.dsaavedra.

my thought are i wish i understood what you just said :-? but i think i understood it and i think it makes sense. ;D

i never thin it, but i like the way yours turned out. what do you use to thin it?

He's been lucky so far... any chemical that's strong enough to eat cured epoxy can also eat what's holding your rod's graphite fibers together! The safest way is to get through the cork and down to the epoxy and only smooth the high spots in the epoxy with a fine grit paper. Then finish it with a tinted or marbled finish to hide the old epoxy. Or use a light leveling coat and then thread wrap a pattern or color scheme over the area to hide the uglyness underneath. The new finish will level it all out if applied properly. the ugly stik's warranty had probably already expired, and i found the lightning rod at one of the places i fish so that thing didnt even have a warranty. i knew it would void the warranty and i would never to this to one of my nicer rods. i tried sanding the eopxy off and it is tough stuff! it would not come off! i dont have any "leveling coat". what is that? also, i dont have a rod wrapper, so doing the threads would be very difficult, and i personally think that marbling is very ugly. what could i do to hide the uneveness of the blank?

yeah two weeks sounds better and alot less complicated than my plan ;D

how does it take long to break down a 2pc. rod? theres nothin to it! just take it apart (2 seconds) and then reel in the slack (5 seconds) and stuff it in your backpack (10 seconds). its that easy. as far as getting a new rod just for this situation, i would much rather buy a different bait than buy a different rod. im sure the fish will bite other things than the shallow shad rap or glass shad rap. so do like stringjam said, either get a heavier shallow diver or a lighter deep diver and only pack one rod.

i think a good time limit on keeping the lure would be something like this: take it along and fish it a good amount of time on the next fishing trip after you get the lure. if you catch a fish, then send it along. if you dont catch a fish, then take the lure with you on your next fishing trip and fish it a good amount of time again. if still no fish, then just send it to the next person. how does that sound?

i did not sand off the old paint, i just worked right over top of it. you can still see where the old paint is on the belly and back in the first two pics (first post). i didnt really paint the entire thing either. for the sides (the realistic looking part) i used a photo finishing method, where you print a photo on tissue paper and then glue it to foil and glue the foil to your lure. and then you epoxy over it. and the epoxy makes the tissue paper translucent and the foil shines thru. then i painted the back and belly by hand to match the photo finish.

well mine took me longer than they should have. on the first one i did (spinning) i didnt sand down the glue on the blank well enough so after i painted it i had to sand off the paint because the paint really accentuated how rough it was under neath :-[ so i had to re sand it and it still wasnt too smooth. i might do like Tin told me and take some carborator or brake cleaner and wipe it down w/ that because that will eat away all the glue and just leave a bare graphite underneath. but all in all both those rods took me one day to complete.

where was the classic this year? i didnt even bother to watch it. i remember last year or two years ago they had it on the potomac and it was being held about a 45min drive from where i live. i didnt go.

very pretty fish. and a pretty rod too

great fish and great picture. i really like the lighting on that pic! ;D

i guess i did sound like a jackass earlier. i should have chose better words : but i think it would be great if there were a new members section opened up so that way the "general bass fishing" section could be all about fishing, and not have new member threads.

jake, this is my first time. i think split grips look good on both rods, but i like baitcasters more when theyre split and have the foregrip removed...i didnt have the balls to remove the foregrip on this one though :-/ and tin, i thought about doing this long before you told me you were doing it ;D

thanks smallieking. im glad you like it here is a pic of what the lure looked like before (its the circled one)

I split the grips on two of my rods. its pretty fun! im overall pleased with how they turned out, i just wish i sanded the blank smoother before i painted it.

LOL ;D I hear ya man!

i emailed the fisheries guy at my local DNR to ask him if it was OK for me to use live bluegills as bait where i was fishing. in a very prompt repsponse he said it was perfectly legal. so after that i went to the local park which is OVERRUN by bluegills about 3-4" long and i'd just drop a hook w/ a pice of white rubber (the best bait for them) in the water and catch a small bluegill. then i'd hook it in the back just under the dorsal fin. make sure the hook is fully exposed. alot of times the hook will turn around and penetrate the bluegill instead of the bass on the hook set. then i'd do a technique used on the chesapeake bay for striper called "live lining". what you do is you cast out your little fishie and wait for a bite. when you get a bite, open your bail or click into freespool. then let the fish run w/ your bait for about 30 seconds. after that close the bail or engage the spool and just crank down on it, dont set the hook with your rod. works well for me. i get great hook up ratios.

I don't keep count. Dave, I haven't caught a bass yet this year either... :-/ whats wrong with you, southern boy? you're supposed to be all up on the bass!!!! ;D

ok your argument makes sense. it would be nice to have a second rod for fast access to a different lure. as far as the rod goes, im not sure how much they cost. i have never purchased one. i had one given to me as a gift (A very cheap crappy one) and it broke. at first it was easy operating, but shorly after it broke. i personally wouldnt reccomend a teloscopic rod either, cuz i feel they are un-reliable. what you might consider is just getting a slightly shorter than normal (maybe 5' 8" or 6') 2 piece spinning rod, and just breaking it down and sticking it in a backback. sure the tops of the two pieces of rod will be sticking out, but its not like you have to be concerned about looking like a dork when you fish ;D one of my buddies left his 2 pc. spinnign rod at my house once and i brought it to school to give it to him and i just broke it down and stuck it in my backpack with the tops sticking out.

i realllllllly like that shad color in the top picture! nice work!

lol thanks micro. i might just have to steal that logo! maybe i'll purchase some clear lure bodies from janns and do em up pretty and sell em.

that is one of the ugliest reels ive ever seen.

YES!!! im getting a little tired of seeing all the moved threads and "hi new member here" threads. they are clogging up that section and making it difficult to get to the information that is there.

i have no idea but like fishizzle, i am going to keep track this year. #of bass; 2008: 0 easy! ;D

smallieking, they are very easy to expand and collapse. all you do it just strech it out to its full length to expand it. and then just push the sections toward the butt to collapse. the process takes a few seconds. but according to rapalas website, the 2.5" version of the shallow shad rap is 3/16oz, the 2.75" version is 1/4 oz, and the 3.5" version weighs 3/8oz. so the only one i could see as being difficult to cast is the 2.5" version. im sure if you practiced in your yard casting your shallow shad rap and playing w/ the controls on your casting reel, you could cast it no problem once the reel is set up right. perhaps it would be easier to just buy a bigger bait instead of buying a new rod? im sure the fish wouldnt notice 1/4" increase in size. those crankbaits are more of a reaction strike than a finesse type lure, so it wouldnt matter much.