SkinnyWaterBasser

Buying a factory rod is likely a thing of the past for me. Unless it's replacing my daughter's princess zebco. I'll buy her as many as she wants.

How do I get on your friend list?! Lol seriously, what a guy!

I just pulled the trigger on a point blank 701mlf. It's been recommended by lots of people to me and to tons of other people who have asked about a high-end blank for all around finesse Bass fishing. Now I can put them aside my side. ( Once it gets here )

Alex answered my email pretty quickly last night and was as helpful as he could be given the circumstances. I'm over my annoyance and just going to build it out, it's just going to be more of a niche rod.

Oh, and they sent the blank without a decal. The tip measurement is definitely has me thrown off. It's advertised to fit a 4.5 tip top but a simple conversion to 64ths says that it's more likely to fit a 3.5. Alex did tell me that they vary, I just struggle to find almost a 20-25% difference in overall diameter as an acceptable tolerance, it seems like differences that big could dramatically change the response of the blank. Not really sure I want to roll the dice with customer service after I've had a couple emails with simple questions go unanswered since I've started down the path of building my own.

Lead Head, rather than sending it back I think I'll keep it and build something with it, it's going to be my first regardless so if I build something that's not perfect that's better suited for panfish duty I will feel better about it, it definitely seems like a very nice blank but their rating of 1/8-3/8 seems a bit overstated. I'll find a use for it, it's just not that all purpose finesse Bass blank I had hoped. I'll be ordering a point blank or an rx10 rainshadow this week ( or both ?) who knows, on the water testing could prove I'm all wrong.

Well this whole project just got postponed indefinitely, NFC sent me a 721, not a 722 by my measurements. I'm asking to just return it for a refund vs waiting another month for possibly another wrong blank. Super SUPER annoyed right now.

So I pretty much try not to figure this amount out. I'll just go with " I really REALLY love to fish". So much that I've decided to start building my own custom rods, another way to spend money on fishing gear. Lol I'll add that 5 yrs ago I had 4k worth of rods reels and tackle stolen out of the cabin after a break in. It's all been replaced plus some, lol

I'm not adding weight. I think I'll just mock up the reel seat and grips at various lengths just to see what feels best. See what level of weight forward is most acceptable, I guess I should have said without adding weight. Lol

I definitely plan to practice with the locking loops loops for the single footers tonight after work, didn't practice any yesterday as I went out to find some prespawn largies yesterday ( with pretty good luck for a new body of water) everything I need to start the build should be here this week, so I'll be planning my layout and purchasing all of my final pieces, I spent a good deal of time yesterday with a spinning rod in my hand so I've been thinking about what I would change about it and the main things were length of grip and balance. My spinning rod is pretty light (sub 4 oz) and tip heavy probably due mostly to the guide selection and layout, the split grip on it I plan to shorten up by the length of the butt cap, approximately 2.75". The butt cap extends just past the bone on the inside of my elbow and I spent a lot of time thinking about not hooking it on my jacket so that has to change. Thank you guys for your critiques, and stay tuned!!!

Here's one where I utilized the pull loop and finished the wrap. Am I high enough up on the guide or do I need to get farther into the bend of the guide?I'm going to continue to work with smaller guides now and see how those go? Looking ALMOST acceptable...

This one cut the distance from start of thread to guide foot in half but I believe I can do better. I'm getting the feel for this pretty darn quick.

Three like this one this afternoon all on a BBB 3/16 swimbait head and a 3.8 keitech The bare minimum to get the wrap started essentially? I'm also thinking that I need to file the guide feel a little more to cut the angle slightly. Back to the practice bench!!

First attempt to wrap a guide, definitely not perfect but better than what I anticipated. What do you guys think? I'm going to head to the river for a while to try and catch something. Be back later on. ??

How do I go about posting pictures?

This is a GREAT tip, I dropped one when I was filing the guide feet and it took an hour to find it in the carpet. I'm putting a cardboard floor down to keep from losing stuff. These micros are TINY. How do I go about posting pictures?

This is a GREAT tip, I dropped one when I was filing the guide feet and it took an hour to find it in the carpet. I'm putting a cardboard floor down to keep from losing stuff. These micros are TINY.

Any reason I couldn't use rubber o rings to help in placing my guides? I can get them super cheap on Amazon.

That's all I would build for, good friends and family, and not necessarily for a big profit but to just recoup some of my supply costs. If things go well I would definitely be interested in doing some donations too, possibly to veterans. I don't want a business out of this at all, my job pays me enough. I'm just trying to find a hobby for when I'm not on the water. I just researched the whole federal excise tax thing and it just sounds like more responsibility than I want to deal with not to mention all the other things you mentioned.

Stranger things type monster rabbits ?

Now the bait monkey ain't the only monkey I gotta feed. No doubt about it, I'm already searching out what I want in a jig rod. Lol my excitement has me talking about it to a couple buddies who are now interested in customs, might recoup a couple bucks there ?glad you decided to stick around to check out the process!!

Well guys, the wrapper should be here this weekend along with some epoxy and thread finish, and a bunch of thread, I got a cheapo rod from goodwill that I'm going to practice on before I take the step to my build. I'm going to start sharing pictures for opinions and pointers as I practice, NFC has my blank on the way, grips are also en route, reel seat is shipping from Japan, should be around 2 weeks I was told. All the pieces to the puzzle are almost here!!

Is it a good idea to epoxy the reel seat, grips, and arbors all together to be reamed as 1 piece? Or is this a terrible idea?

Man I'm sorry to hear that. Some people suck. Thank you for your input on the subject!! After fishing a buddy of mines legend elites for a weekend I've opted for a size 17 Fuji TVS reel seat. I think I will run it up locking and go with a small nub transitioning from reel seat to the blank. It was very comfortable in my hand. One is on the way, along with some minimal carbon fiber accents. Can't wait to share build progress with you guys! What's everyone's preference on arbors? What are the benefits of poly foam vs graphite vs tape?

U-40 the same company that makes permagloss sells a 2 part finish called duragloss. I did see the car stuff in my web search. Lol I'm not against a thin coat of epoxy. I'm not against permagloss. I'm just spending time while I wait for NFC to get my blank to me to educate myself.