MickD

Help me understand how supertuning can make a reel that spins so freely that I have to use at least some cast control on it to prevent backlashes. I know, I need to practice, but anything beyond that? Also, I would very carefully choose who you are sending your reel to. I had one supertuned and it came back wrecked from grinding on the spool shaft.

12# Yozuri ultra soft casts like a dream, but it's a hybrid, not 100% flouro. I've also had trouble with flouro, am ready to try some of the new ones. I agree with comments on vanish-I've had trouble with its knot strength, too.

No offense to the tuners, but just a question- I don't understand why tuning is an improvement to a reel when I have to add a little "drag" or centrifugal brake to reliably cast it without backlashes anyway. Maybe I'm just not skilled enough to cast a reel that is almost totally friction free? thanks.

All these suggestions are for wrap finish, which is probably what the original intent was. However, if you want to finish a whole rod, don't use any epoxy, use something like Permagloss, a thin, very hard, urethane one part finish. It is not as good as the epoxies for wraps, but for a whole rod finish, it is far superior and much easier to get a good smooth finish.

The new Mudhole Pro Wrap color fast is considered to be very good for maintaining its color. People who have commented on it still use CP with it in a really challenging application like this, and recommend being very careful about wrapping with no gaps, packing, and burnishing. I think painting under the wraps with a color similar to the final thread color is the easiest and most foolproof method, then us color fast + the other tips. Belts and suspenders without as much work.

When I said foam I was talking about rigid foam, like in reel seat shims or the expanded foam used in graphite weave grips. I think the rod maker was referring to EVA foam, and yes, this should be more sensitive than that foam.

Really interesting, and quite handsome. Slip won't be a problem because your shape is right. Most rods are front heavy to some degree-only way in many cases to avoid that is to put the reel so far forward the length behind the reel is too long. Since you don't really need a front grip for most fishing, the rod would be really stunning if you took off the eva and did a similarly shaped ramp off the front of the reel seat. I don't know if sensitivity is better with this than a lighter design such as foam, my opinion would be it is not since foam is lighter and really not any more absorptive of energy than all the cord you used. But I really have no data, just an opinion. Nice work!

Some use a hacksaw with masking tape applied to guide to a good, 90 degree, cut, and I"ve done it that way. But it's tough to get the quality you want. The best way I've found is to mount the reel seat into a "drill press" vise, the little ones that have jaws about 3 inches long and that slide on the surface of the drill press bed. Carefully mount the seat as low in the jaws as you can, be sure it is square, then CAREFULLY AND SLOWLY run it through a table saw with a fine pitch carbide tipped blade. I've done this on both graphite and metal seats without problems. Know exactly where your fingers are and use safety glasses. If in doubt, use the hacksaw. Maybe you can cobble up a better guide than I've been able to do.

Just noticed some travel blanks in the new products catalog on BatsonEnterprises web site. Take a look at their SWT70MH-3 and SWT70H-3 to see if they make sense for what you want. They are noted as being suitable for peacock bass.

Check out http://rodbuilding.org/read.php?2,356610,356751#msg-356751 For drying only the slower rpm's as suggested are fine, but for applying finish, a much faster speed will make it much easier to get good, even, edges. There may be a speed somewhere in the middle that does both well, not sure.

I would not reccomend trying to make a two piece out of a one piece blank. I think if you were to get the ferrule worked out (not likely), the action would be very poor. I think your best bet is to compromise a little on the action and go with a fully developed two piece blank from a good blank maker.

Very nice job-fits to reel seat are excellent, no epoxy showing, nice finish. I don't think you will have any trouble at all with slipping-the major factor in avoiding slipping is not the material, it is the shape, and yours looks good (tapering to the rear, hand gets "trapped" between trigger and the taper. One thing to consider on future builds is to cut the reel seat down to a dimension that allows normal reels to be installed-most reel seats are about 1/4-1/2 in longer than necessary. EVA or rubberized cork will probably be more durable for the butt knob that regular cork, but I expect you'll be taking good care of this rod!

Forgot to mention, put a hook keeper on if you rewrap the foregrip-you don't want to use a guide for a keeper.

If that project were mine I would do the following: 1. Investigate smaller guides. A lot has been written about micro guides and smaller guides than traditional. They work! If you have to pass knots through the guides, then micros are out. If not, they may be a way to have a lighter, better casting, more sensitive rod. 2. Your tiptop need not be that big, either. Ring sizes of tiptops can be the same as the smallest guide. It looks like you wrapped right over the tube of the tiptop. I usually wrap up to but not over the tube. That wrap is just decorative anyway, and stopping it at the tube allows you to change the tiptop without redoing the wrap. 3. I would use cork for the grips, but that is simple personal preference. my experience with the soft plastic grips is that they don't last forever, but deteriorate in sunlight after a few years. My experience is pretty old, so may not be valid any more. Anyone know how it holds up these days? 4. Consider doing a "simple spiral" wrap. 5. If the blank is a relatively expensive blank, go for the whole enchalada. If it is a relatively inexpensive blank, I would leave it alone and start over on a new blank-it's a lot easier, and the component costs are little different if you are going to improve the design of what you have. You can find lots of great deals on really good blanks if you look around. for info on simple spiral and micros, do a search here and at http://www.rodbuilding.org for lots of good info.

