QED

PX Type R seems a much better fit to this rod than the Lew's Custom Lite:

Excellent point. It's a bit weird - I have some different style Shimano colfor aluminum reel seat rods from approximately the same era and they work fine with modern low profile reels.

The interesting thing about this particular Shimano boron rod specimen is that it is light action and designed for 1/16-3/8 oz lures, which is why I picked it up. I suppose I'll find out if it is brittle after hooking up my first decent sized fish!

Found this on the large auction site. Light action boron casting rod. Boron is sort of a dead evolutionary path for rod materials but not sure why. Anyway, interesting and functional historical artifact. If anyone can share any historical or engineering perspective, that would be much appreciated.

What happened in SD (other than the CA drought stuff)? Florida strain bass were introduced decades ago so big fish used to be common. I lived a year in La Jolla a while ago and the fishing in SD was great back then.

Cool, same as my Colnago and Pinarello bikes!

Stenuously disagree with this thesis. Materials science and manufacturing processes have improved immensely so current rods are much better than prior generations. The trickle down effect applies to the low and mid range as well, so no better time than ever to get appropriate fishing gear within your budget constraints.

Induction proof. Elegant stuff. But when it comes to bike racing or fishing stuff, the correct answer is always N+1.

I'm with you on this one. Regarding carbon fiber generally, the properties of the fiber are important but the layup orientation, the amount of resin vs fiber. and bunch of other physical design properties are also important, so the fact that a particular design uses high quality fiber is important but not sufficient to ensure a great rod. In other fields, manufacturers use CAD/CAM tools and FEM analysis to model potential designs so the results are more likely to be positive vs trial-and-error or experience based methods. I'm not a fishing industry insider so I don't know whether or not fishing gear designers have reached this level of sophistication. Would appreciate it if some insiders could comment on this.

Acronym salad for marketing purposes. Also used in their Legend Xtreme series if you wish to go with their highest end rods. I have one and like it just fine but still don't know what their marketing-speak even means.

Beetle Spin! Awesome but underrated bait. After all these years, those things still work great. My favorite variant was a jig spinner with a blue fox vibrotail minnow. Unfortunately, the latter item is no longer made.

Wow, Olmo was a super awesome brand! Any pix you can post?

Might need a replacement bail spring. Not definitive, but definitely a possibility.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'm in the process of simplifying my bait options so I'm going in the opposite direction and try to fit all my baits into a single 3700 size tackle tray. My nearest lake (4 miles from home!) is bank fishing only so traveling as light as possible is a dominant decision variable.

Agreed - considering how well Senkos work, it will be difficult to improve upon their efficacy. That said, I wish GYCB the best of luck in coming up with a better mousetrap.

Nice vintage gear! Back then the contemporanious Campy gear didn't shift nearly as well. To get best results, you had to overshift and then back off a bit in fairly quick succession. The mid/late 80s Campy Super Record gear mostly resolved that issue. My bikes are all Italian (except for a Ritchey breakaway travel bike) so I continue to use Campy. Glad to see that team UAE still uses Campy/Colnogo gear (also my favorite)!

Daiwa is a reputable manufacturer so I doubt that any Daiwa reel in your price range would be anything less than outstanding. I have a bunch of their high end casting reels and they have all worked brilliantly.

Some ML rods are BFS capable (e.g., Phenix K2 TX-C 683ML} but in general, UL/L power rods are probably a better choice for BFS use cases. Or better still, get a BFS specific rod - mine have been JDM sourced but they are becoming increasingly available in the US market.

They aren't that common now so probably best to go custom. Here's one for slider fishing: https://sliderfishing.com/shop/ols/products/slider-4-9-fishing-rod-with-tennessee-handle-blue-rod1

Interesting that the Shimano Stella FK was selected as Best Freshwater Reel for ICAST 2022 Best of Show. It was released quite a few months ago so most of the buzz should have already happened. At tech trade shows, we try to align new product introductions with the trade show event date(s) so that it is net new product information. Apple is notoriously secretive and does not tend to pre-announce anything.

Thanks @TOXIC for the new product descriptions. Always interesting to see where the new product development is headed.

I continue to use 4 and 6 lb stren mono. It is inexpensive and has been consistent over time.

Oops, meant "interesting."

Anything look particularly intesting?

Rudy Project sunglasses with custom ground lenses. Perfect for cycling and fishing. Cost? Many hundreds of dollars. Worth? Priceless.