MickD

I use 6' 6" baitcasting rods when fishing two fishermen in a short boat, but otherwise I use 7 footers. I like the way they cast, the way they handle fish, and I don't seem to have any trouble working lures the way I want. This may be different if I were fishing from a very low fishing boat-mine is a deep V, so is higher than many bass boats. I am 5-10.

Nicely done, and I'm sure David appreciates such a ringing endorsement. Especially interesting are your comments on the sizing of the guides. Smaller guides contribute to sensitivity, and on at least one of my rods, I went way too big. Still a good rod, but it looks funny and may not be as sensitive as it could have been. thanks!

I think I need an interpreter. Or maybe I don't. I think I know what "fuggin" means. Not sure about "shiznit." But there is no information relative to casting distance, accuracy, sensitivity, or anything else remotely related to the performance of a casting rod. I guess I expect too much.

Re: getting backlashes out. One way that sometimes works pretty well is to scrub back and forth with your finger nail back and forth across the spool/line surface where the "hangups" are. This sometimes gets you out of one or two, then keep repeating the process. If this doesn't work, gently pulling on the loops you find with a small crochet hook is an effective strategy. You don't want to pull hard on anything with a backlash, especially if you are using flouro as it is quite easily damaged if kinked. And pulling hard can tighten up the tangles making them harder to get out. Others have suggested using mono until you get confident, and I agree. 12-14# mono usually casts pretty well, and it's a lot cheaper, and if cutting is necessary, a lot easier to cut than braid.

Does this mean they are really good or really bad? Or did they explode? Details? thanks,

Quantum Tour Edition PT's are a little harder to set up properly and according to RM take more lube more often than some reels, but they are good durable reels. I have used mine on King Salmon up to 20 pounds with runs of 100 yards or more, casting many thousands of casts on everything from small bass to the Kings, and have never had a malfunction. Their drags are bulletproof. I expect most bass fishermen never really see their drags challenged. My Quantum Cabo has taken many barracuda up to about 25 pounds and other salt water fish that make runs of over 200 yards in some cases and it never malf'd either. I think Quantum has making good drags down pat. I expect all manufacturers of reels these days are making some pretty good stuff. Personally, I don't really care how pretty a reel is. Some of the Quantums tend to be gaudy, in my opinion. What's with that iridescent stuff?

I have two spiral wrap casting rods that I made and can find no functional problems with them. Some people look at them and say that there is no way they can cast as far/well as regular rods, but after tons of fishing and testing both ways, they are wrong. They cast just like regular wraps. The advantage of spiral wrap is that it makes the rod more stable under load, especially if the load on the rod is not in line with the guides. If the load is somewhat offset from the guides then the rod can "turn over" or twist, putting the guides on the bottom, and as it turns over you feel the snap. I've heard that it can damage the high modulus graphite rods, although I have never had that happen. Spiral wrap has the guides on the bottom, so is stable under all loading conditions. If you are going to make spiral wrap rods consult Rodbuilder.org's forum on rodbuilding at http://www.rodbuilding.org/list.php?2 before starting. There are a lot of ways to do a spiral wrap, some not so good,and you want to know what you are doing before investing the time and money.

I think the original poster was referring to a loud, screeching squeal, not the normal whirr that these reels and many others make. Loosen the adjustment cap until it no longer contacts the spool and see if the noise stops-I expect it will. If it stops, then the problem may be that you had it too tight (the adjustment is very sensitive) or needs lube. Comments from one of our reel experts indicates that hot sauce is not all it's cracked up to be and the Quantum needs more lube more often than many reels. I cobbled a small spring washer into the cap adjustment to soften the application of force from the disc to the spool and think it helped with the adjustment sensitivity. When my PT's are adjusted properly and lubed they make no unusual noise and cast great.

I have used the uni-uni for years and have had little trouble with it. With practice it is an easy knot to ty. It will get beaten up going through the guides after a while and you should keep track of this issue or you may lose a nice fish. Like I did once. I am experimenting with the Albright because it is smaller. The flouro only gets doubled with the Albright-with uni uni it wraps 5 thicknesses. The issue I have to be sure of is that the flouro doesn't get damaged in the sharp reversal of the Albright. So far so good. It is used in salt water for this application, so should be ok. I will check on the other smaller knot mentioned in previous post.

Regarding Reelmech question, I have put hot sauce oil in the cap and on the ball bearings. If there is a contact point on the side opposite the cap, I have not found it and have not lubed it. Reelmech-encountered the too sensitive and too noisy comments on these reels before? I suggested the spring washer idea, or some other "softer" way of applying the contact to the end of the spool to a rep from Quantum.

