MickD

I have a very good guide for St Clair. So if you choose St Clair and want a reference, let me know.

If going to MI area, Lake St Clair is it. Can get you both species. Running into muskies is not all that uncommon. But you'll need a guide. Lake St Clair is simply a big bowl, almost featureless, but the small "features" make all the difference. Not much on scenery since it's mostly simply one hell of a lot of water. But with a guide you should be able to get a good number of very big smb, and probably a walleye or two thrown in. If you are coming north for smb I believe Lake St Clair is your best bet around MI

Come north. We'll get you a walleye, too.

One lure that works well on a wadeable rocky river here is the 5 inch Zoom super fluke in pink and Tennessee shad colors on a 3 or 4/0 Gam EWG hook. It is not a bottom lure and casts very well, so snagglng shouldn't be a big problem. Get them onto the hook very symmetrically so they will jerk randomly, vary the jerky retrieve. If you don't get deep enough with them tied direct, tie a BIG swivel onto the main line, then 15-18 inches to the lure with mono or FC. If the river has rocky sections, try those or holes close to them first. In rivers smb also sometimes use sunken logs for cover. Another good lure for river smb is the old original floating rapala fished like a wounded minnow.

I use and like a rod I built that sounds like the first rod you mention. Keep in mind that in order for a light power rod to have a fast or XF action the tip has to be pretty soft. It has to be that way if the rod isn't bending a lot in the middle and lower section and it still can be called light or medium light power. The challenge in ned rigging, in my opinion, is getting a rod that will comfortably cast the light jigs, that will load properly with them. And that leads to a light or ML power. A medium power with XF action might please you and cast the jigs pretty well since it will have a pretty soft tip compared to a fast action medium power. That St Croix med light power fast action rod is a favorite of a lot of anglers here; they rave about it. So you might take another look. I've not heard anyone call it "very whippy" before. I've never felt a "whippy" St Croix spin rod. But we are talking subjectively, no objective numbers, like CCS.

For largemouths I've found no color , including bluegill, that works as well as black. Spinnerbaits and chatterbaits, clear water and not so clear. Not the same for smallies.

You want to put something on it to seal it, but you want sun protection. I think Sally Hensen hard nail coating has UV filtering. This is not critical for strength, but you want to make sure that water cannot get into the thread. If it does you will notice a foggy appearance on the wrap. Don't overdo it, just where the crack is. I've used rods for years with little cracks at this spot with no fogging, but I've had some that fogged, so. . .try to prevent it up front.

Sorry, I do not. Tatula CT 103 SV I think it is. But IMO, all Daiwa reels are very fine quality. I'm not bad-mouthing others, but I have recent experience only with Shimano and Daiwa.

Casts fine, I don't recognize an advantage or disadvantage compared to other reels. But they are not all set up the same either. Certainly not substantially less than any other setup.

I just saw a TV program where Al Lindner, I think it was, talked about waters that should have trophy smb. He said big water, lakes with good spawning areas, lots of deep water minnow forage like tullabees, smelt, etc, with mulitple "basins."

I only have experience with the Daiwa, and it has performed superbly since I've had it, about two years now. Silent on the cast, takes very little adjustment, smooth and quiet on the retrieve, drag seems very smooth. I have found no cons. I have a couple recent Daiwa spin reels and they are exceptional too.

Seems like if it is really .010 it would be stronger than 6 # test. But if it's really around 6 pound test, it is too light. For casting quality I use braid with about a 10-15 pound premium FC leader grade leader. Works very well.

This is a great question, but it goes beyond live crawfish, IMO. It's not sacrilege to fish live, but it may not be the most effective direction to take. It has been my experience that plastics and artificials in this environment will usually outfish live due to the plastics options available and the ability to make plastics do what you want much better than you can do with live. And there are options that on a given day might be more effective, like super flukes if the bass want minnows. Critters that emulate hellgramites. Surface. And one gets more time on the water since He doesn't spend time catching bait and doesn't waste time handling/carrying, changing water, etc.

