MickD

Come on folks, this isn't rocket science, just measure the tip where the tiptop will go on and order that size in 64's of an inch, or just above that, and you have it. You can measure the blank with the drill bit tool, or a micrometer, whatever to find the size of the tip. Going to the manufacturer will just frustrate you and them and prolong the mystery. Measure it!

I store nylon lines inside during the winter in MI since the outside humidity is very low. Nylon doesn't like low humidity. Having said this, I don't know how long it takes nylon to absorb water to get back to its normal state.

What makes a fish want to take this or that, I have no clue. But I have come to believe that fish are really quite primative, and what ever pattern they decide on has less to do with detail than it does with cadence of movement, color, maybe shape. For example, what on earth does a tube resemble? Nothing in detail, but with the right color, and the right movement, the tube is really effective. Fish of all species in all environments turn on and off according to something that eludes all of us, but when they decide they "might" bite something, it's about cadence of movement, color, maybe shape. But not about whether the lure has all the fins in the right place.

Most of the advice you're getting is not about how to satisfy your fishing needs, but about what brands are best in the writers' opinions. Regardless of what brand you use, for topwater (and crankbaits) you want a medium action blank with the power matched to your fishing lure weights. Then it will load properly on the cast. The medium action should be soft/slow enough to not jerk the hooks out of the fish. On topwater the biggest error most make is setting the hook too soon and too hard. Fast actions are not right for this type of fishing. I still maintain that for the first build a reasonably priced blank of the proper characteristics will be the right choice. You will make mistakes. Make them on a reasonably priced blank and not on a $100 + St Croix. This string started so long ago, the rod is probably already done? Tell us what you chose for a blank and how it went.

Your first rod will be a learning experience, so I would not invest a ton of money on blank or components. Look for an inexpensive "crankbait" blank from sources like Netcraft or Mudhole (probably not their MHX line), reasonably priced guides (all guides are capable of lasting almost forever), a good tiptop (like Fuji BFAT) that will last almost forever. You might consider a kit. Your skills will increase with every build, and as you gain confidence and ability, you will naturally migrate to the more expensive, but maybe not much better, stuff. Consider a subscription to Rodmaker Magazine (http://www.rodmakermagazine.com/), and go to the forum http://www.rodbuilding.org/list.php?2. With both, you will learn a lot with every issue or visit. Good luck, and enjoy a very rewarding hobby!

Last post of mine didn't mention balance. Don't worry about it, just do the guides as I said and I think you will love the rod. When starting from scratch, worry about balance. But even then I contend that other factors are much more important than "balance."

Yes, the guides can be changed to micros. I think we make the whole issue of rod designing and building much more difficult than it should be. OK, taking the old guides off and putting new ones on in the same places won't be 100% optimum, but the difference between optimum and "it works pretty well" will be minimal. If you put the new micros in the same place as the other guides the impact on the finish of the rod will be minimized, and it will still work well. Where the first guide is , put a Fuji KW size 10. In the place of the next guide, put a KW 6. In the next put a KB 4.5. From there, Fuji micros all the way to the end. Worst case scenario, the line may touch the blank when under load. Not a big deal. Go for it!

RM, any comments on the new "nano tech" blanks that are appearing more and more now? Thanks

I don't fish smallies much, but for largemouths and pike I find that the plated blades work better than painted. I would try painted baits on cloudy days, but certainly would not give up my plated blades totally. Regarding which plating color, I've found the color of the skirt much more important than the color of the plating. At times, go much bigger on the blade, like with a big Colorado. If you find that largemouths are "hitting" the lure but not getting hooked it is probably that they are bumping it and not eating it. Change skirt colors until you find what they want. They want it, but something is not quite right.

Before I would buy any expensive rods after breaking three in one weekend I would want to be sure I knew how I broke those three rods. Rods just don't break themselves, and when used properly, fish don't break them either. IMHO

I am in the same boat as Delaware and have confidence that you will not be disappointed by Mudhole. Another source of info is to go onto the Rodbuilding.org forum and ask there. It is a forum totally devoted to rodmaking, so the likelihood of finding a person with experience in the classes will be higher. http://www.rodbuilding.org/list.php?2

ON guides the ring size is the OD of the ring. Different for tip tops? One trick to use to keep from overheating the blank when removing a tiptop is to apply tension to the tiptop while heating, with a string tied to something so that while heating your are pulling on the tiptop. Then it will come off as soon as the adhesive is softened. I would not use epoxy on the new one, but the heat melt "ferrule cement" or "tip top adhesive." These will allow easy replacements. Epoxy really grabs on and in order to get it off you could easily overheat the blank.

