bulldog1935

Old-school Champion rod grips with separate ferruled rod blades are right at home with round reels - they put a medium-frame large spool in the same thumb position as LP reel on straight blank-through-handle. My best buy on a new grip was the Smith Super Strike grip, a $100 Yahoo buy, though $125 is more typical, and list price for both Smith and Bright River offset grips begin at $150, and can double that for rare and ornate limited/ bench examples. The Japanese like these, and sell in a boutique market I call the Japan Underground. More recently, China maker Aioushi has entered this market with baitfinesse glass and composite rod blades - they sell the grips as "sink-type handle" the and rod blades as "ejection rod" - everything swaps with Japanese (and vintage US) Champion type ferrule and grip head chuck. I've been having fun tinkering old Langley reels into 2-3-g BFS by adding mag brake, and matched my first with Aioushi $50 ferruled rod blade and a Bright River SS Eyespot grip I already had without a current application. When I wanted to add a second, I looked at putting a straight cork grip on Aioushi grip blank. The grip blanks are made to quickly epoxy-on a wood pistol grip. I bought a $75 Aioushi grip blank, $25 Bright River cork, odds and ends to finish it out. The trick is to butt together a cut length of the cork aluminum tube onto the grip-butt tube, essentially using a spigot ferrule - or fixed, you call this a stint. Cork Al-tube, 13-mm I.D, 15-mm O.D.; Grip blank butt-tube, 14-mm O.D., 12-mm+slip-fit I.D. Ordered a foot of polycarbonate mechanical tube (clear "acrylic" but stronger) from Amazon for $8, 12-mm O.D., 8-mm I.D. I gave the grip-butt slip-fit epoxy feet by turning the stint section on my rod roller and used the smallest dremel sanding drum. Six-wrap shims of my blue PE/acrylic tape gave the Al-tube stint end 0.2-mm clearance fit, plenty of room for ProPaste epoxy film. I set the stint in one operation, Al-tube first, then used the long leftover piece of polycarbonate tube like a piston to push in the rod-butt slip fit and butt the two tubes. Here after a six-hour epoxy set - I also cured it on my rod-roller, to make sure epoxy flow was uniform. Finished rod grip after cork set. Langley Target on Bright River grip. Langley Lurecast on Aioushi grip from blank.

PE#0.6 PE#1.2 PE#0.8 there's plenty more where those came from

@F14A-B Probably long out of production 15-y-o Takamiya rockfish. I bought a pair for me and my daughter, 7'6" solid tip, and 7'9" tubular tip. Loco Move must get lost in translation Both rods are still on the winter glass minnow plate. I gave the Cetus to Eric for several reasons, including his friendship, wanting him to enjoy it, along with another friend giving me a new Cetus, and my general swap to Shimano for threadline braid. If you're looking for a finesse rod in this range, chase the NS Black Hole Dark Horse. The upgrade rods are Yamaga Blanks and then EverGreen. My buddy Lou fished-through a Major Craft rockfish (exploded the solid tip), moved up to Yamaga Blanks Blue Current III 711, can't pry from his cold fingers, etc. My Y/B TZ Nano 83 is untouched for distance-fishing finesse tandem rigs.

you want to fish plunge pools, and the current seam between fast and slow.

Hi Drew, there is free access at Canyon Dam, and the state will announce their free winter lease site at the beginning of December - current website still refers to last year: https://tpwd.texas.gov/fishboat/fish/management/stocking/guadalupe.phtml There are pay-access-sites along the full length of River Road - Maricopa Lodge, Whitewater Sports, Rio Raft (4th Xing), Li'l Ponderosa, Lazy L&L, Action Angler Fly Shop (3rd Xing), Rainbow Camp, River Road Camp - and probably half a dozen others. Once you're in the river, you can travel as far as you can wade, and I can think of some really good mile-long busts If you want to fish for endemic bass and bluegill, New Braunfels has city park access outside of the cold tailwater https://www.newbraunfels.gov/3369/Guadalupe-River Again, outside of the trout tailwater, and many counties restrict parking at County-road river crossings, but you can park at any state road crossing and get in the river - that includes FM, RR and SH.

you left out remarkable little brute. Eric's second-hand Cetus brought the karma of hundreds of seatrout with a few doubles thrown in, including redfish and slot snook.

