BobP

A longer rod pitches easier and casts longer, and takes up line faster on the hook set to get fish out of cover faster. If by cover you mean heavy grass, I'd go with an H power rod but if you mean typical wood and vegetation, I'd go MH. The MH is easier and more accurate to cast, and can do double duty as a Carolina rig and big Texas rig worm rod. It will also be less tip-heavy than the typical H power rod.

Question one: no way, no how. You hear some strange stuff, and this is an example! I use 6 or 8 lb test fluoro on a 2500 size spinning reel with no problems. Fluoro does tend to be a little stiffer than mono. The only thing I do different is I don't fill the spool to the lip. Leave about 1/8" unfilled and you will have better control and no problem with the line jumping off the spool. Other than that, it behaves the same as mono for me in those line sizes and has a lot of advantages..

Many will say the Texas Tackle pliers are the best. I agree after running through 3-4 other brands that never worked as well.

I agree the toothed tungsten carving bits work very quickly but they do tend to leave a ragged surface that requires lots of sanding. When it gets down to accurate rounding over, I still think a 1/2" dia Dremel fine sanding drum is hard to beat. They are cheap and last a long time. There really is no "trick" to shaping a symmetrical crankbait. Crankbait have complex curves and it becomes an art form to shape them by eye, so try to avoid that wherever possible. Make it more a craft project than an art form. What I have found most useful is to mark rounding over and sanding limits with a compass. Do it while the lure blank is still "square". Mark a center line all around the bait to locate your hardware elements. If you are going to taper the bait, mark lines on the top and bottom with a flexible straight edge and use a belt or disk sander to do that task. Then use the compass to mark lines on the shoulders and the lower sides, plus the top and bottom, within which you will round over the wood. Sand down the sharp edges to your limit lines and then blend everything into smooth curves with the Dremel sanding cylinder. I guess any compass will work for a mark-up, but I use a quality draftsman's compass.

The Excalibur 'Rayburn Red' actually looks like a burnt orange to me. I'd start with C-tex orange and go from there.

I guess personal preference plays into it, but I use a Dremel for 90% of my shaping, hardwood or balsa, with a 1/2" dia. Dremel fine grit sanding cylinder. I have a couple of Dremels and a Foredom rotary tool (bigger, more power). But I still use a cheap Dremel two speed model 285 more than the others. It's just the handiest. I run it at 15k rpm (low speed) most of the time and mine has a few hundred crankbaits under its belt. One thing I particularly like - Dremel has great warranty service. Break it and they'll have a reconditioned Dremel in the mail to you very quickly. Excellent service! I've only had to use it once in 10 yrs though. I also use my Dremel for drilling eye recesses, screw and ballast holes. With the right bits it's amazing what you can do with one. The only other power tool I use is a scroll saw to cut out the basic crankbait blank and cut the lip slot.

If you're going to use the rod for crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, or other moving presentations, all rods will be tip heavy due to the resistance of the lures being retrieved. Some tip-heaviness can actually be good. It helps casting and can help when jerking jerkbaits. Virtually all fiberglass crankbait rods are tip-heavy due to the material used in the blank. It's not a detriment because the rod will be tip-heavy anyway during the retrieve. The case where tip-heaviness really matters, IMO, is for "still presentations" like jigs, worms, C-rigs. It is virtually impossible to find any rod at any price that is not somewhat tip-heavy and the longer the rod, the more tip-heavy it will be. So we're really talking about the degree of tip-heaviness rather than its absence. Clamp on your reel. Hold the rig the way you do when fishing a worm. The more weight you feel out front, the more tip-heavy the rod is. It's like picking up a brick and holding it at arm's length. Easy enough to do, right? Do it for an hour and see how you feel. It runs against the grain to take a $250 rod blank that weighs 2 oz and stuff lead in the butt to balance it. You paid big bucks just to get a light sensitive rod blank. And maybe it does reduce ability of the rod blank to transmit vibration (i.e. its laboratory sensitivity). If Gary Loomis says so, I believe him. But there is a difference between laboratory sensitivity and on-the-water sensitivity. What you really want is a rod that allows to sense bites all day long. Somewhat like the "brick" example, holding a worm rod that is tip heavy by an ounce all day long will cause the fine muscles in your hand to fatigue - and that reduces your ability to sense bites. So I wouldn't hesitate to butt weight a worm rod, and especially a moderate cost worm rod which I would expect to be more tip heavy anyway. I agonize over butt weighting a St Croix LE. Usually not - at least until I've used it awhile and come to my senses.

