Lead Head

Seaguar sponsors the site, so many will always recommend it first and foremost. The thing is, Seaguar products really are great. Personally, I'm more of a Sniper guy. I think the only reason I like Sunline more is because it was the first "good" floro I tried. If I had to use nothing but Seaguar from now on, I wouldn't really miss my Sunline much at all. Sniper will be stiffer than your mono, but its one of the softer floro lines out there. About the same as invisx and in my opinion, it has a little less of a stretchy feel (compared to invisx, it will feel way less stretchy than most mono). I use Sniper for a couple of leader applications, mostly because I run it as mainline on a couple reels and its what I have on hand. If you are cool with buying small spools of line for leaders, go with the blue or gold label. Keep in mind, line sold as leader material is almost always more stiff than line sold as a mainline. You will be fine with whatever you pick, you already have it narrowed down to a point where there isn't a bad choice.

Can you stagger the rods by just the length of a reel? I'm not a kayak guy, but I must say that is about the best rod holder setup I've seen for one. I guess you have to be careful not to rub it off but it sure looks convenient. Back to the point though, if its possible to move the 2nd and 4th rods forward 3-4 inches that would solve your problem.

Not knowing your budget, and not knowing much about combos in general since I build my own rods, I can't really give you good advice here. I will say that most members here give positive feedback on the Shimano SLX combo, as well as most comparatively priced Lews combos. Those Fuego reels are still great at $80, I think they have been running around $120 here recently. A Fuego CT is the exact same reel as a Tatula CT only it doesn't have a T-wing and uses bushings instead of bearings in the handle knobs. The magforce Z breaking on these reels is very easy to dial in and user-friendly. If you will give some more details as to what you want this specialized setup for and what your budget is you will probably get enough recommendations to make your head spin. Include details on everything from cover and water clarity you usually fish, to if you're on the bank or in a boat.

Several options here... this is what I would do. Academy is currently running a crazy sale on reels. Get online and grab 2 Daiwa Fuego in 7 speed (I think they are $50 each, as far as reels go, you won't find better at that price). Move your current 6 speed reel to the medium rod. Of the 2 MH that you own, pick the one you think is the most sensitive and designate it as your bottom contact rod. M/F rod with 6 speed reel - add 10-12lb mono and use for cranks, and lighter moving baits and topwater. MH/F less sensitive - add 10-15lb mono (depending on cover) and use for heavier moving baits like spinnerbaits and chatterbaits, and heavier topwater. MH/F more sensitive- add good floro (invizx or sniper) 15-18lb (depending on cover) - bottom contact, t-rig or lighter jigs. Personally I would go 30-40lb braid here but not knowing your water, cover, or how you like to fish ill stick to suggesting FC. One more thing, if you are not confident in your ability to cast baitcasters with very few backlashes, stick with 15lb mono on the bottom contact rod until you are. Backlashes tend to destroy FC and its not cheap.

Booyah poppin pad crasher is what I throw. My rod is more of a moderate-fast than a true fast. I never have hookup issues and I don't adjust the hooks. Two years ago I switched to a stiffer almost xtra fast rod and started missing hookups like crazy. After 2 outings I ditched that rod and went back to the slower taper, my problems vanished. Just wanted to share my experience regarding frog hookups. The rod is one of those old green BPS extremes stripped and rebuilt. Its rated H/F but I would definitely call it moderate-fast.

@AmmoGuy I would like to make a suggestion that will help give you an answer to your question. You mentioned that you have the ability to get the high end reels, get one (or a couple, maybe a Daiwa and Shimano). Use it for a few trips, if it makes you hate picking up your other reels, you will know you spent the money for a superior product. If it leaves you feeling that the cheaper reels really aren't all that bad and the money you spent on "high end" gear was wasted, sell it. Sell it, and all your "mid-grade" reels and go all in on the cheaper stuff. Fish on with a smile, knowing you have found your "diamond in the rough" scenario. You will almost definitely come out ahead financially. Unless the expensive stuff actually does make you hate your old reels... If another angler having just as much or more success as you with cheaper gear is something that will stick in your head and bother you, the budget gear path is probably the only one that will give you peace of mind.

You have experience with nice Abu and Shimano reels. If you're truly curious, get the Zillion. Then you will have experience with all the big names.

Get a ram mount and put near the middle. With the ram mount you can face it and tilt it as needed. You should be able to see it from front or back in a 14' boat.

Fuegos are nice and friendly, but if you really want user friendly look into a SV spooled Daiwa. It will probably cost you a few feet of maximum casting distance but in my experience nothing comes close for easy, controlled, trouble free casting.

