S Hovanec

I don't think I can even drunk wrap as bad as this Conquest.

I don't know if I can make myself wrap one as poorly as a NRX or Conquest.

Hey, that's my line! Lol

But it also has the elevated front deck, like a bass boat. I'm not a fan of bass boats.

I've never found the preground ones to be adequate, I always had to touch them up. I use a wheel on my Dremel to grind them.

Big fan of the Pro-V hull, don't care for the bass floorplans. I prefer depth inside of the traditional Pro-V layouts.

St Croix SCV.

Most enjoyable: building cool grips. Least enjoyable: grinding guide feet. Little tip on finish. Less is more. The more you play with it, the harder it is. What has given me the best results is to slop the finish on everywhere you need it, let the rod rest for a minute or so and take the excess drips off the bottom. Rotate the rod 180° and repeat. After two or three cycles of this, all the excess finish will be removed and you can set it back to turning on the dryer. Wavy finish is a result of too much finish applied. Typically my first coat looks really bad, and you can see threads. You just want enough to saturate the threads. The second coat will give you your depth.

The top one is a Scotty rod holder base. I have a couple on the sport tracks on my Lund and one in my shop to static test rods.

Bottom one is a base for an older Cannon downrigger.

Like cork, there are different qualities of foam. The foam from years ago and the stuff on cheap rods is junk.

That's a bunch of work for most of us small builders. That would likely take months for most of us. I charge $7/guide to wrap/finish single foot guides. I normally build 12-15 rods/year plus a bunch of repairs.

Just repairs, replacing a couple guides per rod or full builds, wrapping all the guides on the rods? Are the grips already installed?

All the guides on the rods or just one or two on each rod?

I have 7 drop-shot rods that I can think of off the top of my head and every one of them is XF.

Depends on the grip length. 7' is about the length when the rear grip gets longer on many production rods. You might be getting a 6" longer overall rod, but only gaining a couple inches because the grip on a 7'er is longer than a 6'6". Grip length is the biggest reason I started building my own rods.

610MLXF I have a SC4, 2 SC5s and another SC5 in the works in that power/action.

How old? If they have been used for a few trips maybe even a season or more and didn't break, there was no manufacturer defect. Btw, the Eyecon is not made in USA.

Could there be a problem with the trim pump not actually trimming the motor while under load??

6#Tatsu on the DS rods 8# Inviz-X on the tubes 15 and 20# Sniper on the walleye rods.

They really must have lightened up the MLXF. Specs were always 6-10# 1/8-1/2oz. I thought it felt a little softer than my scv, but I haven't compared them side by side yet. This may end up being another one that's too light, like my NFC DS610 and Eternity 610mxf

I whacked one of my SCV drop-shot rods off the gunell, hard, about 10 years ago. I'm still waiting for it to blow up. I don't think they're as fragile as we think they are. Fish them and enjoy!

St Croix's 6'9 and now the 6'10 MLXF rating has been 6-10# for the last 17 years. I see no reason for them to double it now.

A weighted butt cap would definitely achieve that. The few Dobbyns rods I've worked on had a chunk of metal in the butt.

Mine showed up today. Really impressed with the weight, especially for a sub $200 rod. I have 2 rods lighter and one the same weight, but there's more than $200 in parts alone in each one of those. I really wish these blanks were available, I'm sure I could build a sub 2.5oz rod the this model. I think there's a typo on the rod specs though. There's no way this rod is rated for 20-lb line