S Hovanec

The operator greatly affects the ride if a boat. Don't discount Phoenix based on one ride. Get behind the wheel yourself.

I have replace seats as Mick has described, but I use a foam arbor instead. I take measurements of the blank and ream the arbor to the specs. Then, I slice through one side of the arbor lengthwise with a razor saw. That allows it to expand enough to clear the larger butt. Glue in place, then install the seat.

......from Japan. The Stradic is for my wife so I can reclaim the 2500MgFB she absconded with when I gave her my old SCV DS rod. The Vanquish is for a Rainshadow Eternity I'm building. It will match the black Titanium Fuji guides quite nicely.

Boat 2700 Motor 400ish Trailer 600 give or take Fuel 200 or so Batteries...... Trolling motor..... Gear...... 3900+ No way would I consider a vehicle that could only tow 3500.

Am I the only one that believes a rod warranty should be 1 year or less? If it doesn't break the first couple times it's used, obviously there are no manufacturer defects. I load up every blank I buy prior to building it. If it doesn't break, there's nothing wrong with it. Think GM or Ford is gonna replace your truck after you run it through the garage door? Why do we expect rod companies to do the same? It's all Gary's fault for starting that lifetime BS years ago.

I'm working on cutting back to only using my buddy's hand poured plastics.

Duracell AGMs from Sam's are the cats behind. I have 3 in my boat.

Heaviest to lightest: 1, 3, 2. By a large margain if the foam in #1 is waterlogged like it most likely is. #3 would be my preferred boat of those 3.

I can't wait to see the mount(s)!

Been kicking around getting one of these for probably 3 years. Finally pulled the trigger (pun intended). Savage BMag Target chambered in .17 WSM. Vortex Crossfire II 6-18x44 AO scope on high Burris rings. Can't wait to go plink some cans with it.

You're not going to install exposed seats from the rear unless you install them on a larger sleeve that will fit over the butt of they blank. Then you need to build up the blank so the seat/sleeve will tightly fit where required.

I don't use heat to remove the epoxied tops, I carefully slice the tube with a Dremel and peel it off. Yes, some heat is generated, but not like holding a lighter or alcohol lamp under it. Actually it's more like grinding the tube with the face of a cutoff wheel than actually slicing with the edge.

I use 5-minute epoxy on my tiptops, so that's another reason I don't worry about wrapping the tip. After a couple of instances when tips melted off in my rodlocker, I switched from the hotmelt.

Yes, decorative, however some builders wrap up onto the tube. I do not, I don't like the transition, so I just stop at the tube.

My favorite reel is a JDM Shimano with a shallow spool. 10 yards of backing and 50 yards of braid and it's absolutely full. For the type of fishing I do, any more is a waste. Every couple years, I flip the line on the spool and get a couple more years out of the untouched line.

That blank sounds fantastic. Great, something else I'll pick up and probably never build!

I'm planning on building one on a St Croix 4SW70MLF to throw slender pointers and shad raps

If the grip is turned to match the rings properly, the reel doesn't fall off! That was the problem with the OEM Tennessee grips.

Yep. That's why this is my favorite configuration.

It's not a temperature thing. I have an unfinished rod in my rack that I started 4 or 5 years ago and the seat is all sticky too. Never got around to wrapping it, just got the grip glued up. I fish with 3 fingers in front of the reel stem, so threads behind don't bother me. I do like this hidden threads piece though and plan on using it on some upcoming builds.

I like using the Aero in an up locking orientation. Have they fixed the problem with the coating getting sticky after a while? I had to strip the rubber off of a few I've used. I only get the uncoated ones now. The 17mm Aero is nice if you have big hands.

From time to time, I get requests to replace grips and reel seats. Most of the time, it's really not worth it because the repair costs more than the original rod. That wasn't the case this time. The customer absolutely hated the OEM seat on his Legend Elite spinning rod. After seeing it, I understood why. Such excessive threads. They really could have trimmed at least an inch off before assembly, but they didn't. Even if they would have taken some threads off, the seat is uncomfortable for someone with large hands. He liked the IPS seat and hidden threads locking foregrip on the Dobyns Champion rods, so that's the direction we went. I missed taking some pics as I went, like boring, splitting and gluing the arbor on the blank. Original seat and grip. Stripped and cleaned up. Had to extend the IPS grip to maintain the original reel seat location. Locking foregrip. New seat glued in position. New grip and butt cap installed and curing. All finished up.

My favorite spinning reel is a TwinPower 2500HGS. Prior to that it was a Stradic Mg 2500. My wife now posesses the Mg and I want it back!

Slowly taking over the guest bedroom. Wonder if she'll notice?

This color is fantastic, IMO, once the finish goes on. Almost looks black until the light hits it.