Michigander

That lure has a beautiful paint job!

Part numbers?

Well, as many of you may have noticed, it is winter and that means for many of us that there isn't much fishing to be had, so I figure we can play a rod building game to help pass the time. This might be fun for our seasoned artisans and novices like myself. Here's the rules: I'll post a picture of an off the shelf bass rod every week until spring. The goal is to try and replicate the photo as closely as possible. You tell us how you'd build it and what components you would use. You'll pretend that you are either building for a client or as a personal project for yourself. The budget is up to $1,000 before labor, but you need to use materials from sources available to most people or reasonably scratchbuild/fabricate parts yourself (i.e. no custom industrial processes). We're mainly focusing on the handle/grip/reel seat setup but you can mention guide train or anything else if you want. Assume all rods are about 7'0" long and a general purpose M or MH. So that's it! Here's our first rod, how would you replicate it?

I'm in the market for a low handle slop, black reel for pitching jigs so this might be my pony. Thanks!

Not me, but I have sat in a lot of Rangers and they are not built for us larger framed fellows, I'll say that. My Triton is very comfortable. #TritonIsSolidlyDecent

I'm looking at color matching, so the mostly black of the regular was what was drawing me in. My Tour has pretty tight handle knobs (which is a good thing), how is the play in the regular?

Any real difference between the regular casting and Tour? I have a Tour but haven't used it yet but was thinking about adding a regular S3 to the collection.

I do fish when it is freezing, lol. I'm probably going to build a cold weather swim bait rod this summer so I can not pull my hair out next December.

Yeah, I ordered the NFC carbon grips last night. I think they are going to be lighter than Winn. I just need to know for myself whether I like them or not so I will roll the dice. I haven't had any issues with Winn Grips deteriorating either. I think they get kind of a bad reputation coming from the golf world where they do break down due to the club handles rubbing against each other in the golf bag. Our rods don't experience that type of wear.

LoL, sorry for the miscommunication. In a world of fancy low profile knots the double uni just seems unsophisticated. I would love to be tying FG knots or similar but I just can't get the hang of it. I practiced all winter a couple years back and couldn't get good enough to use it on the water.

Oh, I don't blame the knot, it was certainly the guy tying it that was at fault. ? Sure, here's a link to the uni to uni:

I never understood the difference between those. What applications are for each type?

I'm in!

Only aftermarket options as far as I'm aware.

I love the Hitena braid other than the fact that it is so sharp it cuts through my fluorocarbon leaders. Had it on a rod for two summers and it looks as good as the day I bought it. REALLY thin in the 15ish pound test though.

Other than the insanely expensive braid that I can't remember the name of right now, Gliss is probably going to be your best bet for distance. You're paying for those extra yards with an inability to deal with abrasion, but if open water distance is all you care about then it might be worth a try.

I'm not a wizard with knots so easy + reliable is good enough for me. I know my minimum inner guide ring diameter and I carry on fine. I was using a crazy alberto for a while but after losing some lures on the cast, I said screw it and went back to my heathen knot. It holds strong and I can tie it in the dark, wind, and with frozen fingers.

Well maybe I will just get over it and flip a coin between Winn Grips and the NFC Carbon grips that are on sale for $20 right now. Their pattern is tolerable to my eye.

You're welcome! We even explored the option of setting up a server in one of the lockers but Garmin's code base is so locked down you can't be "creative".

LOL. I don't mean to press, I'm just a data guy and this rod building thing has a lot of art and feel in it. So if you were building for a guy who's favorite color was black and he wanted to have the best chance of detecting a bite by a ninja bass, what would you pick?

You'll lose a bit of open water power, it's the tradeoff. Since I spend most of my time in or near the slop, I want the 4WD capability. If it gets too windy, just lower your motor more, helps a wee bit. I have a 21' Triton and I can still stay on spot in the super wind. Just not as snappy as the three blade version.

So it is your opinion that it is all looks and there's no functional difference between materials?

So, hypothetically, if all grips looked the exact same visually, and the only difference was the material, what would be your thought process for choosing a grip? I get that only like a couple inches of my meat mitt of a palm is even touching it while fishing, so I am not even sure what a grip does during active fishing. Yes, I agree the shrink is counterproductive but I figure the weight is minimal and it hides the weave, which I get that a lot of people like but I'm just not into. I feel like Winn tape would be heavier than the shrink tubing but I haven't weighed them. Also, adding the Winn tape destroy the rigidity and would be more work/more expensive than Winn Grips. Yes, I know about the surface prep, you schooled me on that before my first build and I took it to heart. There's more material than in the image, that reel seat wouldn't even function the way it is shown I don't think. The nut wouldn't move enough to lock the reel.

I'm a barbarian and use a uni to uni knot and micros are a no-go for my leaders, lol.