jimmyjoe

What you guys are saying about rods is correct. Yesterday I used a 6' 1/8-3/8 junky rod, and today I used a 7' MH/MF rod. Big difference. Even tho the lighter rod was shorter, it was whippier, and threw 1/4 oz. lures further. 3/8, not so much difference. jj

Yeah, that's what my nephew said. But it's twice the price, and I wasn't sure where this whole mishmash was going. Now I know a little better. I seem to hear Santa calling faintly in the distance. We'll see what happens later ...... jj

Well, trusting to what you guys say, I bought a Curado 200 (99.00) today, and put 10 lb. Trilene XT on it. Put it on a junky 29.95 rod, and ..... man, does it cast great! I never would have dreamed in a thousand years that a regular-sized reel would handle that light a lure so well, especially after what my nephew told me. (He's mad at me, by the way. :)) Now I'll decide on a better rod, and I'm sure things will improve somewhat. Thanks, everyone! jj

Thanks for the help. I'll look around at reels. I have a line on two used rods, though. One is a 7' Tidemaster, ML/F. The other is a 6'6" M/F Fenwick HMX. The Fenwick is less than half the Tidemaster. Any reason to pay more for the Tidemaster for what I want to do? In other words, is it twice as good? jj

My nephew on the West coast has a JDM Casitas 100 MGL with a 1/8-1/2 saltwater rod, and he told me the same thing. I just figured he was exaggerating. Maybe not, eh? jj

Anyone have opinions regarding a baitcasting rod and reel for 1/4 to 3/8 ounce lures (and 1/4 to 3/8 ounce ONLY) that will equal the distance of a spinning setup throwing the same lures? Lures are 1/4 and 3/8 ounce Wally Diver, Deep Baby N, Booyah Pond Magic, 1/4 and 1/3 ounce Little Cleo, #3 Mepps Aglia and 3/8 Thomas spoons. Distance is important because this is shorecasting. Thnx. jj

In a 2-pc., you have, as I said, an almost infinite selection. I have the blessing (or curse) of having one friend who is absolutely crazy about Fenwick, another who is crazy about St. Croix, and a third who is nuts for Berkley stuff, particularly their Lightning rod and Series One stuff. All these people (and me) own 2-pc. rods. And all of us use them, quite successfully, for anything from crappie to bass to pike. I'm the only one who uses spinning exclusively, the others all have baitcasters as well. I've used their rods, and they mine. We've come to some kind of consensus about certain things. 1) If you use braid with a leader, get a rod with stainless or chrome inserts. Otherwise, you very well might end up with a ceramic insert going bye-bye. Berkely has them, so does Fenwick. The Berkley guy claims to never have had any trouble, and gloats about it. He should; I've seen his leader knots and they're horrible. 2) If you want a stiff-tip rod, try St. Croix. I'm talking about the tip now, not the action of the whole blank. Fast action blanks can have stiff tips or soft tips, either one. If there's any live or cut bait in the picture, I'd suggest a soft tip. The one I know several guys use is the Fenwick Elite Tech 6'9" ML/XF. I have the Shimano Compre 2-pc, and it's very good. I said I'd have gotten the Methods instead, but only for versatility, not because of less quality. The Compre also has the softer tip. 3) I'm the only one who likes to stick with 7' rods. All the others, and I mean ALL of them, drop down shorter when they talk 2-pc. Various reasons. The Fenwick guy has a 6'9" 2-pc. HMG ML/F that keeps up with any of us. 4) I hate up-locking reel seats, even tho I have some. No one else gives a hoot. The Compre are the best up-locking reel seats I have ever seen, bar none. They almost converted me. Almost. All of these are nationally-available brands. All are well known. As far as I know, they are all consistent. They all have good customer service, although I have heard that Shimano is somewhat idiosyncratic. No matter which way you go, I would find a rod in which you are interested and actually see how it feels. I never had much luck ordering stuff sight unseen. jj

My question was meant for the OP. jj

What do you call a travel rod? I call a 2-pc. a travel rod, but some people only consider 3 or 4 pc. rods as true travel rods. If a 2-pc. is your goal, you have an almost infinite selection. I chose Shimano Compre Travel. But in 3 or 4 pc. rods, your selection is much more limited. A local dealer had the Fenwick Methods on the rack, and I tried them out a bit. If versatility is your goal in a shorter carry-case, the Methods are almost impossible to beat. They have stainless steel inserts in the guides, but they aren't the cheap inserts like the Eagle line has. I bought the Compre before my dealer stocked the Methods, or I'd have bought the Methods. They're that nice. jj

