MickD

My favorite finesse rod is a 7 foot medium power fast action. I think medium light is not enough power for tubes, worms, lizards, etc. You mentioned backbone, and you are right, which leads to medium power instead of ML. A medium power Xfast action may have too soft a tip for finesse, IMO. In order to be medium power AND Xfast action the tip has to be quite soft. I like 7 over 6-6 for finesse, longer casting and I like the extra length for tip-up presentations. Any of the popular reels in about 2500 or 3000 size should work fine. I've never had a Daiwa that disappointed, my Pflueger Patriarch is really nice. I would look for sales of Daiwas and Pflugers; Shimanos are fine but not often on sale.

It should be pointed out that there are really no significant performance disadvantages to 2 piece rods any more. I've built both the two and one piece models of one Rainshadow model and cannot tell the difference. And when you want to travel, significant advantage.

No, but REV's are highly respected. The RX 7's discussed above used to be available in one piece.

It is my opinion that the MF is much more versatile than the MHF. But it depends on what you fish most of the time. I fish tubes, small cranks, wacky rig, a little surface, 4 in swim baits, soft jerks. If you like to snap 3.5-4 in swim baits off the bottom a MHF may not give you a good action to the swim bait. The rod needs to flex significantly in the jerk to get the right acceleration of the lure. And taking up the slack with a rod that's too stiff just doesn't feel right for some reason. The difference is more or fewer fish with this technique.

Rainshadow ISP 842 2 piece is one of my favorite blanks, and since you're interested in ML power, I think it will work very well. I have built a couple of them, using KLH starting with the 16 for light braid and 4 mm runners. It has a nice flex for snapping and twitching 4 inch swim baits, works OK for tubes, although there are better tube blanks (more power), works really well for light crankbaits. Don't be turned off by its M-F action designation; it works. My son's first impression with one I built for him was "This rod is really sensitive." And he has a couple St Croix SC V's which I made for him. If you think you need more power, go for the 843. Also a very nice blank that I expect will work well.

Yes, that kind of a break can be fixed so that you probably will only be able to tell it was broken by looking at it. Some argue that the action will be destroyed, but that is simply not true if the repair is done correctly. I have a friend who repaired one, and he had never done rodbuilding or repair before. A skilled rodbuilder can do it and have it look pretty good. https://www.rodbuilding.org/library/repair-oquinn.html

Did someone mention tip-down techniques, like hard jerkbaits? Rods that are too long are a pain

On my first rod building project after being off for about 40 years to raise my kids, I built a ST Croix SC V for my son and when I got done the first guide was off significantly in alignment. Looked awful. The guide was a size 30 Fuji titanium. Instead of cutting it off I tried to align it by bending the guide. Those Fuji titaniums really don't like to be bent. Bottom line is that it was in alignment but the guide looked like heck, all bent up. My son fished it for a few year or two, then I decided to try a better fix on it. When I took the guide off the blank looked just like the one above, crushed badly. I took a strip of fiberglass cloth and with structural epoxy, made a short reinforcement over the crushed area. The rod has lasted about 10 years since then with no sign of trouble. The wrap on that guide does look a little fat if you really look critically at it, but for the most part it is not detectable. I think the secret of success for the fix is that the longitudinal fibers were not broken, just "locally separated." Stabilizing them appears to be a good fix. Better than scrapping a St Croix SCV. Lessons: Don't bend guides, especially if they are on the blank. If you screw it up like above or like I did, there is a good chance it can be salvaged as I described.

If you can find the specs you want in a two piece, buy it. As stated above, the modern integral ferrules make no perceptible difference in anything. I would not use super glue to make it a one piece; I would use a good rod-building two part epoxy. Of course I would not want to use the utility of the two piece, so wouldn't make it into a one piece. In rodbuilding blanks the offerings by the manufacturers in two piece blanks are growing as more and more appreciate just how good they are. And three piece travel spin/cast, and 4 piece fly blanks. I would not even consider a two piece fly rod any more, the threes travel so well and perform perfectly.

