kickerfish1

If it was caught on a Roland Martin fishing show, well then,... son that is a 10 pounder! From what I can see with the length and girth it would be in the 6 - 7.5 pound range.

Here is a run down of them all... Pic 3 (see below) Left #1 - Missle Baits Shockwave - Candy Gill Left #2 - RI Big Dipper - Sungill Left #3 - N/A Left #4 - Keitech 4.8 inch fat impact - Pro Staff Special Right #1 - Zoom horny toad - Watermelon Crawfish Right #2 - Can't recall this one but I believe it is a discontinued bait Right #3 - Keitech 3.8 inch fat impact - GP fire Right #4 - Keitech 3.8 inch fat impact - Sungill Pic 4 (see below) Here is a run down of them all... Pic 3 (see below) Left #1 - RI Little dipper - Sungill Left #2 - SK Rage Mennace grub - Honeycandy Left #3 - Missle baits Shockwave - Shrapnel Left #4 - N/A Right #1 - N/A Right #2 - Keitech Swing impact - Male perch (newer version carried by TW not the older one) Right #3 - SK Rage Mennace grub - Honeycandy Right #4 - SK Rage Mennace grub - Blue craw There are a good amount of options out there for bluegill trailers. I will use anything from a single tail grub, a menace grub, various paddle tail swimbaits both fat and slender, along with soft body frogs. The RI Sungill, SK Honeycandy, and the Keitech Pro staff special/sungill are among the better looking bluegill trailers that aren't your typical bluegill color that contains mostly grey/black/silver/blue flake.

I think you would be fine with 12# for that reel. Personally I just don't know if the Tatsu benefits would be that noticeable for reaction baits but if money isn't an issue than go for it. For those apps I would use Sunline Defier any day, every day. It has less memory than Tatsu is the best reaction bait line I have used for casting distance, limpness, and memory. It is a mono, and an expensive one but well worth it.

12# would work for most things but we have no idea what reel you are spooling it on and what apps you will use it for. My guess would be a 13 Met and something for bottom contact? I have used 15, 12, and 6# Tatsu before. The 6# is what I finesse fish with on my 1000 size spinning rigs. The 15 and 12 are good for all bottom contact apps and weightless plastics apps. If line diameter is of concern make sure you take that into account as the line is much thinner in diameter than say 12# mono.

From my understanding the reel has a composite frame and is a sort of watered down version of the Chronarch CI4. It lacks several bells and whistles likes X-Ship and more and better qualify bearings. Not sure if the reel would be a good workhorse reel if it is something that is going to see heavy usage due to the composite frame. I would save a bit more for something better.

I too like bluegill colored swim jigs. Here are 2 of the 3700 series boxes loaded. Some are Siebert, NS, DJ, Revenge, and a few others I have assembled.

Not almost. I think the figure is closer to 1100!

I like Dirty Jigs but not exclusively. They do offer a nice selection of colors, multi colored painted heads, and the no-jack hooks are incredible. However they are pretty costly unless you catch them on sale. I have some where around 70 Dirty Jigs but they only account for about 8% of what jigs I have. Hard to beat Siebert for price and options. He offers wire tie which many others don't and has great customer service.

Shouldn't be a problem. Just wear a hard hat!

And I believe that is a JDM Orichi XX rod as evidenced by the red trim pieces! Never seen anyone with one before. Nice!

I am more of plastics and jigs kind of guy. The wind can cause havoc for me too. If I am committed to fishing that day I will just go for the reaction baits for covering water. Baits like chatterbaits, lipless cranks, Spinnerbaits, swimjigs, and maybe a squarebill. Here in the Midwest the wind is usually in play. Most of the time 10-20 mph is pretty average. While I try to shoot for nice days weather wise I have to adjust at times to be successful.

Sweet! I am going to be getting my 2nd Exscence DC / Custom Rod wet this weekend hopefully too! I need to get some fish slime in the picture to get the "Ay-Okay" from Goose! I have plenty of time on the water with my first Exscence to know how phenominal it is. I hope you enjoy the heck out of it. Make sure you use the SP mode with no thumb "just because". To get max distance either use the Min or next one up from the min setting on the dial. I am sure you have probably back yard casted it but just in case you need the cliff notes...

Nope, I fish water from less than w.2 inches of visibility to more than 10. I need a spectrum of colors to maintain the same success rate.

Black

I had been asking this for about 5 posts....

Sadly I forgot to have the builder weigh it prior to shipping and I don't have a scale. The 874 Hi Mod blank by itself is 2.7 ounces. The finished rod is likely around 5 I would think but I would need to obtain a good scale to get the numbers. It doesn't feel heavy and balance is perfect. The reel is 8.5 ounces due to the DC unit. The whole outfit is probably 13-14 ounces but you wouldn't know it holding it due to the balance. Wasn't made with the weigh weenie in mind but to fish heavy jigs in around moderate to heavy cover.

