Lucky Craft Man

This title made me chuckle. My trout season is actually coming to an end and I am ramping up for Spring Smallmouth! As far as what I use for stocked trout, any junk fly (e.g., egg, worm, bugger, etc.) will work. Stockies aren't too picky.

"So your saying I can use the 916C as my swimbait rod also? If so it looks like I'm going to want at least 4 of them." Haha...now you know why Dypsis jokes about me having 23 of them. If you don't like to retie on the water (like I don't like to do) and you want a NRX to cover all those techniques, then more than one will be needed. "Do u have any of the 6'8" rods for tight work or spinnerbaits, topwater and jerkbaits?" My Spinnerbait & Topwater rod is a modified NRX 843 MBR (since I very rarely fish open water topwater baits, this rod does double duty). I had a rodmaker (i.e., Scott Hovanec) strip the handle assembly, cut three inches off the butt and put on a new grip and reel seat (so effectively, it's 6'9" long). My Jerkbait Rod is a modified CBR 855 GLX. Scott also stripped this rods handle assembly off, cut 4" off the butt, and put on a new grip and reel seat (this rod also ended up at 6'9") "How do u walk a hollow body frog on a 7'5" rod?" My old frog rod was the G Loomis TWFR 935C, which is 7'9" long and heavier than the NRX 916. So learning to walk the dog with a hollow bodied frog with the TWFR 935C made going to a rod that was 2 inches shorter and lighter much easier. "What brand crankbait rods do u use?" I very rarely crankbait fish. When I fish for bass, I am either fishing heavly slop for largemouth of the Great Lakes for Smallmouth. So I go from heavy cover gear to spinning gear. With that being said (and with how anal I am), I do have a crankbait rod line-up, which consists of: G Loomis SWBR953C - Paddletail Swimbaits and Mege-deep crankbaits, like the xd10 G Loomis CBR 896 DF - Crankbaits that dive from 10 ft down to 20+ ft. G Loomis SMR 814C-CB - Shallow Crankbait, Squarebills, and Lipless Crankbaits. "I was gonna buy the GLX's." For as much as I crankbait fish, the above rods suit me just fine. If I did it a lot more, I would probably go to the GLX Crankbait line-up.

The NRX 895C JWR and the NRX 916C UBR compliment each other quite well. When I am fishing a lake with a lot of grass, the 895 and 916's are my work horses (along with the NRX 873 CRR). The 895 usually has either a 3/4 oz jig or weighted plastic on it and it is used in the thicker grass around docks, lillypad fields, laydowns, and any other moderate to heavier cover. One 916 always has a hollow bodied style bait and the other 916 has a 1 to 1.5 oz. weighted plastic rig for the real heavy stuff, like slop mats (I do have a third 916 that usually has a weedless Huddleson Swimbait on for the submerged weedlines). The 873 handles all the medium cover situations with a 1/2 jig or weighted plastic on it. With those four, I feel like I can fish any grass lake there is (though, I will admit, I have never fished one of those famous grass lakes in Florida with this line-up of rods, but there is Eutrophic by me that has some seriously heavy slop and bringing in 8 pounds of vegitation with a 4 pound fish is not uncommon). I am sure you will be very happy with your new NRX rods. As far as the GLX 953C FPR, I was very excited about this rod when it came out, but I couldn't find a place that carried it to see how it felt. On paper, it looks like an incredible rod, but I have never handled one and to be honest, once you fish the NRX 895 and 916, you'll forget G Loomis even makes a GLX line.

I have both the green and the blue and I don't know a difference in sensitivity between the colors, but I do notice a change in sensitivity between the various models (i.e., I find the 822S SYR to be the least sensitive and the 895C JWR as the most sensitive of the ones I own). As far as new rods coming out, I do hope they expand their line-up in the NRX blank, but I am pretty sure they won't be adding any new colors. From the Shimano Rep. I spoke with, the Blue one outsold the Greens by a large margin and it just wasn't economically feasible to continue to support supplying the line in green.

The NRX 916C UBR works quite well with swimbaits and may even work with the 10xd. I keep meaning to try to fish my 10xd with my 916, but have yet to do so (I used my SWBR 953C whenever I have fished the 10xd).