Regarding line grooving, micros should perform just like regular guides with the same materials. Regarding ring retention, it's specific to the design and manufacture of the ones you are using. I had one ring of a micro tiptop pop out, the only one I had used at that time. Regarding damage in moving rods around in and out of the rod locker, they should be much more durable since it is really difficult to snag them as they are so small. Overall, I expect it is like any other new product, time will tell.

I forgot to mention, if you do your own labels you can base the label on a favorite fishing scene photo, if the composition is suitable to use on a long, narrow, strip. I have done it a couple times on the matte/vinyl media, and they worked out wonderfully. Use CP on them to prevent a slight color shift from the rod finish.

I use Paint Shop Pro, and with a little practice can get some really sharp decals. But. . .it really takes a lot of practice and technique to get them to print properly because the colors you see on the computer monitor don't really come out the way you see them, depending on media. The media that gives the silver, gold, or holographic backgrounds are somewhat stiff, so applying them to fairly small rods, like bass rods, can also be problematic. They are also the ones that have the most problems in printing as the holo tends to blast through the background, and to stop that you have to really lay the ink on heavily. And that distorts colors, also. The flat white media is very easy to handle and apply, has little color distortion, and should allow good results pretty easily compared to the others. I suggest anyone starting into this get the Rodmaker Magazine back issue that covered the subject-it is not simple. Those advocating buying from Decal Connection just might be right. I have little data on color fade, but was under the opinion that the rod finishes protected them quite well. My oldest rod with a printer label on it is about two years old, has spent a lot of time on the water, and still looks like new. The reason I like to do my own custom labels is that I only do a couple rods a year, like to include the year of build and the rod owner's name, so it seems each label is specific to the rod.

Replacing the tiptop is easy, but not a no-brainer. It is easy to overheat the blank and damage it. One trick I use on removal is to run a loop of line through the eye of the tiptop and put tension on it while heating it. It will come off when the adhesive lets it, and then you stop heating the blank and prevent damage. On installing the new tiptop, first slide the new tiptop onto the clean bare tip of the blank to be sure you have the right size. Then apply some heated adhesive to the blank, then just heat the tiptop enough to allow you to slide the new one on. It will remelt the adhesive. Don't exert a lot of force-if it's heated enough it will slide right on. If you apply too much force, and not in perfect alignment with the axis of the blank, you can break off the tip of the blank. If in doubt, let the pros do it.

I have built 3 7 foot medium action blanks into rods, 2 for my son and 1 for me. He loved the first so much he had me build him another. I loved them so much I built one for me. Ours are all the brown blank, which if I'm not mistaken, replaced the green one about 4 years ago. I've used mine for just about everything, and just plain love it. Not sure how they weigh compared to others, mine weighs 3.9 oz. I have only one 7 foot rod that weighs less, a Loomis 843 casting crankbait rod. I have also built a 6 1/2 foot SC III for my grandson, and it is one sweet rod also. I have read before that many on this forum consider the SCIII to be "sweet spot" for St Croix, a lot of value for significantly less money.

A friend bought last year, got a couple casting rods, he is pleased with how they fish. My observations, being a sort of builder/snob, is that the cork is very poor quality, highly pitted. I just got a mailing, and comparing weights of the rods with some of mine, they seem a little heavy. The prices are very good, so you cannot go very wrong even if you don't like them. Regift.

Regarding Shimano quality, I have never had a Shimano reel or bicycle part that was anything but fine quality. I find it hard to imagine that with all my experience with Shimano that I missed all the problems. Going after RW for his just stating that Shimano will stand behind their product just doesn't make sense, and sounds a little (lot?)disingenuous. My experience with almost everyone I've done business with has been that if you conduct yourself politely, almost everything can be resolved satifactorily.

I have bought a lot of rodbuilding stuff through eBay, more in the past than now. You can get guide sets rather reasonably there, and motors/bushings for rod drying are available inexpensively. Since I am now using setups that require guides different than the "sets", I have been buying from regular suppliers. I never did find the blanks I wanted there. Selections tend to be limited on most all stuff. I think exc for the motors, it makes more sense to buy from regular suppliers. I have recently found some good reel buys on eBay. In buying from eBay, just be sure the person you are buying from has a positive rating no lower than about 98%. Sellers who do a good job have that high a rating, and I've never had a problem with one.

