MickD

I'm not sure how bank accounts get involved. Won't with me, paying with PayPal.

Earlier this month on St Clair the Strike King Ocho in "moon juice" outifished my Neds. Beautiful lure, looks so good I almost want to eat them.

Lure Parts Online has the best maribou i've found + all else that is needed. Good advice above, in my opinion.

Thank you. Revelations are very good blanks for the dollar, IMHO.

I'm interested in why you've come to this conclusion. I'm able to measure the true natural frequency (no weight added to the tip to slow them down for easier counting) of blanks, and the SCV blanks are among the higher natural frequency blanks, so their recovery time will be faster than most blanks. I think this should translate into a little longer casts than lesser blanks. For me, casting distance is an issue with light hair jigs which catch the wind more than something like a Ned of the same weight.

Is your question how to cut a patch off a zonker strip? If yes, I use sharp fly tying scissors, part the hair as best I can, and simply cut them. If no, please elaborate.

It's been a complex year. Early on I went 8 hours on the water, never had a bite, then found some warmer water and hit about 8 in an hour, with my personal best. A few tough days in the spring with few fish but good fish, then could not find them in the summer. Fall was spotty, tough mostly due to the wind, but a very good pike, and a great final day on St Clair with one that was within 3 oz of my personal best. For me, it's all about smallies. (and whatever else I can catch) Didn't keep a single fish this year, but Costco has some nice Canadian walleyes now and then.

Gotta make me a couple of these, have all the stuff to do it. Artic fox should work.

Try Rapala DT series, Smash color. One of Ike's special colors.

A-Jay, have you tried his white? I think you fish a lot of clear water, and for me in clear water, white is very good on swim jigs for smallies. Wondering about white hair/marabou.

I think they are marketing technique-specific rods much stronger now. The fact is that most rods (most, not all) are good do-it-all rods that can be used effectively and efficiently for many techniques. But that doesn't sell rods. I think it's more the action than the price. The Point Blank series of blanks are high-priced and have larger windows than most blanks. Because of their X-fast action, in my opinion. I have an RX6 Rainshadow that has a similar action to one of the Point Blanks and it acts a lot like the Point Blank with respect to lure weight "window." However, its price was only about half as much as the Point Blank, and it is heavier and less sensitive. Has nothing to do with getting the rod to load properly for the length of line being cast? As in making it better casting with shorter line out?

Keep in mind that everything you see in this forum and in most articles is simply someone's opinion. The articles that tout X-fast as casting farther or more accurately are usually without anything resembling rigorous testing procedures or data. My advice would be to not base any purchasing decisions on most of the stuff out here, but to gain as much personal experience as you can to lead you in the right direction for what is important to you and what you want to do. Buying with techniques and personal preferences in mind is, in my OPINION, much more important than trying to maximize casting distance, or that elusive characteristic, accuracy.

If comfort is the goal, and you have some rods with seats that are compatible with this idea, then you can easily add a palm swell and/or increase the diameter of the seat without completely rebuilding the rod. Pretty easy to do if you have a lathe or a drill press. A slight, inexpensive, adaptation is required to turn cork easily and safely on a drill press, so if you would like info, let me know.

Well. . . As I said, just an opinion. I don't care for the shape of he Aero, and nothing can change that. The best one I've seen is a glossy black, so it almost disappears. Again, no offense intended. If we all had the same opinion there would only be a couple different seats offered.

I too doubt that a rod can cast efficiently from 1/8 to 1 1/2 oz. However, action can affect the effiecient/effective lure weight range of a rod. X-Fast actions, because of the power of the butt section can cast heavy lures pretty well (you might say that the soft tip just "gets out of the way") while the softer tip inherent in them can handle lighter lures pretty well. X-Fast action rods have a wider efficient/effective lure weight range than slower actions. Many of the Anglers Resource Point Blank blanks have Extra-Fast actions and they will cast a wider than "normal" range well, in my opinion.

I learned where early season smallies are likely to be in one of my favorite fishing sites. I also learned many many summer places where they are not located.

The only way I will use an Aero is uplocking. Even then, I think they are so ugly (just an opinion, everyone, simply my taste in appearance-I admit they are comfortable) I prefer simply using a Fuji DPSSD size 17 uplocking. I use a small ramp off the front about the same diameter as the hood which gives a nice place for the fingers. And I never really contact the threads.

For 3/16 I like the VMC with the spring keeper best-it holds the bait best, less damage, bait lasts longer. For 1/8 I use spotstickers which can be had with 3/0 or 4/0 hooks. You want a good hook gap so the point is well exposed, so bigger hooks than you might otherwise use on a jig. I don't think the Ned jigs are good for this, not enough gap, hooks too small, too fragile.

I never find everything I want from one source, so use all three of the ones mentioned above, in order of preference: Lure Parts Online, Barlowes, Jann's. Never heard of the hook sources, will check them out.

Peel and stick, right? Many builders recommend putting it onto an initial coat of epoxy. Avoid touching the adhesive because you won't be able to eliminate a little distortion from the fingerprint. Carefully align it before placing it (yes, hard to accomplish, be patient). Once it's down I always put the backing paper on top of it to protect it, then vigorously rub it down with a burnishing tool to make sure it's really stuck tightly with no voids. Then I apply a thin coat of CP on the edges to prevent any possible lifting that could be caused by the top coat of epoxy. Since CP dries quite rapidly it doesn't seem to attack the edges like the longer-curing epoxy sometimes does. It will be invisible under the epoxy.

I think it is coontail. Both plants you suggest have segmented stems, and the "whorls" grow out of the segment joints. But the whorls of the milfoil have only one strand or a strand that divides into a fork. Coontails have a stem growing out of the segment that has many strands growing out of it. I could be wrong, but that is what I have concluded.

One advantage of the U40 and FlexCoat brush cleaners is that they work on almost anything, even Testors today, and they are not volatile. They do not make dangerous fumes. And they do work on Permagloss.

Your plan sounds fine to me. I think it will work just fine.

How much do tires cost? How much will it cost to repair the damage to your boat and trailer if a blown tire causes an accident? How much is your time worth, the time spent along a busy highway waiting for service/ambulance/etc. Yes, worst case scenario, but it can be avoided without spending a fortune. One thing you can do is ask a tire expert in a tire shop. Yes, they will try to sell, but they are probably a lot more expert than we who cannot even see the tires are. Car alignment shops can align trailers. I had to have my last one done when uneven tire wear showed up. Have them check your bearings while you're there.

I'm sure you're going to love the rod you build on the SCV blank. I'm doing some work that is revealing the true natural frequency of rod blanks and rods. Most experts believe that sensitivity is proportional to true natural frequency (no weight added to the blank when tested in order to get the frequency down-true natural means just tweak it and measue its natural frequency). What it has shown so far is the SCV is one of the highest natural frequency blanks out there. Among the best. And I have not found blanks that cost less to be as high. So you are in fact getting good value for your extra investment. At least I haven't found the outlyer to that yet. Whenever you have two blanks with the same power the XF action blank will have the less powerful tip. Has to be in order to make it XF.