If you haven't decided yet, try out the Daiwa Fuego 2000sh. Super smooth and quiet, which is what I want for finesse. Leaves money for a really good 6'9"-or-so extra fast finesse rod. One reason I like the Fuego is that it performs well with either one of the various superlines or regular old monofilament; I have Stren on mine right now, after having AN40 and Trilene XL. When looking for a rod, decide whether you're going to use a superline/leader setup. If you are, check that the guides pass leader knots easily. I learned that lesson the hard way. jj

Bunnielab: I really like the eye on those Cox and Rowle. You're right about hard to find. If I can find a #2 Kahle with an upturned eye, I think that might work also. reason: I usually use duolock snaps to attach hooks, rather than split rings. That may be why I hooked up more; more flop and gyration. I have some hook tubing. I think I'll use it and see what happens. Thanks. jj

" ... Maybe buy just one pack of hooks and see if it is indeed worth it before making a big move. " Ooooooooh, yeah. That's how I found out what DOESN'T work well. I think I'm a poster boy for the "Not This, Not That and Not The Other One Club". I have to check, but I think I'm a charter member. jj

From what I can see, I would guess that ALL j-hooks, whether Kirby, siwash, Aberdeen or whatever, will have the same problem as a treble. I think an upturned eye would help. I might try a Kahle with an upturned eye, if I can find some cheap. jj

I use small inline spinners; 1/6th Roostertails, 1/6 and 1/4 Mepps Aglias, 1/4 Panther Martins and some home-made ones. All of them have treble hooks, and all of them snag up easily because my retrieve is "low and slow". I met a guy who removed the trebles and used single hooks on his spinners. He said he has a lot less snag-ups. The hooks he uses are small EWG worm hooks; #4 and #2 Gamakatsu. Those are central draft hooks, and having an inline point like that will, I imagine, greatly reduce snags. I looked at the price of those suckers, and then counted how many spinners I have, and I just about had a heart attack. $$$! So I tried to put on a simple Carlisle hook. Uh-uh. Snagged up. Seems some accommodation has to be made to a central-draft-type point. I think the short gap of an octopus hook is going to produce lots of short strikes, so I think that's out. My mind is blank to anything else. Anyone have any ideas? Thx. jj

Well, today was the day. Per Jagg's recommendation, I spooled 4 lb. Trilene and went out to see what I could accomplish. Neighbor said that SMB were hitting in the rocks (my normal environs), and I figured if anything was to test this rod, that would do it. I used a 1/6th ounce Super Rooster Tail (white) and caught a 10" smallmouth. I changed to a 1/8 ounce Bitty Bite from Wahoo, and caught two more, another 10" and a 13". (No scales today.) I tried in-line spinners and small spoons and got nothing. Went back to a Booyah Micro Pond Magic, and got a 12". No crappie, no white bass and no yellow bass. (Surprise, surprise!) The rod handles 4 lb. line very well. It's rated as a "moderate fast" blank, and for once I think they got it right. It has good backbone, flexing quickly to the 5th guide back form the tip but stalling there. It has good lifting power. (On the fish in the water; I wouldn't try to lift a fish out of the water with a rod this light!) The reel I used was a Shimano Stradic Ci4+ 2500FA, with factory drag. There seemed to be no problem whatsoever with actuating the drag, had it set for 1 1/2 lbs. That's high for crappie and panfish, but not for bass, and I wanted to really torture this rod if I could just to see how it reacted. The balance with this reel is very good. I have arthritis, and if the weight or balance is off, I'll be able to tell RIGHT away. But no problem with this outfit. In this cold water, I didn't get any violent headshakers, so I can't tell how well the rod tip follows that, but I got a bass in shallow rocks and had no problem at all. I had a #4 Mepps Aglia with me, and I tried that on just for shucks and grins. Definitely too much .... too resistive for this rod. It seems to have enough strength (barely) but the action was deadened, as if it were stacking. And I imagine it was; these rods were originally designed for trout, it I remember right. I guess I was lucky a fish didn't hit it; I'll bet the 4 lb. line would have broken easily. Light line and rocks don't mix well. So overall, I'm very happy. This "light" action isn't the same as as "light" action from 30 years ago; it's not as strong or authoritative. But you can say that about a lot of rods nowadays. 30 years ago, if you'd have called a rod rated 1/8 to 3/8 ounce lures a "medium light", people would have looked at you awful funny. Nowadays, that's the norm. So as a light power rod, this one fits in nicely. It fights well, has a responsive tip and seems to protect light line pretty well. No, it's not an ultralight. I have ultralights, and this has considerably more power. If a person wanted to use it as a so-called "magnum ultralight", I think that would be great. Some of the spinners and spoons I used today were 1/8 ounce, and the feel and control were there, no problem. So I guess I have to thank Santa for twisting my arm, eh? jj

Which do these appear to be?

