Michigander

"They" say that the micro guides reduce line slap thus preventing some kinetic energy being robbed from the lure in flight. However, I think that you're going to get that from a properly spaced, sized, and reduced guide train anyway. I think they are mostly for weight reduction forward of the reel seat and the benefits that that provides.

Getting to the lake and launching in that soft pre-dawn light, looking at the swirls of hungry bass getting breakfast, sliding the boat into glass calm water, and then finding out there's a serious problem with the boat that requires retrailering, going home, and spending the rest of the day making repairs.

But isn't the big draw of the carbon fiber coming from the rigidity of the grip, which Winn Grips don't have? The G2 stuff is over twice as expensive as this but I did consider it.

I've got Motorguide so I can't help you with Minn Kota other than two blades are better than three. And I love my Grass Ninja, will go on all future Motors regardless of brand. Five out of five shurikens.

We had a similar setup and they can't talk to each other beyond sharing a waypoint. They can't share a transducer per Garmin's technical hotline and hours of research on our end. So you would have to mount a second transducer off the back.

What brand/model of trolling motor?

Ok, so I like what I am hearing about carbon fiber but I think that woven pattern is awful looking. So I think I'll just cover it in heat shrink. So is this a sound idea for making a casting grip on a 7'3 MH and a 7'3" H, which will both be bottom contact rods where I want maximum sensitivity and lightest practical weight? Or is this flawed and/or stupid? I figure the EVA butt with rubber/metal cap would lend some butt weight to help with balance. Parts Reel Seat: MINIMA Ultra-Lite Exposed Blank Casting Reel Seat My favorite reel seat. Grip: CFX Composite Carbon Fiber Grips - Casting Split Grip Butt: Split-Grip Fighting Butt with Tenon Butt Cap: CRB Handle System Butt Cap MHBC Heat Shrink: CRB Smooth Heat Shrink Grip Tubing So you have your parts (don't judge my photo compositing skills, you have faults too) How they would be arranged on the blank: And then with the heat shrink applied, with both shrink ends being tucked under the butt cap and covered by the back of the reel seat for a neat and finished look.

That's what gift cards are for! Those things you can't quite pull the trigger on with your own money. $18 isn't cheap, but it's the same a 3-4 bags of soft plastics and I have plenty of those that don't catch anything, lol. What you should really be concerned with is what if it works amazing for you? And you need more weights and colors.... And a new tray to keep it all organized... And a new rod and reel for an optimized experience...

You can change the side the handle is on for most spinning reels. ?

I'm right handed and avoided bait casters for a long time because the switching hands thing made no logical sense to me. I use the left hand retrieve bait casters now and love them. I get that a lot of people are used to RH retrieve, but if you were starting fresh, why would you do that to yourself? LoL To me, for a right handed person, a RH retrieve bait caster is a specialty reel for actual flipping, because you're manipulating the line and the handle gets in the way if it's on the left side. #LeftSideIsTheRightSide

They do have quite a bit of extra parts in the fit and finish department.

That's a cool upgrade to the paddles! How do they hold up on the paddles?

Keep walking.

I got a bunch of poptop pill bottles off Amazon to keep everything sorted last year. Worked great. For bait specific stuff, I am expanding my collection of those Plano trays with slots for tackle and soft plastics. Having a tube box with my go to baits and typical terminal is nice to have in a single tray. Before, I had to open three trays to get all my components so it wasn't time efficient.

Never used it for rods so I was unsure whether it was the same exact thing as electrical heat shrink. Ok, I can deal with ten years of service life! Great tip for cleaning!

I'm looking to use heat shrink on an upcoming build. My question is about how long heat shrink tends to last? Am I safe to integrate it into the build or should I be expecting to replace it down the road and thus should use it in a way that won't be a headache to remove the old and put a fresh shrink on?

That's awful that you don't get to fish much, but I guess it's better than the alternative. ?

I was also going down that the path of trying to get some kind of measurable technical information on guides. I didn't find what I was looking for, lol. I ended up with SSR guides from Mudhole because they barely weigh anything, cost little, and I could step down a size guide and still maintain ring hole diameter of a size bigger in a more mainstream guide. Time will tell if I made good choices.

That makes sense. I'm looking at making only for myself, just making sure I ask around in case there's a performance reason that companies don't use these materials. Have you been fishing with the G2's or just building with them?

Ok, but you're not getting the vibe that these materials are wrong for the application though, correct? Yeah, the G2 stuff is actually much heavier than I think a lot of people, myself included, thought. Sorry, they being slick butts. Some of that mega fish stuff is designed to be a shock absorber and lessen your fatigue when battling the big saltwater fish.

I guess it doesn't really matter, those seem to be designed for thick boy rods, my blank is much smaller than the smallest ID I can find in one of these. oh well, back to the design process!

Hmm... I learned a new term today. Those seem to be of nylon and fiberglass construction. Do you think they would be sensitivity killers? I can't find much information on them outside their intended use for fast pulling trolling rods out of rod holders.

I guess I should have been more specific, I meant solid hard plastic. After posting this I did find a couple sites selling ABS plastic handles, though most of the emphasis seemed to be toward ice rods which was interesting. Well, I am going to design and 3D resin print a handle for a punching rod I'm building soon. Trying it out

Yeah, I am "down" to just six primary rods on my boat deck and two specialty rods (drop shot/punching) in the locker depending on the lake/river. Rod Mountain was getting out of control last year and I needed to get more streamlined.

I'm wondering why there aren't plastic or resin-cast rod grip materials. If there are, I have been unable to locate them. It seems that the rigidity of the material would not dampen vibration and the customization options of the materials would be nearly endless. So is there a functional reason why these materials seem to be absent from suppliers?