MickD

Excellent advice, excellent video.

Do what works for you. For me, my Tatula helps a lot. But to directly answer your question, a combination of thumb and brakes is necessary, in my opinion. As you get more expert the thumb will do more and the brakes less. The problem with brakes is that they cost distance, so the more expert your thumb becomes, the longer your casts will be. Line is important too. I have found mono the best line for baitcasters, and I use about 14 pound test. Not FC and not braid.

Monday on Saginaw Bay, good spots that have held fish before, 9 hours on the water, good clarity, moderate wind, ideal conditions, only 6 smallies. When the fish are really in we would have taken at least 20. Probably more. Water temp 60-63, not yet cool enough for optimum smallie fishing. Damned global warming!

When wanting to hold the braid by tieing to a belt loop to get it farther from the eyes and to save the teeth when tying the FG, those little rubber twist tie thingies work well for this. Just wrap the braid around it a few times and its soft sticky surface holds it well.

The knot works by the weaves tightening down onto the leader and actually deforming the leader. When you use this many weaves it defeats the way the knot works. Also, it doesn't work that well on lighter leaders. It was designed for heavy salt leaders that have a lot of "meat" to deform, but the lighter leaders seem to just bend and don't provide the mechanical interlock that the heavy ones provide. Try tying it with 12 weaves, and do one with really heavy leader, like 40 pound test, then one with your 8 pound flouro. Then take the knots apart with a razor blade and see the difference in how the leader has reacted to the tightening of the weaves. I think you are trying to apply the wrong knot to your setup. Some maybe can make it work. Most of us cannot. Try the Alberto, but add two tightly set half hitches of the tag end of braid back onto the braid to keep it from unravelling.

Yes, great experience for many years. I put 21 pound test onto a Shimano Stradic 4000 to have a back-up rod in the boat suitable for barracuda and bonefish, wanted a lot of line capacity and good casting of light jigs. It worked beautifully, casts like other lines that are much lighter in pound test, and has lasted for years. Now I have it on a couple other outfits for fresh water bass finesse fishing.

I was fishing Saginaw Bay, a rocky drop, crystal clear water, and my Zebco buddy tied a yellow 1/4 ounce Jitterbug onto the end of his metal leader, with about 3 split shots up the line, and cast it out. I confidently said, "Tom, I don't think that's going to work very well." It sank into about 8 feet of water, and bang! He took a nice 2 pound smallie.

I'm not going try to sift through all the data, unsubstantiated opinions, conjecture, and myths, I'll just keep using my Hitena Pureline and have no problems. It's really not that difficult. I think we often forget that it's more fun to go fishing than to sort through conflicting advertising claims. Then we have experience to guide us, our own experience.

I expect most 8 (or more) strand lines are of a similar diameter. Check out Hitena's premium braids. Based on my memory the Pureline diameter is listed as being the same as this line.

You cannot do anything in California.

Should not be a problem. Keep in mind that fly fishermen make their own leaders, often with 4 or 5 different pound tests of mono or FC. The lower pound tests as you are considering take more turns of the blood knot than heavier pound tests. Do some research on tying fly leaders, then some in-house testing to be sure you have it right. Great minds working at the same time.

Agreed. So calling it "tip-powered" seems misleading. What many don't realize is that if a blank has an XF action, the tip has to be softer/less powerful than a blank of the same power that is a Fast action. Too bad we don't have universal use of CCS.

The best thing you can do with spin for longer casts is to use premium (8 strands or more) braid no heavier than 15 pound test, better about 10. With line like that the spool size doesn't matter-all will cast just fine. Then the decision is more about line retrieval per handle rev and reel weight/balance on the rod + price. Most have drags adequate for this line (most fishermen set their drags a lot lower than the breaking strength of the line.)

It's much easier to find where they ain't. Usually in big water like Erie they come in shallow in the fall, but the warm weather has kept the water too warm for the usual pattern, at least up here in MI. In Lake St Clair they are mostly still deep. In Saginaw Bay some were in the fall shallows a couple weeks ago, then the water warmed a few degrees, and now I don't know where they are again. I'm looking for them again when the water cools to about 60. Last year at about 50 degrees they were on a 7-9 foot rocky flat that rose abruptly from about 15 feet.

What does "tip powered" mean? If it's medium light power AND XFast action the tip has to be pretty soft. The title of the post stated a rod for maribou jig fishing-I don't think for me I would go that long and ML-fast would be my preference. SCV blanks are terrific blanks. Many on this forum really love the 7 foot SCV medium light fast. I use the 7 foot SCV medium fast for tubes, mostly 3/16 oz jig weight plus the tube and it's ideal. I think a little lighter power would be right for maribou jigs which probably would be a little lighter. But as I always say, you cannot have too many rods. If you build it you will find a use for it, and being an SCV, it will excel.

Not sure why then. thanks,

More than what? Depends on how many you're starting with in the comparison. What I mean is that you can have too few to optimally distribute the stress, but once that is satisified more guides will make little or no difference. I build my own and the old rule of thumb is to put onto the blank the number of guides equal to the length, + 1, + the tiptop. I usually use the number equal to the length + 2 + the tiptop. Except on casting rods that I build with the micro guides on top, then I may have + 3 or 4. Is the new Phenix a casting rod built on top with micros? If yes, that is why it has so many.

Maybe not totally prevent it, but having some significant give in the system is very likely to help to prevent it. Braid has essentially zero stretch. The way specs sometimes strike, like they are hitting it on the run, would lead me to believe that some give in the system would be very helpful.

How about giving the specs so we don't have to look them up? (81 and 80 inche lengths, I surmise, power, action, lure weights recommendations?) All I can say from the info above is that Bushidos are in what I call the "sweet spot" of performance/price where you can spend more money but you won't improve performance a lot. They are very good blanks for the money.

All this recollection, calculation and planning from a pea-sized brain. . . maybe not.

I don't see the answer here. But no need to go further. Based on my own experience any fish can swim faster than I can reel.

Which makes it an entirely different thing than sharpening a small hook that we are talking about. If they work for anyone, fine, use them. I'm only saying that I have not found them that effective. And they rust.

I respectfully submit my BS detector just went off. I admit I cannot prove it is not wrong.

Up-locking reel seats have a reputation for loosening. I think it depends on the design of the seat more than the position of up-locking because I build almost exclusively up-locking with Fuji DPSSD seats and don't have loosening problems. For custom builders Fuji offers a jam nut which fits their seats and some other brands. Of course it has to go on with the intitial build, cannot be retrofit. For those who are having the problem the solutions offered above will most likely be easy, effective, fixes.

Yes, but it has to be faster than 20mph. I guess there are no data. We are all just "guesstimating."