Every Daiwa spinning reel with an optional A/R switch is made by Tica.

Every First Thought on Fluoro should be Seaguar. Knot strength is their first priority.

Anyone who's been to Korea knows they're a fishing culture. Dried fish (on a stick) sold by street vendors is their national snack (and the smell permeates to the top floor of the Seoul Hilton). You won't find a body of water anywhere in the country that the banks aren't lined shoulder-to-shoulder with fishermen. They have to try harder to sell in JDM, and NS Black Hole rods are among the best value made anywhere, from finesse to offshore. I suspect NS Craft handles are also made there, a classy upgrade to any reel. From a list of suppliers for Daiwa - wherever I found this interactive map, I flagged Doyo before I snipped it.

@newapti5 Varivas lines aimed at salt are also aimed for warmer water, and the coating is modified to be a little tougher. Again, their toughest coating is Si-X. YGK, Duel X-wire, Varivas - I've had 3-year life from each of these. There are only two brands where the coating peeled on the first Allbright knot - Yamatoyo, and a site sponsor. One thing stands out about the Si-X coating - rolling and cinching Allbright knot, the braid glides. As coatings get softer, they get stickier when cinching knots. This pretty knot is on Super Trout Advance, so you can see even Varivas coldwater line has a good coating.

I've been able to fit Revo LTX aftermarket parts on Lew's LFS (no spool swaps to fit Lew's 34-mm, though) When I dubbed my ZPI Alcance "Revo on Steroids" on TT Forum, I was corrected that this is a Banax-built reel.

Use the 20-lb fluoro for backing, and finish spooling with 20-lb Sufix 832

Never had a problem with fluoro and clinch knot or with Uni knot since the knot was called Duncan Loop. I have had problem with too-hard fluoro breaking at every knot, including surgeon's knot. A few brands that never had knot problems - Seaguar, Umpqua, Froghair.

Also never forget when swapping spools. First thing, open Zero set wide CCW. This prevents damaging palm plate latch or buckling spool spindle. Last thing - re-set Zero to incipient side play (in freespool).

I bought a Ryoga over winter and swapped the aluminum drive gears for Hyperdrive gears from Basara. (It was used in salt, and I replaced all the MagSeal bearings, also.) The brass gears definitely had a run-in, and the reel was a joy on my April salt-flats 3-day trip. It also got Yahoo-buy KTF Kahen spool, which both invented SV for Daiwa, and is copied by Ray's Studio in your sharp-purple honeycomb-SV braid spool. @F14A-B - do not fish PE#0.6 on Zillion unless it's Silver Wolf w/ increased LW-pitch. Stick to PE#1 or PE#1.2 on that pretty spool. You'd find #0.6 too spider-webby to mess with, anyway, or buy Ott lamp and magnifier.

Fifteen years ago, I discovered the hottest limp + abrasion-resistant salt-finesse copolymer, Kamikaze, available only from Oz. Sourcing this line fell apart in '20 postal crash. I used Kamikaze in 4-lb for salt finesse, and 6-lb on freshwater spinner. Otherwise, I fished 12-lb Abrazx from bulk spool across the board, and watched my friends fight with giant wind-balls of yellow power pro. I didn't consider braid until it caught up with my demands. First braid I used was Sufix 832, in 2018, and I approved. That same year, X-braid made by Izanas was introduced in Japan, sold as YGK WXP1 for $1/yd. The next year, the price started dropping w/ YGK X-braid Upgrade, and swapping 16-lb for 6-lb 832 in salt finesse was a no-brainer. Same year, I attacked BFS and discovered Izanas made X-braid for YGK, Varivas, and Duel (X-wire). The technology of the braid itself hasn't changed since then, but every label specifies their product from Izanas by fiber grade, weave and, especially, coating composition. In the long-run, you find coating composition limits braid life. The toughest braid coatings I've found are FEP+silicone, used on YGK WXP1 and Varivas Si-X. When the original run of WXP1 was closing out cheap, I spooled up several reels. I like Varivas Super Trout Advance on freshwater finesse but, otherwise, Varias Seabass Si-X is go-to for me, and most Japan orders keep me stocked up. The limpest+low-memory fluorocarbon made is also the most expensive, Solaroam Xthread, and Toray customizes the fomulation for each line diameter.

