MickD

That mechanism is the one that needs to be lubed the most often. Lube will ensure smooth function and prevent premature failure. i have reels that are getting quite old and no problems, because I check it often and lube it when it starts to look like it's getting dry.

Very nice, that will work.

I never use a snap swivel exc when using spoons or trolling lures that might twist the line. But there are a lot of uses for swivels as has been detailed in previous posts. I use small snaps with almost all my lures if I want to be able to change without retying. One thing that works well is to buy the swivels and snaps separately, and if you buy the duo-lock snaps they unlock at both ends and when you want a snap swivel, just add a swivel to your snap. I do not recommend the old straight wire snaps or the ones with just a little curl on the end of the wire as they fail too frequently. The cross locks are really good for heavy duty stuff, but you cannot even hook hollow front surface lures to them. Get a couple for heavy duty and you'll see. The snaps have pound test ratings, and with duo locks, a 30 pound test is not very big. I'd get a number of sizes for different uses. If you fish for powerful fish like salmon, pike, or muskies, beware of split ring snaps swivels. Most just won't take a king salmon strike without failing. You can get solid ring swivels and they too are sold by pound test. If you are going for fish like this, get solid ring, ball bearing swivels with cross lock snaps, about 50 pound test. Even though you may be using only 30 or 40 pound test line, the impact can fail (straighten) the rings without failing the line.

I've got five rods in the boat, switch between them often, fished a few days, probably two, for four hours each, total time on this rod not all that long, and the knot (PROPERLY TIED) comes undone/unraveled. NOTHING BROKE! That duty cycle would be a piece of cake for a double uni. If this knot is the best knot ever as some profess it should not come undone WITHOUT ANYTHING BREAKING with this duty cycle when properly tied. I've used double unis for years, I'm not new to this stuff. When I got lazy fishing unis in Canada for 12 hours a day for four or five days, and they failed, it was clearly that they got battered up for too long. That was about 10 times the duty cycle this knot had. I'll try masterbass's approach and see what happens. Note that he doesn't let the knot go through the micro tip. Possibly to prevent damaging the knot? When you put all the opinions together, and with so many variables in techniques, expectations ("I rety mine every few hours" Why? To prevent it from failing?) both fishing and tying, there is nothing totally definitive. But I'm inclined to believe that this knot just doesn't like going through the micros and because one of the lines has no stretch, it doesn't get "set" like knots with line stretch. This is a very simple knot compared to a uni-uni, and with the turns all being the non-stretch line, it shouldn't take a lot to get that non-stretch line moving. Thanks for all your attempts to help. Much appreciated, and I think I have a better idea of what's going on now.

Eagle, this makes the most sense to me of any other thing I've read about this topic. Now I'll wait to see all the doubters come forth.

I disagree that high quality two piece rods are significantly/detectably less sensitive that one piece rods. Would be interesting to run a blindfold test. I'm talking the St Croix line, specifically, since they have a good number of two piece rods. One advantage of one piece is that it never comes apart, a rare but possible occurence. Regarding the carrying of long rods, carry them butt first, with the tip trailing, and it is much less likely to be damaged. Especially with long fly rods carried through brush, butt first. Of course you also want to avoid ceiling fans.

MasterBait'r, keep in mind that neither line broke, so it wasn't that the leader was a higher test than the line that caused the failure. Where this know first was used, in salt water, the leader is always the higher diameter of the two lines. I've thought in the past that maybe the smaller dia flouros couldn't take the super tight bend induced by this knot, but getting both parts back and seeing that neither broke confirms that the knot came apart, didn't break either line. The knot came apart not with a hook set or a fight, but just jerking a surface lure. I'm still convinced that the knot doesn't like going through micros. With that knot, the tag end of the flouro, which was trimmed at about 1/16 inch, goes through the guides in the direction that would tend to snag it on the guides. So every cast the tag end of the flouro gets tweaked a few times. Without a conclusive answer to why this knot failed, I'll just go back to the double uni, shorter leader so it doesn't have to go through the guides, and I'll be confident that the knot won't unravel. Thanks for all your opinions.

If 1/2 inch of tag end makes a difference it means that the knot is moving/slipping. If it moves at all what's to stop it at 12? Not trying to be smart aleck, just trying ask a logical question.

Emerson, with all due respect, the knot was tied properly, tested fine, and was used for a couple days on the water before it failed. Fortunately I was using a surface lure so got both lines back and noticed both were curled. I have had this happen before, but assumed I had not tied it correctly. This one was tied correctly. I'll be interested in the post about 15 # flouro tied to 10 pound braid being the problem. More to come.

Yup. Clue me in, I need help. I've been thinking about this incident I had and I think that the passing of the knot repeatedly through micros may be a problem for it. I KNOW I passed the tag end properly.

Until recently I agreed with all of you who said if it's tied right it won't fail, but I just had one fail that was tied correctly, same way out as in. Improved Albright, 6 wraps down, 6 back. Both the braid and the flouro had curls, no sign of either having broken. I am convinced that this is a good knot for heavy test flouro, but with the lower tests, like s10 pound braid to 15 pound flouro, it just doesn't seem to work reliably. I'm back to the double uni.