Regarding leader specs, I do not recommend anything lighter than 8 because I've never found an 6 that was not to fragile. Most of the time I use 12. I see no need, even in clear water, for anything lighter exc for spybaits.

Best advice : Don't believe everything you read on on-line fishing and rod-building forums. Worst advice: As above, if you don't see lightning, you'll be OK.

I think those specs started as indications of the max dead lift capacity of the blank, but I don't know for sure. I don't use them for anything. The specs that are meaningful,but somewhat subjective, are the power (heavy, medium heavy, medium, etc.), action (fast, Xfast, moderate, etc.), and the lure weight suggestion. They can guide you to a rod that fairly well meets your technique requirements, especially when you've used a lot of rods and learned how to correlate the specs with your preferences. Use any line type and pound test you find works for you and use your drag and how you point the rod to manage the stress on the rod. You do not want to take the modern high modulus rods beyond 90 degrees deflection. Some will take it, some will not. But the higher the modulus the more sensitive to mis-handling they are.

If you "don't want to go to steel," then just concede that you're going to lose some lures. Try a fine steel leader you make from the tieable steel leader material, very fine and unobtrusive, but resistant to teeth. This is not rocket science.

You don't have some kind of setting that makes "hooks" out of responses, do you? Like the fish icon that is available? If you do , turn all those things off and look at, and learn to interpret, the raw signals. Those kinds of "tools" can make fish out of flotsam. I can remember going nutso over the fish icons until I learned that anything that was not connected to the bottom must be a fish, according to the algorithm. But the alorithms make mistakes.

There is a way to replace the seat without removing the guides. Remove the old seat then build up the blank with masking tape, three separate wraps evenly spaced under the seat location. Vary the number of turns so that when you're done the three wraps (shims) present a cylindrical "surface" to glue to. Make sure you totally encapsulate the tape so if water gets in it will not degrade your shims. The seat can be slid into position from the rear. Regarding the ends, if you have a fore grip, keep it and locate the seat against it. If none, you can do a foregrip using the shimming method described above. Install a rear grip using the same method of shimming. The cork pieces will have to have their bores enlarged, which can be a problem without the right tools. Not a piece of cake, but it can be done. It probably is easier than replacing 7-9 guides. I would leave it alone and use it for a spare. Buy a new rod which is exactly what you want. You cannot have too many rods.

Lure ratings are not that precise, so I would expect no problem with using a lure that close to the ratings. If you were to go up to something like 3/4 you would want to slow the casting motion way down to where you were almost lobbing it out in order to not take a risk on the rod. But it still could be done with little to no risk.

The "Dive To" series of Rapala crankbaits are very good for all species of fish. Get a DT 4, DT 6, and DT 10 in the Smash color (Iconelli special color) and try them in the appropriate depths. Second color would be the live river shad. Work them slowly, with stops. If there are bass there, you'll get bit. Another non-finesse technique is 4-5 inch swim baits (Keitech/Strike King coffee KVD/etc) on 3/16 or 1/4 oz darter head jigs either worked slowly or snapped off the bottom. White for clear water, darker for stained. Green is always a good choice for bass. If in deep water try the old silver buddies or similar. Fish are particular about size on these things at times, so try a couple sizes. Ask at bait shops for tips.

My comments on having found some excellent blanks for reasonable cost may have been misleading. I probably, over all, have spent more on rods than I would have if I hadn't gotten into building. But I have a lot more rods, some on costly blanks, some on rather "cheap" blanks. It is a hobby, so there is the aspect of doing something for the pleasure. I also make rods for family , which is rewarding. I make one rod a year for auction at an educational foundation, which brings the foundation significant money. Often I build just to try out a new blank that has become available. I build to my design to my preferences with the guides that I want, and I really enjoy being able to do that. Finally, I have made my own CCS measuring device, and using that I can better understand what I'm going to get when that blank comes in the mail. So if one can avoid all these reasons for turning building into a costly hobby, what does a self-made rod cost compared to a factory rod with the same components? I believe that I can make a top quality rod for about half, or a little more than half, the retail price. It doesn't often happen though, because I usually use better guides and cork than they do. The final rod will most likely be better built than the factory rod because I don't skimp on epoxy when building the grip/handle. Bottom line, will you save money? Most likely not, but you will be having fun, get a lot of pleasure, and will at times be building legacy-quality rods.

