.ghoti.

Slow down!

A memorable fishin trip.

Looks like another one of those products designed for the guy who's ego demands that his toys be the most expensive.

Thanks Lonnie. I enjoy being able to contribute, in my own small way. I've been building rods for two years now, and I'm not that good at it. But, I am getting better; a little bit at a time.

Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates If you havent read anything from Tom Robbins, this would be a good place to start.

I've followed boxing for about 50 years. I have never seem anybody as good as Lomachenko. I think Mikey is one of only two guys who could cause him any problems. Terence Crawford is the other. Both are too big for Loma. Lomachenko won his second Olypmic gold at 132. Then went down to 126 to join the pro ranks. He went to 130 because nobody would fight him at 126. So those are his natural weight classes. He could probaly beat anybody at 135, but would have to muscle up the go up any further. Muscling up typically does not work well for boxers. Mikey lost his 126 title on the scales. He is still growing. He looked stronger and more comfortable at 140. He may stay there. Depends on who they can make a fight with at 135, where he holds a belt. He says he would like to unify, then move up. I hope they can make the fights at 135? There a couple of good ones to be made. We will see him at 147 in a couple of years. Crawford has one more fight at 140. He'll beat Indongo to unify the titles at 140, and then go looking for big money at 147. What is really intriguing is we could see Mikey and Crawford both at 147, with Keith Thurman and Errol Spence. There are a bunch of good fights there. Any combination of those four would produce a great fight. Can't wait.

Shogun. No idea.

Redline, is this a case of great minds think alike? Or is it fools never differ? I agree with everything you said.

Glad you like it. Hope it serves you well. For inquiring minds: an almost all Batson build. Rainshadow Immortal blank, 6'8" M-F AlpsmTextouch reel seat Forecast MK mini guides Batson winding checks and hook keeper.

Being an old phart, I've had a lot of experiences. Heat stroke is one I do not care to repeat.

I hear ya. Let's hope we don't generate any "heat" about it here.

A timely reminder! We will have the same conditions here in Illinois. I wont be fishing.

An easy question to answer. I'll go elsewhere.

Another warning. Make sure an invoice is included. Without an invoice, they get to decide what to pay, no matter what the rod was insured for. And you aint gonna win that argument. Put an invoice in the tube.

Are these crankbait blanks additions to the Judge series? Or is this a new design. The Judge blanks are a blend of RX7, Sglass, and something else, I cant recall exactly what. Mr Batson only mentioned graphite when speaking of these crankbait blanks.

The whole idea behind micro guides is weight reduction. No, it will not make a difference in rod weight you can feel. What it will do is give you a more responsive and sensitive rod. The frames and rings are smaller, equaling less weight. The guide feet are shorter, requiring less thread and epoxy; again equaling less weight. The more mass you can remove from the business end of the rod the better it will respond. This is more critical the closer you get to the tip. I've heard people say micro guides will improve casting distance. I have no evidence to either prove or disprove that claim. I do have two identical Setyr rods. Both 7' M-F with the same reel seat and identical handle lengths. I cracked a guide on one, and, since Setyr went out of business, I decided to replace all the guides. I went with small Fuji Alconites. BLAGs in size 5, 4.5 and 4. Did a side by side test between the two using the same reel, same line and same bait. Couldn't see a difference casting, but there was a very noticeable difference in feel. All of my Setyr rods now have micro guides, except one, and it will have them soon. BLAGs go down to a size 4, which will reliably pass a leader knot. Forecast MK minis go down to a size 2. I would not recommend those if you use braid with a leader. Recoil micros go down to a size 4, but you cant compare sizes betweem recoils and any others. The smallest size recoil is tiny. But, is weight reduction is your holy grail, recoils are what you want. An entire set of recoils weighs less than one size 5 BLAG.

I'd suggest a good cleaning and lube job. Then a nice serving of guacamole.

Living in Illinois, summer highs are often 95, and occasionally hit 100. Lows are often 0, with an occasionl night of -15. I stored all my gear in an unheated garage for decades, with no problems.

Canelo is fun to watch. He' on my list because, at 154, he is unbeatable by anybody in the division. But he's not the only guy worth watching right now. If you haven't seen Lomechenko, you really need to do so.