Depending on the failure the rod might be repairable using the process at this site. I've done it many times and the rods have all performed so well that it it were not for the visual change I wouldn't know they had been broken. Go to Rodgeeks.com to find out what St Croix blanks are available. Blanks called "Rodgeeks" are very well-performing blanks regardless of where they are built. There is a lot of misinformation out there about Rodgeeks/St Croix.

My advice is to make sure you do everything you can to support her getting to enjoy fishing. Then you two can take some pretty great vacations in the tropics and combine fishing with regular getaway vacations. She'll be thrilled to see how hard most salt species fight. Bahamas is really good for combining fishing and sun/water/etc.

Regarding Hitena using the figure 8 knot for testing for knot strength. They state they use it because it is consistent between different tyers while the usual knots like the FG, double uni, and palomar vary with the skill of the tyer. They get about 90-95% with the FG and palomar, which are the knots they recommend.

I have not seen it either. But logically, I don't think it emulates the performance of the knots I use. I have seen no indication of inferior knot strength with the pureline, and since it's white, it's color fast ( :-) ). I use it so far for finesse presentations + casting jig-flies to bones. For the line to leader I use the FG or double uni. Since it and the leader are so small, the double uni works on all my rods, even with the small micro guides.

FC - None (exc premium leader grade for leaders, then Orvis, Hitena, Rio, lots of solid choices) Braid - Hitena Pureline. Expensive, but: Lasts for years, 21 pound test is only .006 diameter, casts great, no problems of any kind. I first bought it as a line for my bonefish backup spin outfit, and have since used it for my finesse/tube outfits, and love it. Hitena gives all the specs for their products that one could ask for; everything they make is top quality.

A graph that has true, effective, trouble-shooting diagnostics built in.

It's hard to imagine any rod being overloaded with 4 pound mono unless it was previously damaged by striking into a hard object or had a manufacturing defect. I take from the photo that the break shows considerable "shredding, splintering." Am I right? If yes then a repair is tough. I've done a couple, but it's not a sure thing. Have you told your story to the blank manufacturer. I would expect they would have a warranty that would get you a new blank. Not perfect considering what you put into the build, but better than nothing.

Stick to that position. That's too nice a rod to screw up.

Weight? Hellova fish for sure!

Yes, put paste epoxy in the bore and on the blank. It will squeeze out, but won't run like liquid. Use generous alcohol to clean up while it's still not cured. You will want to load it against the aluminum winding check to prevent a gap from forming, not much, but just to keep it tight against the check. You can cobble something up for that. Maybe rubber bands as earlier suggested.

Come on guys, all FC is not the same. Putting all FC into the equation when the poster says he is using up old line for leaders is not helping. He stated that there was leader in the FG, so the failure was in the leader, which probably failed right at the knot due to some distress involved with the knot. It's a scenario that should be expected when using old line for leaders. Consider getting a 30 meter spool of premium LEADER GRADE FC. It's not that expensive, and most of us will use 5 or 6 feet of it at a time, and the spool will last probably the whole season. And I'll bet it will end the failure problems. Mono is fine, better choice than co-polymer. Try the hard mono designed for leader use. 6-20 feet may be changed to 6 feet with no detection problems. For 10 pound braid I would try 10 pound or 12 pound leader and use a knot like the improved clinch at the lure. The goal is to stop the fragile braid failures at the FG and move it to the lure knot. Which the improved clinch should accomplish.

Not a big deal for an experienced builder. Since this is, if I'm not mistaken, a pretty special rod, I would not recommend that an inexperienced person try it. I think you want it done really well. The system I'm using now on my casting rods is the Fuji with the RV 6 mm reverse two foot guide as the first guide, then single foot 5 or 5.5 mm KB's and KT's to the end. It will cast very well and the guides are small, light, and unobtrusive. I don't go smaller than 5's on a casting rod to keep open the possibility of using line to leader knots.