I did go conventional on the guides. And I need to get some more photos of this posted this weekend when the weather is nice and lighting is better. The guides are quite similar to what you would find on the Kistler Helium 3. I thought about the spiral wrap idea but it wouldn't be ideal for me. Reason being is that when the rod is layed flat on the deck of the boat some of the guides will be facing down. Should the rod get stepped on ever so lightly or should a tackle bag or something accidentally land on it could result in damage or breakage of the guides. Even if the guide cost for one or a few guides is less than $20, the shipping there and back will run me about $50 round trip. I got to test cast a spiral wrapped rod from a local builder a few years back. It was a cool experience for sure but it just wasn't something that I wanted on this rod. Thanks Jeff. The builder is "good people" Made the whole process easy and painless. Was able to turn my ideas into an outstanding finished product. Best part was he could verify fitment and then let me know what was possible and what wasn't. He also provided plenty of photos along the way of what was done but not permanently finished, so if I didn't like it, he could alter it before making it final. Thanks Paul. A custom casting rod was something I wanted for a few years. Decided to go all in this year and make it happen. Can't wait to give it a spin...

https://www.google.com/search?q=Tension+knob+for+baitcaster&biw=1093&bih=538&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwidyZiQjbDLAhUqmIMKHbQJBZoQ_AUICCgD#imgrc=s5NgV0EAYC_z6M%3A Here is a picture in the link of the part I am talking about in the tension knob. If this part is missing it could be the reason why the spool is still spinning fast. I may get slammed for this but that is ok. I personally would by the Shimano Citica 200E in the Flea Market here for the price posted. You won't find a better built reel and a more user friendly reel for the money. If not I would shop for any lightly used E series reel from Shimano as they are well built and very easy to use and maintain.

I can see that you have the internal and external brakes set to max. At this setting it should be near impossible to backlash even with some force behind it. Your 3rd photo doesn't excactly show the tension cap with is the small cap you removed. If there is a spacer in there that is the next question. If you by you adjusting the tension knob from tight to lose controls the fall rate than that isn't the issue either and it is beyond my knowledge. You could also try removing about 10 yards of line to see if that doesn't help some. If not you have 3 options. 1. Contact Okuma to have it replaced or fixed assuming it is still under warranty 2. Send it to reel service tech to have them look at it see if they can find something wrong with it 3. Take it back or ship it back to where you bought it - perhaps they would refund if the product is defective but they would probably point you to the manufacturer.

Do you have the reel schematic? Look to make sure the tension knob has the friction washer(s) inside it. They will look like flat tabs and will be on the bottom of the tension knob when you remove it. Other than that I would say post a picture of your internal brake settings and external brake setting. I would have a hard time believing that the reel worked perfect and now it is uncontrollable without you or somebody else changing the settings or tinkering with something inside it. I had the Okuma Komodo a few years ago but sold its as I didn't like the adjustment for the internal brakes. Yours has dual brakes so assuming they are set correctly and the tension knob as well as having all internal parts in the correct place and working properly I don't know what to tell you.

Did you remove the side cap and adjust the red lever for the internal brakes? When you engage the thumb bar and put the reel in free spool does the lure fall slowly to the ground. It should drop like a rock with knob set loose and it should either barely fall or not fall at all with it tight.

You could always send it to me!

https://www.google.com/search?q=Okuma+calera&biw=1093&bih=538&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2gcnm96_LAhVhsoMKHaZpANoQ_AUICCgD&dpr=1.25#imgdii=pdBpIDmkOjbOYM%3A%3BpdBpIDmkOjbOYM%3A%3BFONS_IMiBlPCbM%3A&imgrc=pdBpIDmkOjbOYM%3A Take a look at the photos in the link above of your reel. You have 3 different ways to add breaking to the spool. 1. The magnetic brake dial on the outside of the reel located on the palming side - Adjust this fairly tight when starting out. 2. Take off the side plate and increase the internal centrifugal brakes. You will see a small red lever next to the numbers. This will need to be increased as well. 3. There is a small circular tension knob on the outside. This will be located just above your handle. Tighten this down to the point that as you press the thumb bar to start the bait in free fall, the bait falls at a fairly slow rate and when the bait hits the ground the spool doesn't over spin an cause an over run. ** Lastly you may have too much line spooled on the reel. Remember that overfilling the reel with line past the 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch below the top will cause the line to jump off the reel and become nearly uncontrollable. In the event that you bought the reel used it could be missing the tension washer pad(s) inside the the cast control cap. If you tighten in all the way down and it doesn't get any tighter than this is likely the issue.

Thanks Rippin! I wanted to incorporate gold, black and variations of grey including both gloss and matte between both the reel and rod. I also wanted to omit other items like "Built by" and "Built for". There were two decals added between the foam grips. One decal was the MHX rod decal and the other one was from Matagi. Decals were placed at the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock position. Doing so helped keep the wait in the back end of the rod. Balance ended up being right in front of the fore grip piece.

Looks great and thanks for the detailed description. Can you comment on why the use of the chartreuse colored piece was used between the blades?