I've tried repainting reels and think there's nothing you can do that will be as durable as an original factory finish. I'd just leave it.

I wouldn't use any kind of solvent on them, just dish soap and water. If they have rust stains, you can sometimes remove it with a Magic Eraser sponge. Ask your wife what that is, if you don't know.

I don't think you'll find rods as light, sensitive, and durable as the St Croix LT's anywhere, and you rarely see top-of-the-line rods from St Croix or Loomis discounted that much. But if you didn't like the rod from just swishing it around in the shop and prefer another brand, there's no sense in buying it. Leave it for someone who will appreciate it more than you did. There are plenty who will.

Stripping a rod down is a few hours of work. To remove the guides, run a single edged razor blade under the epoxy on top of the guide feet, cutting the threads. Lift out the guide and use your thumb nail to peel off the epoxy and thread around the blank. You'll end up with some residual epoxy at the ends of the wrap. Shave it off carefully with the razor blade. You can soften the epoxy with a hair dryer to make things a little easier. Finally, hold a flame under the tip top while pulling on it gently with some needle nose pliers. When the glue melts, it will pull off the rod tip. If you're happy with the guide spacing, you don't need to shave the epoxy down to the raw blank because the new guide and wrap will cover the areas. If you want to move the guides, be aware that the old positions of the guides will be noticeable because removing the guides will also strip any finish on the blank. If you are just putting on a new reel seat and handle, it's not necessary to remove all the guides; just the ones that the reel seat won't fit over. Use a Dremel cut off wheel to cut through the graphite reel seat along its length. Careful not to hit the blank underneath! When it's cut through, use a flat blade screw driver to force the halves of the seat apart and remove it. Again, heat will soften the epoxy and make things easier. I just use a sharp knife to shave the cork off the grip down to the epoxy holding it, then heat and the razor blade to shave off the epoxy. If you are going to replace a full cork handle with a split grip, pay attention to the section that will exposed with the new grip. You'll need to coat that with some rod epoxy when you're finishing the rod again. None of this is hard to do. It just takes moderate care not to damage the rod blank while you do it. BTW, replacing a full grip with a spit grip will usually make the rod more tip heavy than it was before. Be sure that's OK for the presentations you plan to use the rod for before you start! JMHO, I would never go to the trouble of stripping and rebuilding a rod just to get a split grip for "looks".

There usually isn't anything inside a reel that will actually rust.... but salt will corrode and pit the stainless steel parts and will destroy ball bearings pretty quickly. Some baitcast reels will go totally belly up from one year of saltwater use, without some TLC. I rinse mine thoroughly with fresh water after every day's fishing, including the level wind system. When I get home, I'll re-oil the bearings and level wind and flag the reel for a 100% take down, cleaning, and lube as a priority over the reels I use in fresh water. Some guys treat equipment as disposable. I want mine to last until I get tired of looking at it, maybe a decade or two down the road.

I only use a spinning rod for light bait finesse fishing but if I were just starting out, it's what I'd start out with. It will get you catching bass faster and easier than a baitcasting rod. A 6 1/2 or 7' medium power, fast action spinning rod. Rods generally get lighter and more sensitive as the price goes up. A 2000 or 2500 size spinning reel. There are lots of good ones. I like Shimano and Daiwa, but have also had good service from Abu Garcia and Quantum, so it doesn't seem that big a deal. You can do a lot worse than checking a Bass Pro Shops or Cabelas catalog or online for one of their discounted rod/reel combo packages in your price range. Throw in a box of 8 or 10 lb nylon copolymer line and you're in business. Your outfit won't be tweaked to perfection for every kind of bait presentation from ultra light to heavy, like those of us who can't leave the dock without 15 rods on deck - but it will handle 95% of bass fishing situations

It seems worth mentioning. If your spool has bearings in it that you can't remove, dunking it isn't such a good idea.

When I buy a reel, I'm looking for several things: I want a competitive level of technology and features everything on it has to work together I want it to last for years, indefinitely with a little TLC It has to be backed by a company I trust to maintain a parts inventory if they are needed If you feel BassPro reels meet your criteria for a reel, that's great. I feel major factory brands give me the best chance to get all the things I'm looking for, and I don't mind paying the freight to get them. Nice thing about a market economy, we both get what we want.

