MickD

I've been everywhere mentioned above, and here is my opinion. MOst of the time, regardless of what knot you use, you will "detect" it going through the guides. A little click is OK. If you start feeling it, you may damage the guides, but more likely the knot will not last very long. No knot lasts forever, but the less disturbance you feel, the less damage is being done to the knot. Your rig looks to me like it's too heavy to pass through micro guides unless you use the FG. As stated above, if you're using lighter braids with less than 10 pound leaders, uni to uni is easy, reliable to tie, and will work with a minimum disturbance with almost any guide train. This video, if followed exactly, will produce a reliable FG knot. Not a great knot to be tying in the boat while the fish are biting, which is why I use a lot of rods in the boat-break a line or leader, just stow it and pick up another. I tie the FG's at home. But this video, IMHO, give the easiest, most reliable, FG.

Small water, I prefer alone or with my zealot son. Big water, Lake St Clair and Saginaw Bay, I don't go alone. Better to have a partner in case something goes wrong.

You can get a Daiwa Tatula SV 103 on Ebay for $150- best baitcasting reel I've ever cast. I don't think they come in three ratios, but probably two. 5-6:1 is of marginal value anyway, IMO.

Monday 57 degrees along the mile roads, lots of fishermen fishing 8-10, did not see many fish caught. It was a funny day, supposed to be strong winds and hail, but that never developed. Very foggy in the AM , clearing about noon. Mostly gentle winds, but for a couple hours about 3:00, it blew pretty hard, with clouds. When it brightened we found a fair number of SM shallow in very turbulent water where waves from the southeast came into a seawall and bounced back. Also many LM, walleyes, and pike in same areas, some LM very nice size. Very little interest from the fish on tubes, chartreuse shallow squarebill was the best lure all day, but we did take a few nice fish on Rapala jerk shad rap or whatever the new one is called. If drifting soft baits, I suggest using drop shot to get the lure away from the dead weeds on the bottom. Or put a tube on the bottom, something else above. I have friends who did much better than we, but I cannot tell you where they were fishing. I'm sure you understand.

Lanny, please let us know what the final resolution is. I'm sure others are as curious as I am.

It is not the thumb-bar as I suggested earlier. When it is mis-assembled it only affects the ability to get the spool to free spool. Drag is unaffected, retrieve is unaffected. I just tried it on mine. The answer to how to assemble properly is to find the little lever in the side plate assembly and put it into the down position. Put the side plate on while holding the thumb-bar up position. Now after the side plate is assembled, retrieve by cranking the handle. You'll hear the little lever in the side plate click up into the thumb-bar as you retrieve. Now pushing the thumb-bar will put the reel into free spool. So you are down to either broken/sheared gears or failed drag. If it is the drag, how do you explain the fact that he can easily turn the crank, but no retrieval occurs, yet the pulling on the line as the fish did does not allow any line to go out. If the drag were failed to allow handle turning without retrieval, how is it logically explained that pulling on the line won't let line out? Looking more like gears, IMHO. Lanny, have you inspected the gears? What did you find? The suggestion to send it to a good reel servicer is a good one. You will get an expert to give you an estimate to repair, and if justified, then authorize him to do a complete clean and lube. This reel is worth saving, so don't give up on it easily.

He couldn't pull line out, and you couldn't pull line in? But the handle was turning on the attempted retrieve? Open the reel and look at the gears. Keep in mind that upon reassembly the thumb "switch" has to be in the correct position or the reel will not work properly. Maybe the side plate came loose, you tightened it, but when it was loose the thumb "switch" moved to the wrong position? If a gear has failed you should be able to see it with the side plate off, if I remember correctly. The earlier post about braid is asking whether the line is slipping on the spool, which can easily happen with braid since it is so slippery. But, the fish should have been able to take line if this were the problem. In your last post you say the drag is not allowing line out. Which is consistent with the fish not being able to take line. So the problem is simply that you cannot retrieve, the drag is OK and the line is not slipping on the spool. so take the side cover off and make sure a gear is not stripped and the thumb "switch" is in the right position before reassembly. I respectfully submit that the lousy spelling done on purpose is not helpful.

Largemouths love them, good advice above. Only problems with tubes is when the habitat you're fishing is too weedy. If you find good edges, drop them just outside, work parallel to the edge. Vary the retrieve to find what they want that day.

Take a well-tied FG apart and you'll find that the leader has been permanently deformed so that the braid and leader are interlocked mechanically. This happens during the very aggressive tensioning of the knot that is highlighted in the titles of the video above.

Probably not, but only you can determine that. I wouldn't trust 5/4, but I've never been able to get that knot to hold up when aggressively snapping lures off the bottom. Sooner or later, it unravels. The FG will not cause trouble going through the guides. If you stick to this method of tying it, it will be reliable.

The double uni is, in my opinion, the knot to use if your guides will pass it cleanly. Depends on the line, leader, and guide sizes. The FG is fine if you get to where you can tie it reliably. There are a number of ways to tie it, and I've tried a few of them. The video link shows what I think is the best method because it is easy to keep the weaves in proper orientation, easy to get 20 of them, easy to tie the half hitches. With some other methods I've had trouble keeping all the "stuff" together, and often my knots failed.