Another advantage of building your own. Lots of moderate actions available as blanks. AND, there are really high quality, highly sensitive, moderate action blanks that don't break the bank. The answer to your true question is, I believe, that anglers have concluded that faster is better, period. The rod companies are just providing what anglers are asking for. One of my favorite spin rods is a 7 foot moderate action, ML power, very sensitive, blank costs about $70 if I remember correctly. I have a casting rod made from another blank that almost perfectly matches the weight and CCS numbers of a Loomis moderate action rod, blank costs about $80.

I have a bag of spools in my boat. Don't think I have used one for many many years. I think the reason many of us don't use them is that the new braided lines are so versatile there is less need for them than there used to be. And in time we gather may outfits for specific purposes/techniques and simply switch the whole outfit when changing techniques or lure types. And as others have mentioned, the prices of some spools are simply outrageous.

Braid is very limp which makes it easiest of the lines (mono, FC, braid) to get smoothly through guides, in general. But proper guide design/layout is important with it, as with the other lines. Latest thinking on design for spin rods (and to a lesser degree, cast) is to use higher guides than we used to, and smaller guides to try to get the line under control fast, in only 2 or three guides, then use all the same size running guides to the end. Many have theories on why micros work so well (with all lines after the reduction is accomplished), but my theory is that they control the line looping so that the line is essentially a very long and small cylinder going through the air instead of a looping line trying to cut the air resistance. In any event, most agree that micros cast farther than bigger guides. Even if this is not true, they cast just fine and because they are small they add little weight to the blank. Weight is an enemy of sensitivity and fast response/recovery. But keep in mind that proper design and layout will get the line under control before it gets to the micros. As usual with new technology, rod builders went crazy over micros and applied them where they probably were not the best guide. Many builders have since settled on size 4 spin guides (4mm O.D. of the ceramic ring) and size 5 cast guides since these sizes are very light AND they pass leader knots better. Some used micros on fairly powerful rods and the tiny guide feet sometimes failed in the midsection of the rod. Fuji has micros with bigger feet to handle this issue. http://anglersresource.net/ Go to this site and watch the 7th video down on the Fuji KR Concept guide system and you'll get a more professional treatment of what I tried to describe. Regarding the video, I'm sure the one who made it thought it was correct, maybe it was done a long time ago, but you will probably not find a builder today who would agree with it. Regarding the weight of braid, most braids are lighter (density) than mono or FC as manufactured. I expect it is heavier when wet, but I have no data. FC is the heaviest with a density of about 1.5 times that of water. Mono is about the same as water. Some braids have heavier fibers woven in to make them sink, and because of the heavier density and their very small diameters for a given pound test, they are very good for getting deep when you want to. But it's the reduction train that has to be considered too. See details above.

Been there done that. I bought a leftie to favor my bad left shoulder when jerking. Then my bad shoulder became my good shoulder. Stuff happens. Took me a number of days fishing to get to feel normal, but now I fish baitcasting both ways, putting one rod down and picking another of the other side. Just stick with it, just fish, and you'll get it down fine. I always have cast with the right, still do. If you have to switch casting arms I expect that can be much more difficult. But I expect time and practice will get you there.

I think you'll have to ask a bass. Yup, if I had to use just one color, that's it.

Oversimplified, and essentially untrue.

I don't fish big rivers with dams, but have seen shows on TV, and they seem to fish the eddies below the dam, out of the strong current. I find that true here on small rivers, too. I don't think they like to fight the current all the time; bait probably doesn't either, so. . .eddies, pools, most likely.