MickD

I highlighted it from your comment. After you had highlighted it from Spencer. Didn't mean to attribute it to you. Noticed after posting.

The combination of the mesh and epoxy provides good strength, probably adequate. Sort of like plywood. Or composites used in structural applications. If it is tightly wound, and doesn't stretch, the guide is held securely. I don't see holding the guide adequately as being a limitation on this application.

I expect its highest value will be in the volume rod business. It's supposed to allow much faster wrappping. I've seen a video by NFC that pulled about 24 pounds on a guide, if I remember correctly, so it might be stronger than first thought. I don't think it will replace thread much for custom builders since we have so many colors available, equipment to handle thread, and many have very big inventories.

Until you start using the CCS method of objectively measuring rod power and action you will never know even close to what you have. I have rods rated medium power that run from about 15 to 25 Effective Rod Number, which is a measure of rod power. I have a Medium Light power rod that measures just over 20. FloridaFishingFool has it right when he disses technique labeling. Rods are much more versatile than that, and each of us has our own preferences. The main characteristics of blanks/rods are length, weight, power, action, and speed of recovery from deflection. All of these can be objectively measured without expensive lab equipment or scientific knowledge/skill.

Before permanently changing a rod, fish it with the weight you intend to use taped on. Try a different reel.

I have found that my reels work just fine if I never take them down more than taking the side cover off to get to the bearings/gears or getting to the drag washers for lube. If I immerse one, it's off to a pro like DVT. I once read an article by a gunsmith titled: "Don't love your gun to death." It was about going too far into them and lubing too much. How counterproductive it can be. Same principal for reels, especially since they are so complicated these days.

Right! After one of mine went off , then went soft, I tested another and found it went soft, too. Both went down so slowly that it might not have been a problem, might have been. I bought a new Mustang. It is probably the most comfortable of the three.

I use Lucas Slick Mist after every outing. 10-15 minutes. If you once get the water marks off you shouldn't have to use the vinegar mix again, just the Slick Mist. My black outfit looks like new after 8 seasons. Don't forget the engine and windshield. While it's not maintenance, a tip to live by is whenever you are under power, have the kill switch cord tied to your PFD.

Keep in mind that the most frequent failure of commercially made rods is probably loose grips and seats due to too little epoxy. I don't skimp.

It is my opinion based on my experience that these "should be's" are highly over-rated. All these "should be's" are simply opinions of goals for rod design, and no give no sense that conflicting priorities may sometimes be present. For example, achieving the balance goal often requires an evaluation of preferences and priorities. So do the others, but balance is the easiest to understand in terms of preferences and priorities. Everyone gets an opinion. For the most part these forums are opinions passing as gospel.

IMO the need for a perfectly straight line path is highly over-rated. On all the rods the purport to have advantages due to a straight line path have one big angle in the line path right at the reel. And it is most often ignored. OK, unload, I can take it.

I've never tested it but an expert has written that the spiral wrap will overpower any effect of the spine. I have built both on and off spine and I don't feel torquing. Spiral wrap or regular. But I'm not working with powerful rods like muskie or catfish rods, either.

Spiral wrapping has no influence on the size of guides that work or don't work. Higher guides will produce more torquing when built on top than lower guides will and will induce more twisting of the blank under load. Spiral wrapping will prevent the blank from twisting under load. I have had light power casting rods twist a full 180 under load, but have never failed one. That could, I suppose, depend on the design and material of the blanks. If one wants to see the effect of guides on torquing tape guides onto a blank both on top and spiral, stress it both ways, and see what happens. With the rods I generally use, bass rods and not boat rods or muskie/catfish rods I don't feel torquing from either design.

There are many different ways to spiral wrap, to get the line to the bottom of a casting rod, and they all work just fine to reduce torquing in the hand. This advantage is greater with rods that are heavily stressed, hence it's used often in heavy duty salt rods. There is no reason they cannot be used for bass fishing-I use one pretty often for bass. My last BFS rod was wrapped spiral even though light duty doesn't develop significant torquing. An advantage is that one can usually use at least one fewer guides with spiral, especially near the tip where one would like to cut the weight of guides. I prefer the Simple Spiral since it is so easy to set up and it works just as well as the more complicated designs.

Strange things happen- I once was fishing for tarpon in Belize using the hooks of the guide. My brother had on about a 50 pound tarpon and it got off. When we looked at the hook the barb was gone. What could cause a barb to break off? When a big hook like this is formed, I believe, the barb is cold formed on the hook causing a difference in the electrical characteristics between the cold worked area and the "virgin" area of the hook. In Belize tackle is very hard to come by and this hook was probably pretty well used, and the salt water ultimately caused a corrosion failure. From an internet search: "Cold working metal can indeed form an anodic cell due to the increased strain energy within the metal. This energy translates into an electrode potential that is anodic to the metal in the grains proper. As a result, corrosion can selectively occur along grain boundaries. High localized stress regions within a metal will contain metal atoms at a higher strain energy state, making them anodic to low-stress regions. This phenomenon is particularly evident in fasteners that are subjected to load, where they are more prone to corrosion compared to unloaded fasteners"

Depending on the metallurgy of the hooks, even heating once might change the strength of the hooks. And it might depend on whether you quench or not after heating, water or oil quench are different. Lots of variables, so checking them carefully for strength and tendency to be brittle is in order if heating them. , On some metallurgies even bending can cold work the metal and make it brittle. If one buys an open eye hook I would think it capable of being closed without problems.

Sounds like a weakness in the JDM infatuation.

5 to 6 feet spin and cast, out of the spool. I see no reason for the really long leaders that some use. Considering that some use none successfully indicates that bass aren't really that line shy anyway. Especially with natural colored line which looks a lot like string algae. I prefer the improved Alberto knot which is fairly small, easy to tie, and reliable when finished with two tightly set half hitches of the braid tag end against the knot.

No. As someone else said, and it's the same here, it's over $200 for the shop to do it. They don't change plugs for that price, but change lower unit, engine oil, fuel filter I believe, oil filter, treat the gas. Not sure if they fog it. I've heard it's not necessary on 4 strokes. I've not fogged mine and it is 8 years in and still runs like new. One thing a [pro recommended was to put the engine vertical, shut off the ignition by using the kill switch, and crank it for just a couple seconds to purge the water pump. Not sure it's necessary, but doesn't hurt.

I did the same thing with a nice Loomis spinnerbait blank, very early, and had to rebuild it because I couldn't stand looking down the blank with those huge guides. Actually rebuilt it twice, now with micros and it's very nice.

Another tactic that works with smallies from a boat when you are fighting a smallie is to drop another lure, especially something like a white ned or tube near the fighting fish. Other smallies often follow fighting fish to eat what the fighter disgorges. Not at all unusual.

Was at the boat launch and my cousin had to go back to the car, so I cast the new Ned while waiting. First cast a nice smallmouth. Wow!

Open eye siwash hooks are available at Barlow's and probably other sources.

I built my first rod, a spinning rod about 70 years ago with components and blank from Herters, Waseca, Minnesota. Their slogan was "Finest Procurable Products." I don't have pictures of it; it has long ago been retired. The blank was glass, the grip made from cork rings with simple sliding rings to hold the reel. The guides were wire guides, no ceramic rings then. Another similar rod, a Heddon, that I still have and that I liked very much, is so loose and sloppy feeling that I wonder how I liked them. Blanks have come a LONG way since then. I still have the thread tensioner I used back then, but don't use it anymore. My second rod was a fly rod, also with Herters components. Pic is second rod.

Can't find the resolution-was the reel defective or was it braid slipping on the spool? Or something else?