I read a posting recently, cannot find it today, in which it was mentioned that the poster's Quantum bait casting reel made so much noise on casting that it attracted attention from other anglers. I have two Quantum PT Tour reels, and while they are very smooth and normally quiet, they do make an inordinate amount of noise if the adjustment at the end of the spool is too tightly adjusted. Just a little turn out will relive the noise problem. However, I found that the spool end adjustment is just done wrong by design. The damping on the spool is very sensitive to the adjustment cap position, too much so. It is either "no effect" or too much effect in just a quarter turn or less. And if you miss by just a little, you get the noise. To fix this I went to the hardware store and bought the softest spring washer I could find that fit under the adjustment cap, and found that it allowed a more "normal" adjustment. Put it in the most outboard position, last thing in under the cap, so that the spool shaft is contacted by the disc that Quantum designed to contact the spool shaft. But it will soften up the application of force to the spool end and allow a little "adjustment" without encountering the noise. I expect the recent Cabela's sale on this reel indicates a redesign coming, and I hope they fix this problem which is, in my opinion, the only thing stopping this reel from being a world class reel.

Oh yes, lots of fun, and effective. I used to use maribou streamers with good success, but now I think the olive wooly buggers are the ticket around here. Just float them down the current and bass eat them readily. I think wet is definitely more effective than dry/poppers, although if you can get a popper bite, it is more fun because you see the strikes.

When spinning reels first came into this country the spools were quite large in diameter and short fore/aft. Remember the Airex? From France, I think. Then, as an improvement in casting, they changed to have smaller diameter spools that were longer fore/aft. Most reels today are of that configuration. But, as an improvement to casting, some makers are now making their spools larger in diameter and shorter fore/aft. The new BPS reels and a couple others look just like the old Airex reels my dad bought back in the late 40's or early 50's. Interestingly, the line he had was braided, as mono didn't exist. I haven't tried the new reels, but I expect they handle flourocarbon and other stiffer lines better.

I have used the uni knot for years on both bait casting (usually 20 # flouro to 30-50 # braid) and spinning (usually 10# flouro to 10-15 # braid) with very little trouble. Due to wear and tear going through the guides, I retie every few days of fishing. With rods with very small guides I sometimes feel that the knot is too big for the guides so have started to experiment with the Albright knot-too early to comment, but theoretically it should be a smaller knot than the Uni since it has fewer diameters of the line in the knot. Another issue can be the length of the leader. Short casts very well, as does long (leader much longer than the length of the rod), but some times when the leader is barely on the reel when the cast is started, it feels like it really hits the guides hard on the cast. When it is the right length, you don't even feel it going through. Obviously, if you can convince yourself that the braid is invisible to the fish, use no leader, but I'm not there yet. And I really like braid. I use the flouro that is designed to be line and not the super expensive leader kind of flouro, and have no indication that the flouro is a problem. There are some flouros that seem to be very sensitive to knot procedures, so if you find a problem you might try a different brand, and be sure to wet the knot and slo o o wly pull it tight. I've never used super glue. Keep in mind that for your surface lure fishing you may not like the way flouro sinks and drags your lure under on the twitches. If that becomes a problem, just use mono.

Maybe new EVA is better, but old EVA, like the old Ugly Sticks, used to deteriorate to the point of crumbling-I think due to reaction to time in the sunlight. I stopped buying rods with it because of my experience with the crumbling, and when I started building rods, would not consider it. Being a sort of traditionalist, I really like the look of cork on my rods, but have given in to technology by using the exotic burl in the natural and brown.

An experiment reported in In Fisherman about a year or two ago stated that red appeared black at depth, like the 12 feet that someone else noted. It did not say that red disappeared. If this is true, then red line will look red shallow and black at depth. Same for red hooks. I still believe that clear flouro is as good as it gets in clear water because its index of refraction is very close to that of water. Experiments on bass in tanks shows that they run into clear flouro line that is set up vertically in their tanks and they don't run into mono nearly as often. Indicating they cannot see the flouro. I don't know if red line was tested, but logic would indicate, based on the In Fisherman report, that it would be visible shallow. In water that is not clear the visibility of the line would be less an issue. If you go fishing with a Great Lakes bass guide and have braid on your outfit they will usually comment that you are hurting your chances as the bass will see the braid. Just another bit of opinion, but one from people who make their living by having fish not see their line.

If you can go $130 + shipping, check Cablelas for the Quantum Tour Edition PT in 7.1 ratio, usually priced $240.