Impressive that you can do it with bare fingers. I put them on like that but would almost definitely burn myself taking them off. If you're tough enough to do it that way that's pretty good because you know just how hot everything really is.

A torch... Yikes! I'll tell you this, a simple lighter can cook the whole tip of a rod off in less than 5 seconds of constant heat. Unfortunately, I know this from experience... it was a painful lesson. I use a butane lighter now and wave it across the tip in about 2 second intervals so I get a slow, controlled heating process. By adding constant pull while heating, you can feel it give way and stop adding heat as soon as it starts moving. The real issue is how thin the tip is in most rods, that little twig of graphite will get hot fast if you just throw flame at it all willy-nilly.

Be very careful when heating the busted tip for removal. Its easy to use too much and fry graphite. Grab the old tip with pliers and pull it while slowly adding heat. I also suggest you use tiptop glue (basically high temp hot glue) to put on your new tiptop. If you use epoxy or some other type of permanent adhesive you probably won't be able to replace again without damaging the blank. Losing just an inch or two from the tip of a rod can alter its performance, usually not in a good way. Keeping all that in mind, it should be a easy fix. The hardest part will likely be finding the correct size (tube and ring) tiptop. If its a cheaper rod and your not worried about looks grab one of those kits and stick on the tip that fits the best.

Its the one you're thinking of, if I remember correctly you didn't like it because the figure 8 was too small with your lighter lines. I like it because its quick and easy, passes my guides, and holds up to big hooksets. When I have to break off, I fail at the lure and not the leader. The biggest reason I use it instead of an Alberto is the holding up to big hooksets part. I popped a couple Alberto knots with my (I'm sure way too hard) jig swing. Most people hate the idea of a leader on casting setups, but I'm supremely confident in it now, it works for me. As hard as the rocks are on my line, replacing a 5' leader is far more economical than straight FC, and keeps my spool full. I skip with the same setup and the spool staying consistent helps. FG works fine, but I usually retie often when in the rocks and anything easier and faster to tie is preferable. Sorry I'm kinda derailing the thread...

I cast 40 and 50lb 832 with a 25lb sunline sniper leader through size 5 guides using the simplified version of the GT knot. Only issue is the knot will hang if I try to reel it into the tip top at 90 degrees or less, but it casts fine. I'm using such heavy leader because I like to fish jigs in some really nasty sharp chunk rock.

Sounds like you switched brands of braid, if so, this could be your problem. Some braids are smoother than others. Some also have a wax-like coating. If you use your fingernails and scrape, or rough up the last few inches of braid that will be in your knot it will help it catch and lock in. After the braid has been fished for a while and is broken in you may not need to do this anymore. This may or may not be your problem, but it definitely made a difference for me when I was using FG knots.

Regarding removing paint from a blank, I have had good luck with citristrip when stripping down production rods. It sometimes takes hours of exposure, and you have to make sure none gets inside the blank.

I haven't messed with the TVS any. Does it have any advantages over a KDPS aside from the cosmetic differences? Are you making those sleeves or buying them?

Size 16 in casting. Naw, that's some cheap $20 amazon reel handle. Jekoson I think.

You can cut the ecs and the kdps to fit the smaller carbon fiber sleeves. Pretty much everyone has the fuji perfect fit options, voodoo has some gloss and matte black options, and NFC actually makes a standard carbon fiber sleeve. The one from NFC only comes in full length, I cut them in half (and sometimes trim a bit more off). I can't remember all the actual measurements off the top of my head but you will see what I mean when you look. There is a YouTube video of someone cutting a kdps and reel seat out there somewhere, I think it might have been a fuji perfect fit promo. ECS, NFC sleeve with Fuji perfect fit trim on a Fuji KDPS.

Fuji ecs size 16 Simple, functional, fairly lightweight, and extremely comfortable in my hand. Its not flashy, but it feels "right" to me while casting and palming.

Your casting distance, fish fighting, and lure presentation shouldn't change in any noticeable way if you don't like the length and shorten the handle. The functional rod length above the seat won't change. As mentioned above, fish it a bit, or at least practice cast it some, and see how you like the handle length. Don't worry about having a shorter rod if you take some of the handle off, the 67" or so in front of the reel seat won't change. It will gain a little more of a tip heavy feel, but if the build is pretty light that is no big deal (in my experience).

Look for a local rod builder. A simple, lightweight build on a NFC blank should cost you about the same as an Edge, maybe less.

Lol... gas for me too. If Nfc would have stacked deltas down to $30 I would have made an order there. Since I couldn't do that, I bought gas and went fishin.

No, but if you like nice rods (especially those of the XF variety) you need to look it up.

My best guess is a combination of the time it takes + labor costs, and a emphasis on lightweight.