If you are going to use epoxy for sure, then I recommend just covering the seam edges with the polish to prevent the epoxy from lifting the edge. I don't know how the polish will react with your waterslides. You may want to just try it on a test piece so you will know exactly how it will react without wasting a lure.

You do know that using a clear decal will mean you will not see whites because an inkjet cannot print white, right? Unless your blank is already white. I predict your decal will be less bright, but only an experiment will tell. I ordered what I think are the same blanks you have. I already design and make rods and tie flies, here goes another. With my decals I have to seal them, too. I also use a little line of color preservative along the seams (after applying the sealed decal to the rod blank) to prevent lifting when the epoxy hits them. Sometimes, I think because the epoxy stays fluid so long, the edges tend to lift if I don't do that. Some rod builders use Sally Hansen clear nail polish over decals. Not sure what its UV resistance is, but it dries almost instantly. I've used it for fly heads, and it works very well for that. Another fast drying option is Permagloss or Lumaseal polyurethanes. They are very hard and never yellow in the sun. I'll be giving the Sally Hansen a try, I think. It has to be tough, and with the fast dry, it should be convenient.

Looks terrific. Using an inkjet? Clear or white background waterslide paper?

Thanks, will do. Appreciate your help.

I use decals printed from my computer for fishing rods and have always had trouble with waterslides. But this looks too good not to try again. I think waterslides would be lighter and less apt to affect the action of a lure than the vinyl. I had a sunfish pattern lipless crank that was a killer. I think I lost it in a pike and have never found a replacement. This is the way to get that replacement. Where do you get your lipless crank bodies? Jann's Netcraft is where I would look not having other recommendations. Thanks,

Neat. I've nothing to add; you're way ahead of me. Other than: Exc for aesthetics, I'll bet not painting the seams will not detract from their fishing effectiveness. And I just thought, you've thought of masking the area you want to save?

May I ask what problems developed after painting the seams? Seams lifting? What is the process to print onto the decal "paper?" You print a photo onto the paper? Have you tried Papilio's white vinyl peel and stick media? I think you are very close to some really great lures. In fact, these look great as is.

I've never heard it makes bearings faster. I've heard and seen that it leaves a red residue but looks dry itself. Reel Mech was one of the best reel service men and he would not use it. He didn't even want it in his reel cleaning solvent. His judgement is good enough for me.

I would not recommend hot sauce. Seems like everything goes away pretty fast except the red color. The Reel Mech used to charge extra if he had to service a reel that had had hot sauce in it. I'm surprised to hear that once a season lube is enough. My level wind pawls look pretty dry a lot sooner than that, and the bearings seem to work better with lube a few times a season (just a drop). But I don't take my reels apart and clean them unless something abnormal has happened, like dropped in the dirt or dunked in the lake for a while. Then I have a pro do it to make sure there are no parts left over when it goes back together.

I was out with a few of my spinning rods today and found that for me 10 1/2inches from the foot of the reel to the butt is what I like. My arm is 16 5/8 inches from my fingertip to biceps contact. If that dimension were 12 1/2 inches from reel foot to butt, the butt would be hanging up on my clothing a lot. Regardless of rod balance.

There are a hundred ways to apply epoxy to the wraps, and I've tried a lot of them. I like the square ended artist's brushes available at Hobby Lobby and similar shops the best. I recommend if you do use brushes get some brush cleaner, U40 or other. It really works better than other ways of keeping your brushes in good shape. Lots of paper towels and keep alcohol handy to clean up epoxy you've tracked onto the blank before it hardens. Once hard, there's not much you can do to get it off. Agree, paste epoxy for the structural work. Some don't like the quick hardening type as it tends to rush the builder; some don't work that fast. Get an Exacto handle and a bunch of blades. I like a fly tying bodkin to get epoxy into the ends of the guide foot tunnels, but I expect your probe set has an equivalent. Color preservative? Re the reamers, why not the Batson Dream Reamer? A wonderful tool. More expensive, but it will have all the sizes you will most likely ever need.

In general I find the clearer the water the more white makes sense. Additionally, floating white worms worked over and close to lily pads seem to work pretty well everywhere the pads grow.

I have built for years using a home made wrapper, just V blocks mounted on a board and a Flex Coat thread tensioner, and have made some great rods. I just upgraded to what amounts to a power wrapper without the motor. I don't think I can keep up with a power wrapper anyway. But what is, IMHO, necessary is a low speed power "dryer" motor. (epoxy doesn't dry, it's a chemical reaction). This will allow the epoxy to harden without your having to turn the rod many times until it sets. Some epoxies, like the American Tackle Pro Kote, seem to take forever to set. Motors can be bought for very reasonable prices from Ebay, and you can cobble some kind of a "chuck" to grip the rod.

If you check out the other string of posts on "Advantage of building your own rods?" you will quickly come to the conclusion that building is the way to go with upgrading your rods. Good decision.