Anything you do to a crankbait, however small, affects its action. So the question really becomes is it enough for you or the fish to notice the difference. The fish will probably notice before you do. A larger or smaller split ring, or an oval split ring, or a crosslock snap does make a difference. I usually take the split rings off crankbaits and use Norman Speed Clips. They have the diameter of a small split ring. But if I have a crankbait that works "perfect" with a certain split ring, that split ring will stay on there forever. Don't mess up a good thing, especially a good crankbait.

I recently spooled some 20/6 on my 2000 size spinning reel and have used it a couple of times. It may sink, but only very slowly - certainly not as fast as fluorocarbon. IMO, that makes it not especially good for throwing unweighted plastics like flukes, Senkos. I want a line that sinks asap to keep contact with the bait for that presentation. I think it would work OK for topwater lures. The 832 handles rather well and is very small diameter for its line rating. It does seem to have a little more stiffness than most braids of the same diameter and it will definitely get twists and knots if you aren't careful. I got some immediately when I started using it, cut them off, and the problem went away because the spool was then not filled to the top of the lip. After shelling out $20 for a small spool, I didn't want to waste any! Did anyway!

Both heat and UV light degrade nylon copolymer lines. Heating it on the spool and then cooling it increases spool memory. The line conditioner will help soften the line up. You can remove spool memory by letting out the line, engaging the reel and then and pulling on the end to stretch the memory out of it. The ideal thing would be to stretch the line, then soak some line conditioner into a small cloth and run the line through it while you spool the line back on the reel.

I just throw them in the bottom of the boat and then into the trash when I get home. They just aren't that expensive and the part that gets torn up is usually where the hook goes, which makes re-using them a problem. You can put plastic baits back in the bag if you want. Don't put used Gulp or other "biodegradable" soft baits back in the bag because it contaminates the bag.

Hmm.... The only time I've ever broken a balsa bait at the lip was when I slapped it on the water to clean weeds off the trebles. If anyone does that, it IS operator error. Not accusing you, just saying...

I build most of the rods and crankbaits I use. Compared to factory rods, you save more money building your own as the price of the rod blank increases. The 'break-even' point is around $125 on a factor rod. At that price or less, a factory rod is usually cheaper than I can build one with the same components. At the other end of the price range, I can build a rod with a St Croix SCV Legend Elite blank for considerably less than its retail price. Maybe save as much as $100. And of course, I can build them exactly like I want - grips, guides, reel seat - a considerable advantage. But my choices in rod blanks is more narrow than the commercial rod market, so that's a disadvantage. Crankbaits are different. the cost to build them is way lower than a custom wood crankbait would cost (the most expensive component are the treble hooks!). I can guarantee durability and the action and color pattern will be tweaked 'just so' to satisfy what I want to show the bass where I fish. That's a huge advantage. But there is a steep learning curve to building crankbaits. They are deceptively complicated little hydrodynamic machines and it takes experience and dedication to build good ones. So if you don't intend to build them as a long term hobby, you will probably be disappointed. That doesn't consider repainting commercial cranks, which some guys like to do. JMHO, there are good commercial choices in the 10-17 ft depth range, so I concentrate on shallow and ultra-deep models.

I wouldn't switch to a Palomar with fluorocarbon line. I think any knot that includes wraps around the standing line cushions the shock to a fluoro line knot, including the one you're using - so I don't think that's the problem. If you ain't gonna switch lines, so be it. But I'd be using a regular copolymer line for spinnerbaits.

You only need to balance rods used for "still" presentations like Texas rigs, etc. Moving presentations like crankbaits will always be tip heavy so it's a fool's errand. Personally, I don't like external rod balancing kits or fixes. I slice off the end of the butt cap with a single edged razor blade, fit some lead weight inside the blank, and epoxy the butt cap back on the rod. Don't epoxy in the lead, just get a friction fit - that way you can remove it later if desired.

I like high end rods as well as the next guy but: There ain't no free lunch. You pay for a "no questions asked" warranty policy right up front when you plunk down big bucks for the rod.

I think Crucials have a lifetime over the counter warranty against manufacturer defects. That means take it back to any Shimano dealer and they should hand you another. I say NO on the extra cost store warranties. They are almost never worth the money. The fact that stores push them so hard should tell you something - they are a big profit maker for them..... not for you.