Yes, you are right. I did it all wrong. Never mind. :-)

It is just a little under 1 inch in diameter. If you scale the diameter and compare that dimension to the scale that shows the length to be about 1 1/2 inches, you get a diameter of just under 1 inch. And as mentioned before, no rifling marks. I'm no expert, but it's a lot larger in diameter than .45. Unless I'm missing something.

If your rods under the seat get bounced around, then you may not want to invest in an expensive two piece rod. It will fish fine until it breaks from having hit something hard under there. as others have stated, there is little if any difference in the fishing qualities of one and two piece (or 4 piece) rods any more. Given the same materials, the lighter rod will be more sensitive, so look for small guides, especially near the tip. I doubt if anyone can sense performance differences between the rods that come both as one and two piece and have the same guides.

I don't think I have seen any mention of cork quality-if you want really good quality cork, you will pay a premium. One of the reasons so many rods are using EVA now is the cost of good cork. Also not mentioned, if I'm not mistaken, is that for blank durability, the expensive rods are usually more fragile than the cheaper rods due to the high mod graphite (lighter, more sensitive) being used on them. Exceptions are the expensive rods using nano particles in the graphite. This is reported to make the rods tougher without going heavier, but it is offered only on the really high price rods. You won't see that in your price range. One achilles heel in cheaper rods is that sometimes the manufacturers use materials like boxboard for shimming reel seasts, and often skimp on epoxy making seat to rod failures more likely. This is one area that most custom rod builders far exceed the quality of even some of the best names in the industry. But I expect that the more expensive rods will be better than the cheaper ones for this characteristic. If you plan on carrying your rods in the boat on the way to the lake, or in the back of the pickup, or banging it onto the edge of the boat, don't waste your money on an expensive rod. It could be more fragile than the cheaper one.

With micros smaller than about 5 mm the double uni knots will probably be annoying to most anglers with most line strengths that we normally use. To get the absolute smallest knot, learn the FG. It takes some time and practice, but if you want the smallest (and strongest) knot, it is the one. Some use the Alberto, but I've never been able to make it reliable-comes loose with rigorous snapping of swimbaits off the bottom. Yup, my issue, maybe not yours. What I do is use the double uni with guide and leader combos that work OK, and the FG for the others. Using straight braid is a trade-off for strength. While you don't need a line to leader knot, the knot of the braid to the lure becomes critical, and not all knots will work well with braid. The palomar is one of the best, but unless doubled, it also has problems reported. It also takes a lot of line when tying on a large lure, or one with more than one treble. Doubling it makes it about twice as hard to tie. I prefer to use a leader and the terminal knot is a piece of cake. And reliable.

Point blanks are terrific blanks-I built two 691MXF's for my son, he loves them. I built as casting rods and they are very versatile rods. I don't know if he's used them for drop shot; he usually spins for drop shot, but I see no reason why they would not work well. The XF Point Blanks all have very stout butts, so they cast about any weight and get into the butt power fast when fighting fish. Don't be limited by the 6' 9" lineup, look at the longer ones too.

For what you are doing, short range towing, just about any drop will work ok. That dimension is not nearly as important as most people think. Worst case scenario: try what works for your drive and carefully see how it works on the road. It also looks like you have the room to use the suggested angle approach to help.

The most important post on this string advocates a larger reel seat for improved ergonomics. Right on! All the rest will most likely not improve the comfort. If anyone is worried about the hand pain that comes from all day fishing a certain technique, either get a rod with a larger seat or alter yours with a "palm swell" addition. Not hard to do.

Two of the best active techniques for bass in the spring are 1. blade baits (Silver Buddy types) and 2. 5 inch swim baits on a darter head jig snapped off the bottom-experiment with the cadence to find what they want. Oh, forgot hard jerkbaits.

The rod really doesn't care what reel you use. But the techniques, lure weights, and water conditions (weeds, brush, open?) you plan to fish should direct you to the right action and power. Then buy the best you can afford, shop sales.

Through two shoulder surgeries, a knee replacement, and other knee surgeries, I've never used a special parking spot.

Keep in mind that blanks don't care whether they are built into casting or spinning rods. Any blank with the specs you want will work for either reel type.

I have a bad shoulder, can't hold the fish that far from my body. ? Obviously a very nice fish, congrats.

Yes, Mudhole.com, St Croix, and Rainshadow by Batson Enterprises all offer blanks. The one I mention, just completed, and fished once, is very nice, I think it will work both for small jigs for windy day bonefish and that now and then shot at a big barracuda. I think all the travel blanks are seven feet, 3 piece, and come usually in 3 different power ratings. The Rainshadow SB841 is different than most in that it has a truly very fast action which gives it versatility with regard to lure weight and fish size control. The SB841 is designated SB841-3, the 3 meaning 3 piece, and costs $70 + shipping. Guides and other components would come to about $150 depending on what you choose, so add about $80 for labor (at the source where I bought my blank-I'm not a "selling" rod builder), and you are under , or very close to $240. If you were to contract the outfit I mention you would pay shipping only once, on the completed rod. Delaware Valley Tackle, on this forum, is highly regarded for his custom rods, so you might, if interested, contact him for a quote. I built mine with a split cork grip, Fuji slim SIC corrosion control KLH guide system, about a 3 inch fore grip intended to support the rod if fighting a big fish, and some trim that you couldn't do for $240. The Fuji corrosion control guides can be had very reasonably with Alconite rings, and would handle salt better than anything exc titanium. I would be glad to offer any other info if you wish.