I usually estimate blank $$ + $50 using very good quality guides. If you want knots to pass through the guides, then maybe micros are not for this application. What style spiral are you thinking about? I've built spiral with the simple spiral method, and have no complaints, but I have not built simple spiral with micros. Since micros are so close to the blank, I would think a spiral might get the line into the blank a lot. With the simple spiral I would use a 5 or 6 double foot size first guide, same next guide, or whatever it would take to keep the line off the blank, and similar third guide then micros the rest of the way. Simple spiral makes the 180 degree transition in 3 guides. All the rest of the guides are not relevant to the spiral and could be all micros and should be the same size. If you are unfamiliar with the simple spiral, go to the Rodmaker forum and search for simple spiral. In a nutshell, it uses one extra guide, the bumper (90 degree) guide half way between the butt guide and the third guide (180 degrees). All guides except the bumper (90 degrees) are located the same as with conventional winding. The bumper's only function is to keep the line off the blank, and it will be loaded exactly at the base of the ring. It should be as low and small as possible while keeping the line off the blank. One builder who has done a bunch of micros believes that the first guide should be at least a size 4 to properly accept the line off the reel- he states that size 3 micros all the way will not cast as far as when your first guide is a bigger guide, like a 5. If I were you I would get a few extra guides that would allow me to do some test casting with different setups. My experience is that there is no advantage to doing the more progressive spirals than the simple spiral, but you will find builders who disagree. The simple spiral is the easiest to build, and it doesn't "look goofey" looking down the rod. If you use right crank reels, put the bumper on the right so that the bumper is not lying on the boat deck when you have the rod lying there, crank up.

Very nice work. Took me a lot more rods than two to get even close to that level of craftmanship.

If they were my rods I would not try to remove the epoxy, but would cover the area with paint or a stick-on decal that compliments the rod designs. I would retain the split grip design;it would be very difficult to undo it without messing up the rods. If you are good on the computer you can make decals on the Papilio decal media (http://www.papilio.com/inkjet%20waterproof%20adhesive%20film%20media.html), and they can be spectacular. I've even used photos on the decals. Images of fish skin work well if you stay with fish that don't have a lot of silver (won't print as silver) like bass, perch, bluegill, brown and brook trout. Decals can be covered first with a UV fast drying clear finish, then epoxy or clear spray finish (it's easy to mask the area you don't want covered). If you don't want to make a design on the decal, you can just do the whole area in a color that works on the rod, like the major winding color. If you want to try the decal method, let me know and I can do some decals if you want some help.

If that "generic" rod is glass, then I would just put it on the wall of the garage. There are so many really nice graphite rods available for very low prices, especially if you shop the end of the year sales, that it is not worth trying to save a rod that has no chance of being a decent rod for most fishing. Compared to what is available today.

There are a few things that I will not lend: rods, reels, chain saws, guns. Did your friend offer to replace the broken rod? If not, I wouldn't lend him anything in the future.

For repair, check out http://www.rodbuilding.org/library/repair-oquinn.html

Motors as slow as 6-10 rpm will work fine for drying, maybe better than the higher speeds for drying. However, the faster speeds are better for applying finish.

http://www.rodbuilding.org/library/buildjig.html Make a couple V stands to extend the wrapper, then mount a small motor with a cobbled chuck on a third stand to provide a dryer function. I got my small motor at Ebay. If you can get one that runs about 45 rpm it will work nicely for putting finish on the wraps, too.

Follow Delaware's instructions to the letter and you'll be able to do a quality job yourself. The reason for the rubber band is to get the old tiptop off at the lowest possible temp to prevent damage to the blank. The paper clip allows you to heat the tiptop without burning the rubber band. Make sure the heat is limited to the metal guide only. The glue they are referring to is a hot melt type. Don't use any other type (epoxy/super glue/etc)or removing the guide the next time may not be possible. There is a specific hot melt for tiptops available from rod building sources, but other hot melts are ok, they just may lose their grip at a lower temp.

