Sota

That’s a nice looking rig. I like the dark cork with the light veining.

No. I totally get that. If I were in the business. I wouldn’t take a pile of parts from someone… can you build this? You don’t know the history of the parts. There might be damage somewhere in the pile. That may bite you later on. Then you might have Billy Joe Bob bad mouth you all over the place.

I haven’t started working with a rod builder. I’m looking for a rig for Texas rigs 4-5”. I’m in Tennessee. So probably going to be a lot of river and lake bank fishing. No boat. I have a hard time feeling river bottom/ fish bites. Coming from a salmon/ steelhead side of fishing. So my thoughts are a medium x fast rod. Lightweight guides probably micro guides. As far as line. I’m thinking around 15 lb braid on spinning reel. As far as handles, reel seat, thread, thread colors. I’m not sure yet. I know I want a rig that stands out from other rods.

I’m not building anything yet. Just trying to do my research on what I want. So far I know I want an x fast medium rod with micro guides. As far as the rest. I’m still up in the air. I saw the X Ray blanks at a good price. So I’m trying to figure out if that’s what I should go with.

For those of yall that have used their products. How are the North Fork X Ray rods/ blanks? I found an X Ray blank that is medium x fast. Looks like it could be a decent base for a spinning setup. The blank is 80” long. Fair warning. lol. I’m sure I will have a lot of questions. As I have not had a custom rod built before.

To me sensitivity is being able to feel a fish bite or the bait as it bounces off the bottom of the river. When I was fishing in Washington state. Before I knew better. I got a a Lamiglas Kenai special. An 8’6” heavy rod. That rod took me awhile to figure things out. I tried lotta things. My go to for lure/ bait was a pink corky with pink yarn. I had to go to a heavy weight. A few feet up the leader I attached another line to tie the curly yarn. while I could feel the weight bouncing off the river bottom. I rarely felt the fish bite. I felt when the fish took line. Not ideal. Now that I moved to another state. I am wanting to try bass fishing. I’m looking for as much info as I can to find a good setup. I started out thinking 250 ish budget for both rod and reel. That kinda went out the window. When I couldn’t find what I wanted. A med xtra fast micro guide. I’m not finding anything in the budget I was thinking of. I’m thinking I might have to go custom or at least step up into something Mo money Mo money.

Mike’s please don’t confuse me and my 2 brain cells. They’re having a hard fight figuring out who is going to eat who. I admit I forgot about the rod tip. I’m wondering. Assuming same rod blanks and guides. Would adding more weight on the rid butt end make the rod feel more sensitive on the top? Like if you were to use a light weight reel on one rod. A heavy reel on another. Would the feel change that much?

In my mind. It seems a regular Titanium guide vs a stainless steel micro guide. They’d be pretty close in weight. A titanium micro would be the lightest of them. I’m not going to venture into the graphite guides. I’ve not seen them to say one way or the other.

Rocks in your reel? Are you spelunking or checking on your still? It’s Tn so ya never know. lol

Question for those that know more than I. Ok that’s pretty much everyone. If you’re not doing a deep cleaning/ complete tear down. How do you clean the internals? In the firearms industry years ago. There was a company that said to use lighter fluid to clean the internals on their triggers. I’m thinking that could be used to clean the internals in a reel. Then when it’s dried you can use a graphite oil.

Bear with me and my little pea brained Polish math. Delaware Tackle charges 26 to deep clean a reel. Let’s say you need 5 reels cleaned. That’s 130. Now figure shipping and insurance 50ish “ Polish mathing it”. Now we at 180 ish. Going by his time allotment of 1-1.5 hours. For the 5 reels we are looking at 5-7.5 hours. That’s the timing of someone that knows what they are doing. For those of us that have never deep cleaned a reel. There’s going to be added time. Not to mention the flurry of curse words. That make it seem I have Tourettes. Cause now I can’t find that ball bearing that was JUST here. Not to mention what is your time worth? To me it’s worth paying the 180ish “ Polish math again “ to get the 5 reels done right

If I can chime in. I like to support the good guys in brick and mortar businesses. If they charge a reasonable price and they are good at what they do. Why not support them? If we don’t support the good guys. One day they might not be there.

Tbh I’ve not tied braid to FC. My fishing experience is river fishing for steelhead mostly. The rig I used there was corkies and yarn. The corkie would be tied above the hook. The yarn was tied behind the corkie hiding the hook. The line was like 8’ long and connected to a clip. The clip was tied to the main line. The hook and leader was pre tied and stored in a pip box.

I like Danny Trejo’ Breaking Bad. When a tortoise is shown walking around with Danny Trejo’s head on its back.

Sounds like something I would do. Only I’d probably tell the fish… sit… sit…. Stay

My thinking is that is more than a scratch on the finish. That looks like there is damage deeper into the rod. If it were me. I’d bite the bullet and get another rod.

If I may chime in. For overcast/ low light conditions. I’d use a yellow lens. For bright days I’d use a grey or green lens. Whatever color lens you get. Make sure it’s polarized.

So the newest and greatest inserts don’t really matter much? It’s more a marketing thing? I get the weight can make a difference. Ti being lighter than stainless. Is there carbon graphite guides now? I thought i saw something about that. I kinda know about the frequency idea. From my old days in golf. Brunswick golf did away with calling the shafts regular, stiff, x stiff. They gave it numbers instead. Like 5.0 regular. 6.0 stiff 7.0 x stiff. You just had to put the shaft butt in a holder and measure the cycles per minute/ frequency. I think they started that in late 70s early 80s.

Ok ummm Are we talking Jif or Goober grape? Crunchy or smooth Jif? I mean that can make a big difference.

When I was asking about the weight differences. I meant in regards to the recovery from deflection. As for the guides and inserts. To me the insert and guide material would make a difference in feel. My little pea brain is thinking. The fish transfers its information “ for lack of better term” through the line. The line transfers info from the line through the insert, to guide, to rod, and ultimately into your hands. To me if an inferior guide insert/ guide is used. The feel would be affected. Better insert/ guides better feel. If my thinking is flawed. By all means someone let me know. And explain where my thinking took a turn when I should have gone straight.

Has anyone figured out the weights of say regular height, micro guides, titanium micro guides? Is the weight difference going to make a difference or not that much? Does the guide insert material make a big difference in the feel?

The more I’m looking into it. The more I’m thinking about a custom rod is needed. I’m not finding much if anything I like without spending mo money mo money. I’m thinking something in a 7’ med x fast able to handle 15-20lb braided and able to handle 5/8ish oz for Tex rigged senko. Spinning rod setup. My thinking is if I’m spending 250-300 on a factory rod. I should probably start looking at custom. That way it’s setup exactly how I want/ need

Thanks for the info. The micros are new to me as is bass fishing. I started my fishing up in Washington state. I went after steelhead mostly. The Cowlitz was usually my go to. I’d go to the dam first to see how it was. If it was crowded I’d go down river aways

I don’t know if this is the right place to post this. If not Mods feel free to move to appropriate place. I’m trying to wrap my little pea brain around micro guides. What are the pros/ cons to micro guides? Where do they excel in application? What applications do they come up short?

If you want to put together a Point Blank. I volunteer to try it out for you. I can even give it a good home.