MickD

The oil probably lowered the viscosity of the grease that was there which would lower the damping effect of the grease giving more feel of the teeth meshing.

I believe that all rod and blank manufacturers will agree that the high end, lighter, more sensitive, high mod rods are in fact more affected by stuff like high sticking and hitting one against the boat, as in jerking lures. I've seen statements from some of them to that effect. Is it a problem that should keep a reasonably careful person from investing in them? Not in my opinion. I have only upper mid to high end rods (build myself) and while I screw up now and then, I've not broken one except for catching of a shoe on one in the boat, essentially high sticking, and jamming the tips into a bulkhead of a rod locker that didn't control the rods well enough in travel. Remember this ad? One of my favorites.

Do you have a separate charger for your starting/fish finder battery?l If not, you could be simply discharging it yielding low voltage which usually is the cause for anomalies that you describe. If you do a lot of time on the trolling motor, with the big engine not on, but the electronics on, then you are using a lot of amperage without much recharging time. Happened to me because I thought the charger purchased with the boat charged all batteries. It didn't. If not using one of your fish finders, put in on standby. It will not use nearly as much amperage, and will come back instantly when you hit the power button again. I am surprised that bigger wires are fixing problems like this. The amperage is significant, but not so high that wire size should be an issue. About 6 amps for a modern fish finder.

I build my own rods , so have a lot of very fine rods. But millions of fish are caught every year on reasonably priced outfits. If you are satisfied with what you're doing, fine. Your rods will most likely be less fragile than top of the line rods. The way I look at it is that with bait casting, the reel is the most important component of the outfit. Sensitivity is less important than being able to cast well, and a $200 reel will cast better and last longer than a $50 reel, in my opinion. With spinning, where the reel simply holds line and lets it flow off a stationary spool, the reel is much less important, but the rod, with finesse techniques, becomes much more important. As stated above, it's about sensitivity, and the more expensive rods normally give better sensitivity at the price of fragility. Having said that, the biggest plus you can do for sensitivity is to use braid instead of mono or FC. If you are not, then you are giving up a lot on sensitivity , which is very important with some but not all techniques.

I wish that you who think you have the right to risk snagging boat covers, dock, and dock supports would simply find another place to fish. There is no one who is perfect enough to not, now and then, make a mistake that could result in damage to their property or danger to them and their kids. This is not world peace. Just back off. There is a difference between being right and being considerate.

I could be wrong, but I think the faster the action, the easier it is to high stick a rod. It's about geometry of our handling the rod and possibly the construction of the rods in which the taper between the very stiff butt section and the much lighter power tip is so short. And as has been mentioned many times before , the new hi mod graphites won't take what we got used to with the old glass rods. And in fact, the more you pay for a rod to get max sensitivity, the more fragile it is likely to be. Regarding the video, I don't agree that high sticking does any damage to the blank until it actually breaks. These blanks are very brittle. They have absolutely no plastic deformation. They are either in one piece or broken. BUT, with respect to the damaging of a rod without breaking it through its colliding with another rod or the lure nicking the rod, I believe that is absolutely true. That will damage a rod such that the rod will break later. Of course the bottom line is to avoid banging them around or hitting them with a lure, etc, and don't high stick, and the rod can last forever.

I have broken about 3 in the last 20 years. One I "high sticked" one by catching the tip on my shoe in the boat, and two broke in my rod locker which didn't hold the rods properly, the tip got jammed into a bulkhead. If you are breaking rods regularly you are not treating them right. Check out this article: https://www.rodbuilding.org/library/rodusage.pdf

Sounds like possible high sticking. Be sure to read the article at the link in the post above. High mod graphite rods will not take a lot of the stuff we used to do to our glass rods; that is the price we pay for the improved sensitivity.

The duty cycle on outboards is far tougher than it is for autos, no doubt about it. But I don't see the value of trying to determine the correlation anyway. To me the issue of maintainence is first, to do it so you are not risking an expensive engine and second, only do yourself what you are confident in doing. If you cannot afford to do the challenging maintainance, then maybe you have the wrong hobby. I did all but water pump impeller changes on my 17 year Suzuki 4 stroke 50, but it looks like my new 60 4 stroke Merc may have some things I don't fully understand. Will have that done by pros. By the way, my dealer charges $116 for annual winterizing which does not include plugs. The schedule calls for a major maintainence every three years. That includes plugs and all filters, maybe more. But I think i'm at a point in my life where I'll just let them do it all and be confident that it is done right.

