Michigander

Longevity is part of the extra cost of the fancier reels imo. But I have to blow through 8ish discounted Fuegos to break even on one Steez. Assuming it's a purely money equation.

I have the casting 7'5" Heavy Flip. If I wasn't getting into rod building, I would be buying several more. Worth every penny to me. Rod is quite light, though I have one of the heavier models in the flip version. Build quality is excellent. Mine is listed as moderate action, which is accurate. Heavy power, which is also accurate. It has a little less than my XH so that seems perfect. The power/action combo is a little magical for me. I'm often using it in 10-15ft emergent weeds and I have to winch a bass from the lake bottom to the boat. This rod is too sensitive to fish a swim jig on, in my opinion, lol. Which was a funny problem to me. Good luck finding any real information on these though. I just had to spin the wheel.

In my experience, yes. Once you get over the hump of low priced junk, all the reels get pretty good in that $100-150 range. Anything beyond that is just small improvements in performance. A $100 reel probably is twice as good as a $50 but a $300 reel is not twice as good as a $150. Rods follow a similar path up through $150-300. You have to drop some serious dough to get significantly better after that, and usually they are hyper specific rods. Not always, but often.

White, power poles are an eyesore. Better IMO if it blends with the hull.

For most applications rod, line, then reel for me. Though in all cases, I'm not skimping on my terminal tackle (hooks, etc).

Records go to those that are prepared and willing to do the paperwork. For the rest of us, we just get a memory and a story.

A reprieve from the Bait Monkey so my bank account can lay low and lick its wounds for a while. ?

Called Mudhole again and it looks like I am in luck. The PAC Bay Minima skeleton seats mate up to the G2 grips perfectly! I like the feel of the Minima seats and it is nice that they have all the ID sizes to get within half a millimeter of your blank size.

Those rods are too rich for my blood, lol. But I think I can build similar for much less which I am totally in to! I get a lot of satisfaction catching fish on jigs that I tied myself, so I am also looking forward to catching with rods I built. It's a great feeling. I love the DIY lifestyle. That's great information! Agree, no snaggy bits on the kayak! You have enough to deal with without getting your gear hung up on your rig/self.

Oh gotcha. Then I'll defer to the straight FC experts. ?

Throwing a finesse jig was what helped me. Regular jigs used the same technique, just bigger rods, line, and lures. The advantage of the finesse jig is that you will get more bites and the light bulb will go off sooner. After it clicked with finesse jigs, I was able to jump up to regular sized jigs really easily.

15/16 is my normal jig leader. Works fine, never had a break off that wasn't my fault.

Ok, great. I was hoping for a bit more textured than glass, lol. Yes, after the black friday sales, I'm having a hard time finding them in stock. Thankfully I have a while to gather components. Not sure how many you've built for customers, but have you been hearing that they are preferred over more traditional grips? I had a similar feeling about the CFX ones based on the pictures. I almost pulled the trigger on the NFC ones but wanted to see if I could find plain ones which the Bushido ended up being. I also like the convenience of having a system of compatible parts to just assemble the handle area with.

It's on the ground!? Well, the Army can't help you now. Best to lock the doors and windows and wait it out in the basement. ? Thankfully it will be back to the upper 30s this weekend so I won't totally freeze my caboose off on the kayak.

Had about half an inch this morning, so nothing crazy. But it's definitely early winter.

You're going to have some nice rods! The carbon life is also drawing me in. I want Winn on my moving bait rods but something extra fancy on my bottom contact rods. My push to do it was that my taste in nice rods is exceeding my budget, lol. Plus, I'm so picky about components that I'll never find perfect for me rods on the shelf. If reel building was a thing, I would probably be in for that too.

I think the insert will be just fine. I'm a new builder so assembling premade parts is more my speed than coming up with new and unique solutions, lol. AT said that they use the Fuji inserts as well without issue.

Just called AT and they said Tsuka is only 3k, so that's the end of that. They also advised me to use an insert for the Razor.

Oh, that's cool. Didn't know that about the Razor. Haven't put it on the blank yet as I'm still waiting on components. Do you think it needs an insert or can the blank just be "floating" in the exposed section?

I thought I saw the plain version in a promo shot... Maybe I was mistaken. If it's only weave I will pass, lol. I've got a Razor on my bench for another build. Seems pretty cool. I'm more of a skeleton seat guy though.

I guess I meant more like the feel of PVC, smooth and rigid? I'm quite interested in this type of grip, never had one. I guess if it shatters I can always Winn wrap it, lol.

I just saw the promo video for the new AT Tsuka reel seat and that looks pretty sweet as well!

I have a Piscufun Alijos 300. It's fine, though the spool doesn't turn great so the casting distance is leaving some things to be desired. After tearing it down and inspecting it, I didn't see a difference between the lower priced offerings by name brands. They're probably all made in the same factories, lol.

So it feels kind of like a PVC pipe then?

If I went G2 and non AT reel seat, it'll most likely be a Pac Bay Ultra Lite skeleton seat. I like that seat quite a bit. @kayaking_kev ok, so the Bushido grips are the non-patterned ones, that's good to know. It was unclear in the product images I was reviewing which was which. I'm not a huge fan of the weave pattern.