As mentioned before, check the stickie posts at the beginning of the forum, and in my opinion: - Determine whether or not you want to buy prepared handles or turn your own cork. I highly recommend the latter because it gives you so much freedom to affect the shape and appearance (check out exotic burl-using regular color with simple burnt cork accents is very attractive). If you want to turn rings, a drill press and a little ingenuity mounting your rings onto 5/16 threaded rods will allow efficient and accurate turning. - I recommend you start with a couple rods with fairly inexpensive blanks and guide sets. I have not yet made a rod without learning something, and my first few rods left a lot to be desired. Check sites like Mudhole.com and jannsnetcraft.com + others for blank specials. Both have their own line of reasonable blanks. - I recommend you start with simple winding schemes. I think a lot of the rods being done today with complex winding schemes look too gaudy and lack class. Factories can do about anything with windings now, and the complex windings look like factory rods. IMHO - Check out http://www.rodbuilding.org/list.php?2 for great info, and seriously consider getting the magazine offered there. It is a great source of information, every single issue. Check out the library articles at the web site for great info on guide sizing and placement. - I highly recommend a turning motor for drying your finish. I just could not get great looking finish until I got mine built and running. YOu can buy the motor and a chuck at eBay pretty reasonably and mount it yourself. Also build other supports-pretty easily. - If your motive is simply to save money, it won't work. You'll soon find yourself going up market with components and your rods will become more expensive than you're probably spending now. At the end of the model year, Bass Pro and Cabelas have some pretty good closeouts with really good $100 rods for about $70. You can, however, make the equivalent of the top of the line St Croix and Loomis rods for about 2/3 the cost, but that is still somewhat steep. I figure that I normally spend about $50 over the blank cost for my rods (using very high quality components), more if I use titanium framed guides.

I build all my rods with split grips and exotic burl cork: Casting: I like the feel of the butt grip on the second hand when doing two handed casting. I see no other functional difference other than, as previously mentioned by someone else, with exotic burl, which is about twice the density of regular cork, weight savings can be significant. And it doesn't take me that long to form the extra grip piece. I also like it that the area between the rear grips is good for adding my specs to the blank + the blank decal, if there is one. Spinning: Similar to casting: With spinning there is little need for cork directly behind the reel seat, so I use just a little to balance the looks. If I were to go all the way back to the butt with exotic burl it would get pretty heavy and costly. In front of the reel seat I have a very short section of cork which tapers rapidly to the front with an epoxy ramp, giving a very comfortable conical section that encourages the fingers to contact the epoxy/blank for max sensitivity, and appearance wise, balances well with the short section behind the reel seat. Great looking rods, minimum weight with exotic burl, function as well or better than non-split grips per above comments.

I would not use braid under about 30 # on a bait caster, I don't like the lighter lines' handling qualities as much as the 30+ line. At 30-40 it will handle a lot like 12-15 mono. Regarding overstressing the rods, I have used braid well over the rods' ratings and have had no trouble. I usually use a 20 pound leader which is still over my rods' ratings, and have really had some salmon going nuts on my outfits, and they just keep on ticking. If I were selling rods to beginning fishermen, I might agree with voiding the warranties. It's the fishermen that break rods, not the fish.

I think off-line has it right, the way I remember the In Fisherman article is that red doesn't disappear at depth, it just loses its red and looks black. If you say red doesn't make any difference to fish(in shallow enough water to stay red) then you are in essence saying no color makes any difference, and I know that is not true. In clear water in Canada, less than 10 foot depth, using spinner baits and other similar lures for pike, color makes a big difference. Some days red/white is best, some days firetiger, some days purple/white. One year it was clown Rapala Husky Jerks. Last year they were not good, but firetiger and green/black similar lures worked well. Last year it appeared that the walleyes really liked yellow and orange jigs better than anything. I'm talking only clear water.

I don't usually use color preservative, either. I like to make rods that are glossy finished and match the color of the rod with the thread. Usually that means not using color preservative. However, am making a matte gray rod now and when I wrap matte I like to contrast the windings-this rod is candy apple with gold trim. So I asked the color preservative question. Tom Kirkman at Rodbuilders.org says almost all the preservatives now are the same material, an acrylic I think he said. When I've used color preservative in the past I've always used 3 coats to be sure it worked. I had one once that left me with splotchy color. thanks for your responses, mick

What is your favorite brand of color preservative and why? thanks, Mick

If you have to glue it to keep it together then either the sizing is wrong, there is some contamination on the surfaces, or you are not putting it together right. I would not recommend gluing. Since you have a new rod, # 2 is probably not going to be an issue. On an older rod, clean the surfaces with a clean cloth. You cannot do anything about # 1 so forget it. On #3, slide the rod halves together, and as you firmly do the last push to seat the sections together, give them a little twist. If the guides don't line up, start over.

I just did some internet research to try to find out the relative strengths of the Albright, improved Albright (Alberto) and double uni knots when tying mono to braid and found this: Both knots less than 50% of line strength Both knots between 90 and 100% of line strength Braid is really bad for knot strength which is why the line is much stronger than stated pound test-it is the approx knot strenght that is on the box. What the truth is, I suppose, will depend on your specific lines and your specific techniques. Sounds like a good winter project. I'll be tying them both and testing. As stated before, my experience would lead me to believe the truth is closer to 90 for both knots than it is to 50.