I love topics like this! I own the NRX 895C JWR and have handled, but never fished, the GLX 896C FPR. The NRX 895C JWR is an incredible pitching rod (even though you can pretty much pitch with any rod) and can handle lures rated a little higher than the rated 1 oz. However, I wouldn't put it in the same consideration as the GLX 896C FPR because the NRX 895 fishes totally different than the FPR series. 00 Mod and I recently had a discussion about this and when I was searching for a flipping stick that was a little more stout than the GLX 894C FPR, I looked at the GLX 896C FRP. That thing felt like a meat stick to me. I like a little tip on any rod I fish and I wanted a fast rod (and not extra fast). That lead me to the aforementioned NRX 916 UBR (and Dypsis, I do have several of these rods, but I don't have 23 of them...yet). G Loomis did two things wrong with rod in my opinion. First, they rated this rod from 3 oz. to 8 oz. I think this is way off. I have fished lures as light as 1/2 oz (though, this was pushing the low end) and it didn't feel like the rod was overwhelming to what I was fishing. It easily fish 3/4oz and 1 oz. lures with it. On the other end of the rating, I tried casting 8 ounce lures with this rod, and I felt like it was going to snap with each cast. Right around 6 oz. is the most I would cast comfortably with this rod. That leads me to the second error made with this rod. They labeled the rod an Umbrella Rig Rod. With the large lure weight rating range and strong backbone of this rod, I have fished hollow bodies frogs over slop, punched mats with 1.5 oz. lead, flipped 1 oz. jigs into laydowns, bomb casted Huddleson swimbaits over submerged weedbeds, and have yet to seriously fish an Umbrella Rig with it. They should have labeled it "The Most Versatile NRX You Will Ever Find," or something similar vs. just Umbrella Rig, because I think that label could scare some people off from even trying it for other techniques. And the best part of this rod to me is the full cork rear handle. Having that extra cork helps balance the rod out better than any other NRX I own (I find all those split grip NRX's to be tip heavy and I have to counterweight them to balance how I like) and to me there is no better feeling jigging lures in heavy grass or slop with a nicely balanced rod that seems to float in your hands as you work the bait. D@mn, I need to go fishing! Long story short, I would seriously consider the NRX 916 UBR for what you are fishing as I think it might fit what you are looking for (i.e., NRX sensitivity with the ability to handle flipping and pitching style lures into cover).

NRX rods are worth it at $500 to $600. At the pric *** has them, they are more than worth it! Buy one (or two) and don't look back.

Nice work as always Scott! The owner of that Rainshadow is a lucky man and the owner of one of those Sage One customs you are going to do is really a lucky man. The only thing that would make him even luckier is if he had a NRX modification done to his 4wt. ?

Scott, that is incredible!!! You are working magic with that acrylic and lathe. Before you know it, you'll be making yourself an acrylic pair of pants.

Man Scott, the orange/gold/black swirled fly reel seat looks Awesome! What project is that for?

I'm in the minirity here, but my ideal jerkbait rod is 6'9" MH Power with a Moderate-Fast action.

I have had a lot of rods modified all the way up to the NRX. As far as the cost effective part, it all comes down to what it is worth to you. Is having that rod feel and fish exactly as you desire worth whatever the quote you may receive? Only you can decide that. For me, it was worth it, but I am picky about how my fishing rods fish.

Will, Those pictures are Awesome! Thanks for going back that far, as I enjoyed looking at every one!

Not much I can add species wise over what has already been shown (and the ones of the same species I have caught would look like minnows compared to Dwight's and Bluebasser86's). Here is a new species (though not a monster and not sure why the picture is so small)

Anything Dwight catches is the size of a pig. I'm surprised he hasn't pull out a real pig yet.

I was hoping you would post some pictures of those monsters you caught! Just Incredible!

Now that was Awesome!!! That is some serious diversity there!!! We should see how many Species Pictures we can get in here. Any other species pictures you guys want to show?

I did tie it (hence why it isn't the greatest looking fly)

You do live in a great place for diverse fishing opportunities. I hear you about the tackle room situation. My wife begs me to just choose one type of fishing (i.e., Musky, Bass, Fly Fishing, etc.), because I have so much stuff, but I don't think I could do it. I feel I would get board.

BR Member Dypsis and I were texting back and forth about our recent and future fishing trips and it hit me how diverse fishing can be. Last month I was casting 2 Pounders for Musky in Michigan and in a few weeks I'll be drifting a size 30 midge for trout in New Mexico. I am probably first and foremost a bass guy (particularly Smallmouth Bass), but I do make sure to keep my portfolio spread around (which is what I love about fishing). To help demonstrate the point of diversity, here is a picture of what I was casting last month (i.e., White 2 Pounder) and what I will be casting soon (i.e., Thread Bodied Midge).. In case you missed the Midge... Close-up... I know this has been asked before (probably to nauseam), but it is closing in on winter and why not ask it again. How diverse is your fishing?

Cabelas makes a very good and econimical fly rod called the LSi. They offer an 8'3" 3wt which is great for situations like you mentioned. What's even better is that they are on sale for 50% off now. You could pick up a Lamson Liquid for $99 and get some economical line and you would have a whole outfit for under your $250 number.

G Loomis for Bass Sage for Fly Fishing (trout & steelhead) Tackle Industries for Musky

6'9" Medium Heavy Power / Moderate Fast Action baitcasting rod with a 28 IPT reel.

I am that board member and I do truly love it. It's my goto rod for Steelhead and the Sage One blank is about as good of a blank as you can get (and one of the few that come in a 10' 7wt.).

I'm a big Cabelas fan (and not so much of Bass Pro). As far as who owns them, it doesn't matter to me, as long as they keep the way they are and don't switch to the Bass Pro model (i.e., have crappy homes brand products and not really carry anything else)