Go to the Mudhole site and click on their rod building tips/instructions buttons, or order a catalog and you'll find good instructions in the front of the catalog. As others have suggested, try to figure out how deeply you want to go into the hobby. That will guide you on what to buy initially for tools. I suggest starting with a kit, and a fairly cheap one at that, and get started on it. That way the design will be OK and you won't have a tremendous investment if you screw it up or never quite catch on. If you are handy with your hands, simple tools, glue and finish handling, are somewhat patient, and have a real desire to build a rod, you will be successful. After you have done a couple kit rods, you will want to spec your own rod blank, guides, grips, etc, and you will want some more advanced tools. A drying motor setup is really nice, but is optional. Without it you have to hand turn the rod now and then while the epoxy is curing. the quality of the epoxy job done manually is usually not nearly as nice as you will get with a drying motor rig. I made my own from a cheap motor from Ebay. I also built my winding setup out of pine, dowels for the spools, and a thread tensioner (any rod building supply house has them). It really dosn't take that much $ for tools if you are willing to make some of them yourself. Check out http://www.rodbuilding.org/list.php?2 Check out the library and search the forum for entries on beginning rod building. Buy the book by Tom Kirkman available at Mudhole and other rod building houses. The rodbuilding.org site is all about rods, not rods and baits, so it is better for the rodbuilder. The guy down the road from you has offerred to help, so take advantage of his offer. There would be no better way to get introduced to the craft than to have an experienced rodbuilder invite you into his shop and go over it with you.

Next step: Never loan rods or reels again. There are a number of things I will not loan: Chain saw, rods, reels, guns, cameras. Too easy to mess them up. Also, if I were the guy who broke your rod, I would have offerred to replace it. I assume he did not. Hence part of the problem in loaning fragile equipment.

Since you even ask about repairing the rod with the guide issue, I assume you're new to building, so assume you don't have a lot of building tools. If you are asking if the ring can be replaced, no. But the guide can be replaced. Go to a source like Mudhole.com and look for the closest guide you can find to the one that is damaged. You can find the right size by measuring the inner diameter of the guide frame where the old ring was mounted. That will be the nominal size of the guide to be replaced. Buy the guide, a spool of thread closest to the color on your rod, color preservative, and epoxy winding finish. The Mudhole site will have basic winding instructions. You can tension the thread by running it through the pages of a book. (or, if you have a buddy who builds rods, he can probably do it for you). Regarding the "generic" rod-the reason it is so out of balance is probably because it has a pretty heavy blank and/or guides. I doubt it is worth rebuilding, but you can simulate what you will have for balance by taping weights on the butt and then using the rod. Installing a grip is usually done from the tip end of the rod so that the taper of the blank can be matched in the reaming of the grip. Going on from the back means that the front of the grip will have to be the butt diameter of the rod. When glued on, it will not be as strong as it would be if you were matching diameters closer. A way to do it well would be to buy a pipe type spinning reel seat and trim rings for each end (to finish off the seat to the blank nicely)and build it without a foregrip (not needed anyway on most rods). For the butt, buy a pre-built 2 or 1 1/2 inch butt grip and bore it to fit the butt of the rod. You will now have a split grip rod which will balance as well as can be done for your rod. Mudhole site also has instructions on installing reel seats. To take off the original handle will require you to take all the cork off. Since it sounds like a cheap rod, that may not be too difficult. A sharp knife used carefully followed by sandpaper, then possibly paint to provide a new finish where the grip used to be.

My experience with taking reel seats and grips off is that the boiling water may not be needed. With factory rods there often is not a lot of epoxy used and shims are often cardboard which makes it relatively easy to pry the parts off once you make the longitudinal cuts (I've found dremel type tool to be the best option) recommended in the previous post. Cleanup may take you more time than the removal of the parts. One of my favorite rods now is one I rebuilt like this. I didn't like the reel seat and grip design, or the guides, but liked the action. Now it is a great rod, better than new.