Boxing has indeed been in a long, slow decline for the last two decades. And, any of us who follow the sport know why. The blame can be placed firmly on the heads of the promoters. Without going into all of that nonsense, I will say there are quite a few really talented boxers out there, right now. Let me list a few, by division., guys who I think are really worth watching Heavyweights Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder Cruiserweights Oleksandr Usyk, Murat Gasiev, Denis Lebedev, Mairis Briedis Light heavyweight Ande Ward, Sergei Kovalev, Adonis Stevenson, Artur Beterbiev Super middleweight nobody interests me here Middleweight Gennady Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Canelo Alverez junior middleweight nobody here either Welterweight Keith Thurman, Errol Spence, Danny Garcia Junior welterweight Terence Crawford Lightweight Mikey Garcia, Robert Easter, Jorge Linares Junior lightweight Vasyl Lomachencko, Miguel Berchelt, Takashi Miura Featherweight Leo Santa Cruz, Carl Frampton, Abner Mares, Gary Russell I haven't seen enough in the lowest four divisions to have a valid opinion except Roman Gonzales Pound for pound, my version, who is the hardest to beat, right now. 1 Vasyl Lomachenko There is simply nobody, anywhere near his weight, who has a chance to beat this guy. Widely considered the greatest amateur boxer of all time, he made the transition to professional with no problems. His only problem is he's too good. Nobody wants to get in the ring with him. 2 Terence Crawford- Bud easily beat the best of the 135lb division, has done the same at 140. He has two belts at 140. Julius Indongo has the other two. They will fight soon. Crawford will win that to unify, and then move up to 147. There's nobody there who can beat him either. He can fight from either stance. The best switch hitter since Marvin Hagler. And has a serious mean streak in the ring. He says he wants to fight Pacquiao. If that fight happens, and I would bet good money it doesn't, Crawford will beat Pacman into a final retirement. It would be a good fight for a few rounds, then would turn into a serious beat down. 3 Mikey Garcia- Mikey is one of the most technically sound boxers you will ever see. Offense, defense, transition between the two, footwork, postioning, he does it all very well. And, he can put you to sleep with either hand. A titleist at 126 and 130, he is currently one of the 135lb champions. There are two good fights for him at 135. Linares and Easter. Both good fights, but I dont think either has the skills to beat Mikey. 4 Gennady Golovkin- Undefeated, 23 consecutive knockouts. The streak ended with his last fight against Daniel Jacobs, which had many saying he was slipping, it was over, he was vulnerable, and other nonsense. That fight proved how good Danny Jacobs really is, not how GGG has declined. It also proved how fickle boxing fans can be. And how stupid. His only issue is defense. He is so offense minded that he can be hit. Curtis Stevens, a knockout puncher, hit him. David Lemieux, a knockout puncher, hit him. Danny Jacobs, a knockout puncher, hit him. He proved he has a granite chin. All they did by hitting him was slow down the onslaught for a little bit. Nobody at 160 wants to fight him, because nobody at 160 can beat him. Which brings up the next guy. 5 Canelo Alvarez The best at 154. But, he hasnt had a challenging fight since he lost to Mayweather. Floyd outclassed him completely. Hebahs however outclassed everybody at 154 who would get in the ring with him. It seems nobody at 154 wants to fight him. He is a big junior middleweight. Henthinks he canfight at middleweight, and has stepped up to face Triple G. This may be a good fight. I'm looking forward to it, but I think he has bitten of more than he can chew. Canelo has fast hands, is a very accurate puncher and counter puncher, has good defense, but has slow feet. Mayweather beat him with superior footwork and a fast jab. Golovkin has excellent footwork and positioning, and a great stiff jab. The only way Canelo wins is by knockout, and I just dont see that happening. He will be back down to 154, and will reign there as long as he wants to. There are some great fight to made there, think Chatllo brothers, if they will go for it. 6 Anthony Joshua. An Olympic gold medalist, turned pro, he and Vladimir Klitschko just had the best heavyweight fight in a very long time. There will likely be a rematch. AJ probably wins that too. The heavyweight division is looking the best it has in a couple of decades. Some very good fighters here. Deontay Wilder, Luis Ortiz, Big Baby Miller maybe, Joseph Parker. Can any of them beat Joshua. Probably not. 7 - 10 Andre Ward, Sergei Kovalev, Danny Jacobs, Keith Thurman That's my list. Dont agree? Cool. Let's see yours. There are too many quality fighters, and too may good fights to be made for boxing to die. To all you promoters, you freaking wingnuts, make the fights.

I dont care. At all. Forum rules dictate that I do not say what I really think. This debacle is the equivalent of a baseball game between the Yankees and the Patriots.

I'm waiting for "Fluffy" to post in this thread. LOL.

Thank you, all of you who have contributed. I hoped, this time around, we could make this an ongoing process. And, it's looking like that could very well happen. And, I want you all to know, that as long as contributions keep coming, I will keep donating my time and supplies. I will build as many rods as you all want to fund. What else is an old, retired professor good for anyway?

I spiral wrap a lot of my rods, particularly lighter power rods. A little experiment will show you why. Using your lightest power casting rod, tie the line off to something that wont move, and put a deep flex in the rod. Make sure the angle of the line to rod does not go past 90°. When you get close to that point you will se the tip has rotated around to the bottom. The blank is twisted 180°. This adds a stress to the blank I believe will shorten it's life. On a moderate action blank the twist, and stress, will be distributed along 25-40% of the length. On an extra-fast action rod this stress is concentrated into a much shorter section. I use a simple spiral. Stripper guide on top, one transition guide and the remainder of guides on the bottom. You can use more than one transition guide. I have seen as many as five. I dont think one way is any better than any other. I jusr use the simplest method, and it works.

Let's keep the politics out of this, folks.