack this is to take an old cheap rod and try the fore end notch to see if it does what you want. If not you haven't screwed up a nice rod. If it does you may want to do it on your better rods.

Here you go.

Cork is not soft, so if you can get about the same shape as a trigger it will work as a trigger. You only use one side of the trigger, and the slot in the cork is about the same. EVA is not the right material for this. Good luck.

This is what I'm proposing. If the rod has an adequate foregrip on it now it can be altered like this. Do the slot on the bottom, then do a slot on the side where your finger wants to access the slot. Be careful, you cannot put the material back on. And be careful not to touch the blank. Better to do a new foregrip because then you can get a lot of blank exposed. If this is not what you were trying to accomplish, please clarify. thanks, Mick

I think what he is after is a second trigger at the front of a conventional casting seat. I see two possibilities, the first as I mentioned before, add a foregrip and contour it to provide a finger notch which will work like a trigger even though it does not look like one. The second option that might work is to add a skeleton cast seat trigger piece up front. Easier said than done on a completed rod, which is why I think the first option is the better.

Does this give the second trigger that the OP is looking for?

My Lund has carpet on the upper surfaces but a hard vinyl or something like that on the floor. I really like it for easy clean up.

Ever kill one by dropping one of these on his head? Couldn't resist. All the heavy stuff mentioned above is not unusual in MI, especially the lead for deep fishing in the summer. Don't rule out small tubes, though. Last spring we found some friends who were doing well in about 8 feet along a wall using tubes. Took me a while to catch on that they were using small tubes. When we switched to small tubes the strike rate went way up. Also the jerks in less depth. As mentioned smallies will take some pretty big jerks. I think I took a small one last year with a jerk about 1/3 his length.

To original poster, are you sure you are not experiencing braid digging into itself? The deeper it goes the higher the resistance? Probably not, but worth considering.

I've had so much success with anything Daiwa lately that I would go Daiwa. Since Ned fishing is a very "lightweight" technique, I would go no bigger than 2500 size, could go smaller. 2500 is a good all around size that can be repurposed to many other techniques.

24 volt TM setups run on 1/2 the current of a 12 only if they don't develop more thrust. If they develop more thrust and you use it they are doing more work. If you never use their higher thrust capability, or use it rarely, you will see an increase in time to discharge. But it's not quite as clean as "twice."

Every outfit has different strengths and weaknesses. You need to define your priorities. If distance is one (It would be for me if I'm fishing from shore) then go longer, up to 7 1/2 feet, fast action, power to match the weight of the lures you will use. I like the comment about going for a finesse outfit, keeping your current one. But the 7 1/2 footer most likely will not balance as well as a 6 1/2 footer. With finesse your tip will be up a lot, so maybe not so important. If sensitivity is one high priority consider using 10 pound braid either with or without an FC leader. This will enhance distance casting , too. You can get some very nice spinning reels for well less than $200. Everything Daiwa is top notch. For spinning, especially finesse, I think the big money should be in the rod, not the reel. You can get very good reels for $100-150, but money spent over $150 will be well spent on a rod. Look for combos and/or sales, take some time, don't be afraid of Ebay sellers with 99 + % approval rating.

I have enough trouble casting spinnerbaits in the wind without adding FC to my troubles. I prefer braid for spinnerbaits. Much more sensitive than either FC or mono and it casts well. I use 35-40 pound braid with a FC or hard mono leader.