I use the pointy tool (bodkin?) to make sure I get finish under the foot of the guide, and use those dental floss devices that look like a half circle with dental floss connecting the ends of the half circle. Just touch them to the finish as the rod rotates and it helps to give the same edge all the way around. Then just throw them away. They come about 100 for less than a buck, if I remember right.

I, like many others, hand wrap, not power wrap. I built my rig from scrap lumber, added a thread tensioner bought from Cabelas or JannsNetcraft.com. I think the only reason to build a kit is if you don't have a drill press or lathe on which to turn cork rings. You can cobble a usable method to turn them on a drill press using threaded rod. Even if you have to use pre-made cork components, you can buy them without resorting to a kit. Kits don't have the right guide sizes, either. Do a lot of pre-planning to get the guides you want, check out rodbuilding.org for how to do the Fuji Concept guide layout-it really works and is actually simpler than using a whole bunch of guide sizes-you most likely only need 4, like a 25, 16, and 10, then size 5, 5.5, or 6 single foot fly guides for the last 4 or so. This gives you really light guides on the tip which helps rod action relative to using heavier/bigger guides. Check out split grip-If you do a split grip you need only have a ring or so at each end of the reel seat (actually don't even need that, but I like the looks of it) and a butt grip of about 2 inches. Make sure you use hypos to measure your epoxy and rod finish-one of the biggest problems I see on forums is finish/epoxy not hardening properly, and that usually means poor measuring technique. Make sure you rough up your plastic parts before glueing with fine sandpaper or other methods (NOT BIG GOUGES-THAT IS WEAKER THAN USING VERY FINE ABRASIVE). If you partially submerge your epoxy/rod finish containers in hot water for five minutes before you draw material from them, the material will be thinner, have fewer bubbles, and the bubbles you do make will clear better. Make sure not to get even a drop of water into your finish. A great way to use the expoxy/rod finish is to buy it in the little plastic bottle with the pointed caps, and cut off the tip of the cap point at the place that leaves a diameter that is just a little tighter than the tip on the hypo, then you stick the hypo into the open end, tip it upside down, wait for the air to leave, then suck in what you think you will need. No drips/accurate measuring. Keep the resin hypo for resin, and the hardner hypo for hardner, otherwise you will get a reaction and ruin your hypo. Keep separate hypos for each material you use. They are cheap, and oh so handy. I just had a builder suggest to me to hold the guides on the rod temporarily for tuning location and for tying by using very small cable ties. Haven't tried it yet, but it sounds like it would work great. Tape the handle on, temporarily attach the guides (run line through them right away so if one falls off it won't be lost), put your reel on, and move things around for best balance and fit (check the length from the reel to the butt to make sure it doesn't catch your elbow) and do some test casting. When you get your setup the way you like it, mark it and get to building! I think going a little on the cheap side is not a bad idea since you will learn with every build, and it might make sense to use the premium stuff on your 3rd or 4th build. I've built for 40 years, have done about 10 in the last 3 years, and I'm still learning. Not only will you get smarter, techniques and parts change with time, also. Re guides, Fuji Alconites are very good guides, even with braid, and if you use the small fly guides for the ones on the tip, you will have a very light setup without spending a fortune on guides. Use as little finish as possible-that adds weight, too. I like the lite rod finish as it goes on better without forming "footballs" on the windings. Use A size thread instead of heavier B or D. It is a little harder to use, but you'll get used to it. You can use color preservative if you want to make sure the color of the thread doesn't change, use multi coats, or you can just put rod finish on the thread without using CP and you'll have much different colors. For example, if you don't use CP on garnet, it will look like a sweet cherry color. Many colors that look like they match the rod will almost disappear giving a "stealth" look. Check it out by wetting the thread on a test winding with alcohol to see what you would get. I like metallic thread for a little bright trim, silver with some colors, gold with others, although there are many metallic colors available. Regarding spine, most veteran builders say it doesn't make a difference, but they build in their favorite way relative to spine anyway. I put the spine so that it makes the blank feel more stable when flexed in the manner it will be with a fish on. This puts it on one side on regular casting rods, and on the other for spinning and spiral wrap casting rods. Not a big deal. Don't start building rods unless you are willing to build more than one. You will get hooked! It is a lot of fun and very rewarding. I've built 3 for my son and just finished what may be my best build ever for his son for Christmas.

I hope no one really believes that the pike attacked the guy. He was just nailed by a thrashing pike. If he had held the fish with one hand by the back of the neck, or, just by the tail with one hand, and let the fish go when seemed revived, no problem. The only time I have been bitten by a pike is when I put my hands into their mouth-there is nothing that can prevent a stupid act from nailing you.