If I were fishing a reservoir, probably nothing shorter than 6'6" and closer to 7' Fishing my river kayak, sometimes can't get too short, especially for skipping under cypress overhang - I have 2-and 3-power rods down to 5' and 5'3" My mud-marsh sight-fishing rods are 6'4", flats-drifting rods are all over 7' Shore fishing and surf-lure rods are nominally 8' to 9' And of course, surf meat rods are 11' to 14' If you look at a cast as a ballistic shot, every 20% increase in rod tip speed doubles cast distance.

The most important thing with spinning tackle is always fish a swivel, e.g., a micro-swivel bite trace. I fished BG mono for 25 years, then Seaguar fluoro for another 15, while many of my friends were fighting massive braid wind knots. I didn't switch to braid until the quality of braid caught up. I recommend nothing less than coated braid, such as Sufix 832. You also don't want to stack thin braid too deep - the more you stack thin line, the more the error adds up to give bad line lay, such as reverse cone and hourglass, which also promotes wind knots. If it's going to take more than 120 yds to fill your spool, back with heavier line, 50 yds or so, your working braid will get a good flat line lay. ps @Stylez78 - this online calculator is Perfect for stacking lines: https://www.pattayafishing.net/advanced-fishing-reel-line-capacity-estimator/ The biggest error people make with spinning tackle is letting the line run free at the end of cast - this is what causes problems. If you learn to manual bail, feathering the line coming off the spool with your free hand, then closing the bail with that same hand, rather than using crank auto-bail close, you'll solve most problems people complain about spinning tackle.

I used my back-up reel once, in March 2018. Backlashed because my line had a single wrap on my rod tip, and honestly, can't remember any other backlash (except for my very first one in 1974 when I swore I'd never do that again), but sure, they go way back. Good call on the day too, my buddy on his first TX trip and first paddle to the tide pass caught five by the time I had my back-up reel threaded on the rod. There were still plenty to go around. In fact, one of most consistent-catch three-day trips I can remember. Over the three days, the spring wind made violent swings for each day, and kept everything moving.

@Stylez78 - at that price end, you'll find Daiwa spinners built like a tank - not so much for Shimano, but at the other price end, Shimano has line-management edge, and their worm-drive reels are perfect for salt. A friend, who's also a noted inshore/offshore videographer, got tired of replacing Nasci and moved up to Stradic.

I'm betting the Daiwa will be more versatile for distance with a wider weight range, especially the light end. I sold two Lew's centrifugal-brake reels. (love mag-brake Super Duty G) Welcome to BR.

I don't think you're following - Hiawatha reference was Solid glass - not modern, tubular S-glass. If skipping is on your menu, none will beat this: If you have a need for telescope, go Japanese - nothing less than Daiwa BBB. This is Smith Dagger stream.

@HawkeyeSmallie - hi, friend. The only reference to Hiawatha I could find on FFR identified a 7' solid-glass fly rod, which would date it to around 1950. Yes, that would be really heavy. Noteworthy about 5000D, Abu made it to be lighter than every other Ambassadeur. The offset grip is modern Japan Underground, made by Bright River for a limited-run Headhunter's 10th Anniversary Kingfisher edition. The S-glass 3-power rod blade is Bright River Glaflex, wrapped in Headhunters green. Offset grips are a perfect match with medium-frame round reels, placing spool in the same thumb reach as a LP reel on straight-grip rod. Of course the reel is even lighter with full-Avail alloy+BB level wind mods, and will fish 1/8 oz.

hmm '73 5000D fresh off my bench.

All my reels get a cover. For round reels, it can be a logo or inexpensive neoprene beer-can-type. I really like Tailwalk wrap-around, comes in both M and S, and most every reel project gets one. For my 5000D project, decided to spring for a spendier cover made by Tsunami Lures. Unfortunately, it doesn't fit small frames, but it's perfect for all medium-frame round reels. The shell is nylon, with cut-outs for both Ambassadeur and Isuzu clutch button, and the front doesn't interfere with line from the spool. The sides and flaps are leather, handle cut-outs, and closes with a classy brass clogball. Also couldn't come up with a way to attach my favorite G-nius hook keeper to the reel frame, so I bought KDW saddle bracket for G-nius, which is made to attach to a spinning reel stem or rod-blank butt (comes w/ 2 screw sets for either job).