Thank you, all. I asked because I bought a custom light power steelhead rod that has these guides, and it arrived with one of the support rings (titanium) cracked. There's no problem with the rodmaker; they're replacing the guide without question and refunding to me my mailing cost. Fabulous, standup guy. My problem is trying to discern whether this series has problems, as in fragility. The rodmaker thought it might have been handling or vibration related during shipment. Possibly. I thought, though, that shipping temperature might have had something to do with it. Y'know ... uneven thermal expansion and contraction. I guess it was a freak occurrence, and I'll just happily wait for the rod to get back to me. Thanks again. jj

Does anyone here have any first-hand experience with the guides mentioned above? They are titanium frames with chrome inserts. I'd like to know whether there are any downsides to them, and whether the support rings are fragile in any way, or not. Thank you. jj

I don't use BC gear anymore, but when I did, choice was simple. I'm right-handed. Using spinning gear meant I worked the lever with my dominant arm. With BC gear, I used the weak side. More or less, steady retrieve was weak-side, erratic or hi-torque was strong-side. jj

"... Do you use leaders often? I guess since I don't fish heavier superlines, there is no need to use a leader....? ..." I rarely use a leader because I fish the Mississippi, and leaders aren't necessary in the muddy water. Not only that, but I specifically try to get max sensitivity at max distance with Nanofil .... or any low-stretch line. I love it for twitching spoons, like Acme Steelies and Kastmasters, when I target sandbars or deep pockets. The only time I really need to use leaders is running deep divers around rocks. The "tic-tic-tic" tells me where my lure is and what it's doing. I fish rocks a lot, but most of the time I use mono and shallower cranks, so the Nanofil + leader issue is moot. jj

Howdy. First things first: welcome to the site! I enjoy it and hope you do, too. Secondly: I tried Fireline, Power Pro, Power Pro Super Slick, Sufix 832 and Spiderwire Fluorobraid in addition to Nanofil. The reason I kept searching was the knot performance of Nanofil. It was erratic (at best!). Then I started using the San Diego Jamknot, and this last year I never broke off Nanofil when tied direct. My leader knot is the Crazy Alberto knot, but I rarely use a leader; I use Nanofil exclusively for distance on the cast and control at that distance. For that, I like it. As for twist, I've noticed some. Looking down the line at an angle in the sun lets you see it. It's no worse than another superline, and better than most. But I've not had a wind knot with Nanofil, and I have had with other lines. So over all, it serves me well. I have used 2 lb., 8 lb., and 12 lb. jj

Easier on whom, you or the fish? If you think a long rod makes it easier for a fish to fight you, it's not. The opposite is true; with a longer rod you can fight a fish more efficiently and USUALLY protect light line better. I have 2 ultralights. One is a 7' Fenwick Eagle, and the other is a 7 1/2 foot Daiwa Presso. Both are excellent ultralights, but I recently got a light power rod for crappie -- the first light action I've had in over 20 years. I had only a very short time to fish it before ice up, but I kinda think that sorta-maybe my time with the ultralights this coming year will be reduced. Specifically I like the light action over the ultralight for one thing you mentioned -- bobber fishing. If I felt I NEEDED to use an ultralight for crappie, then I'd buy the 8' model ultralight in either the Presso or Eagle lineup. They both have them. jj

Blue/chartreuse spinnerbait with single Colorado thumper blade, low and sloooow. I know whereof I speak. They hit like a 4-year-old eating cotton candy. jj

Tubes. Definitely tubes. No tubes for me. jj

Santa twisted my arm and forced me to buy a new rod. It's a Fenwick Elite Tech River Runner, 7'2" light power, rated for 4 to 8 lb. line. I found open water yesterday and baptized it (two hamburger bass) with 8 lb Nanofil. What I'd really like to do, though, is use this with 4 lb monofilament. Seems a tad strong, though. Just a tad. 1) Does anyone here use this rod? 2) Have you used it with 4 lb line? 3) Which 4 lb line? I would guess (and that's all it is) that a stretchier mono would work better in order to protect the line from breakage. I might be wrong about that. Basically, I want to use this for miniature spinnerbaits and spoons for crappie and yellow bass around rocks.