I would not up-size at all. But I would go up on strength. Trebles come in slightly different lengths, but that doesn't have a significant effect on action or hooking. Going shorter rather than longer will help prevent the front hook from tangling with the rear on some lures. Find a quality 2x strength treble and buy it in a few sizes, like 4, 6 , and 8, and they will probably serve you well on most all your lures. A good quality split ring plier is well worth a few bucks extra (Texas Tackle). In general, cheap lures have cheap, weak, hooks.

https://www.rodbuilding.org/library/rodusage.pdf

If I were to do that I would be always using the line as an excuse for my not catching fish. And wondering if the fishing might be a lot better with a mono or FC leader. Different strokes. Not for me. I think that when fish are really active it will work fine, but when they are not, it could be a problem. I have a hard time believing that many pros would use quite light FC leaders on inactive fish if it were not justified with more fish.

Not surprised, Revelations are great blanks that perform as if they were more expensive than they are. I don't have that one but have built others, never disappointed.

Oh yes, I get it. Should have been designed with a sleeve in it.

I cannot see the area where the cork meets the blank, but I presume you sealed that area well. Considering what you started with, I think it came out very well. Should give long service.

I see no need for a leader so long that it enters the reel. Seems like asking for trouble with interference to casting or retrieving and/or beating up the knot and weakening it. My SV 103 has the T-wing and casts better than any other reel I've used. Not sure how much the T-wing contributes, but it's a great reel.

There is a floor on the locker that I don't want to lose. To access the area under it where a charger would go, beside the batteries, requires that the floor, which is a metal plate that just sets there, no fasteners, be removed. It does not come out easily. Since I don't want to lose the floor of the locker, where I keep charts and a few other things under the rods, putting a charger under there is not my preferred option. I was just trying to inform the original poster of the trade-offs to be aware of. I'm perfectly happy with my two bank in the compartment to the right of the locker and the single bank back in the battery compartment.

My Lund came with a dual bank charger mounted in the compartment to the right of the rod locker. I think it was put in by the dealer, not Lund. I'm glad it's there and not out of sight under the rod locker. I can observe the status lights, and if anything goes wrong, it will be a lot easier to replace. At least that's the way I see it. Maybe some Lunds are different than mine (Rebel 1650 ss) , but the area under the rod locker is a real pain in the butt to access.

I don't think there is anything available that is going to satisfy your requirements.

I respectfully submit he is your father, not the "old man."

Try Google Earth on the small lakes. Sometimes you can find stuff on the Google Earth images. Especially smaller lakes like you are fishing. Lots of good ideas above, I would add troll two rods with different lures. I would make one of them a DT 10 Rapala.

I've been thinking (I know, dangerous), and I'm wondering if there is a mis-interpretation of what Lund recommended. If your charger is under the rod locker, how do you get the cable out without opening the rod locker and picking up the plate at the bottom? Every time you use it. If you run the 110 cable out somehow, and don't have to open the compartment to use it, you cannot see the indicator lights. That is unreasonable. Maybe they meant the compartment to the right of the rod locker? Easy access to the cord, more trouble running cables to the battery, but an order of magnitude handier than under the rod locker. That is where my two bank charger was installed by the dealer; they ran the cables along with all the electronics cables. I think it better to be able to open a compartment to assure no temp problems while charging, too. Do some serious thinking before following what you think is Lund's advice.

That is a very difficult place to access on that boat. And as mentioned, running cables will be difficult , with long cables. I find it amazing that they would recommend it. If it will fit put it into the battery compartment-weight will not be a problem. You can make a piece of 1/4 or 3/8 plywood that will be a "force or very snug fit" into the compartment and mount the charger to that. No need to drill into your Lund. If it's too big to fit into the battery compartment then put it into the rear compartment on the right side, then your holes and cables will be easy to do and out of sight.

One decision to make is what kind of thread tensioner. The ones that load the spools axially, spring on the end of the spool, sometimes don't give consistent tension because the spool label seems to interfere with them. The old Flexcoat tensioner that mounts vertically into a hole in the base and tensions the thread by pinching it after it comes off the spool has been my most successful tensioner. Some argue it can damage thread, especially metallics, but I have never found that to happen. It has been around for many years and still is available for about $9. By the way, Flexcoat has a nice hand wrapper for $79 bucks if you want a shortcut to a nice wrapper. I've never used a power wrapper for guides. They would be handy for doing a very long wrap, like one to hold down abalone while the glue "ages," but I don't think they would add value for shorter wraps like guide wraps.

Fuji DPSSD, the deluxe version of the DPS, size 17 (better than 16 for a long day's fishing) mounted up locking with a ramp of cork or rigid polyurethane off the front. Feels great in the hand, nice and smooth off the front, no hands on the threads.