MickD

In the interest of good and easy casting I would go with the rod whose lure weight recommendation best matches what I intend to throw.

I have had good luck with the Strike King KVD Perfect Coffee swim bait in the 5 " size for smallies, too. Although I usually go with the 3.8 Keitech. Strike King in pearl is its best color, IMHO.

So does "tip is quite a bit faster. . ." mean the tip is softer, less powerful? If two blanks have the same power and one is fast action and the other is extra fast action, the extra fast will have the softer tip. "Fast" and "extra fast" being defined as where the blanks first bend, extra fast bending farther out, more power down low.

Loomis, St. Croix, Rodgeeks, American Tackle, Rainshadow RX6, 7, 8, 10, Revelation, Immortal, Eternity 2, Pac Bay, Cabelas, BassPro, Point Blank, MHX, a Montague bamboo fly rod, rebuilt old Heddon glass spin, Shakespeare in my youth as well as a bamboo spin from way back when, and a few no-names I've built. And of course, a fly blank from Herters built during finals at U of Michigan when I finally got my shXX together. "Finest procurable quality." One cannot have too many fishing rods. I keep seeing this description and don't know what it means. Can you elaborate on what characteristics this rod has and why you like it? Is it response time? Or a fast taper to the tip which is often described as an "extra fast action?" Or. . . ? thanks

Legend SCV blanks have one of the highest true natural frequencies of many blanks I have tested. Not the highest, but nearly so. They are definitely a premium blank. The Rodgeeks SCIV blanks are close, but not the equivalent. In my opinion. Any weight you add to a blank will lower its true natural frequency, and many think that true natural frequency is a good indicator of sensitivity. It is clearly indicative of response time. I have a lot of premium builds that I use and the SCV 70MF is one of my favorite tube/finesse rods. Whether you can get the equivalent of a Legend with your own build will depend on your design and execution. There is no reason why you cannot match it if you use the same SCV blank. I recommend using reel seats no smaller than size 17 for optimum ergonomics. Going with a slightly lighter 16 may seem like the right choice for max performance, but after a long day on the water you will likely wish you had used a 17. I don't even use 16's on ultra-lights.

Most rods, especially longer more powerful rods will end up tip heavy. You can put the reel farther from the butt to try to get better balance, but go too far and you have an ergonomics problem. I never add weight, build for lightest reasonable weight, and build for best ergonomics and let the balance do what it will do.

Yes they will produce soot, but only if you have the flame impinge directly onto the blank. The right way to use them is to just pass the side of the flame close to the blank, not under it, as the blank is turned so as to expose all potential bubbles to the heat. You will get no soot. I have an alcohol burner and have not used it in many years. Many builders really over-use heat. Not much is required, if any.

Have it you're (sic) way

Not all FC's and mono's of the same pound test have the same diameters. Close, but not always the same. Most FC's are a little smaller in diameter than mono's.

I'm not familiar with Lurenet, but Jsflyfishing.com is a good company. I also buy a lot from Lurepartsonline.com. Not all companies have all products,so shopping at a couple is often necessary to get all I want. And some have certain products that seem better than others, like some feathers, other natural stuff. Almost everything by "Hareline" is good stuff, by the way. I just checked the Lurenet site and it appears more of a lure shop than a tacklemaking shop. I didn't see the kinds of stuff we are discussing there. Maybe I'm missing something, but. . .

I think you're right. At least it appears to me that the Fuzzy Fiber will work. Craft fur that I have seen is not long enough for the fly I saw on the video. And the EP fibers I've worked with don't seem to be soft enough to do what this jig is doing.

All this stuff is great, but if you don't know how to remove a hook using this method, you are missing the most important part of fishing first aid. 1. If part of a lure, cut the hook off the lure. You want only the embedded hook to deal with. 2. Have a foot or so of braid or other strong line available. 3. Place a loop of the line over the hook so you can apply force to the hook. 4. Put some force onto the hook shank to load the hook so that the barb will be least likely to dig into the flesh as the hook is moved. 5. With the loop in your hand, and the body part with the hook stable, count one two three and quickly and forcibly jerk the hook out. There will be no damage from the barb, it will be almost painless, no need to cut the hook apart and possibly embed a short piece into the flesh. This works! You can even do it yourself if fishing alone most of the time. Lots of videos on line about it.

I cannot tell it from the Tatula LT. Maybe in a big number of years, but not out of the box. Both are fine reels. Details?

Same for me, in Michigan winter I take them into the house.

It's just an old convention, not sure how it got started. Sort of like the descriptions of action which use "speed" terms, slow-fast-moderate fast-etc. That started with the bamboo tapers. Here is an article that should be of interest to new builders. https://www.rodbuilding.org/library/waterfree.html I scrub the ID's of reel seats using a shotgun cleaning rod section in a drill driver with Scotchbrite in the slot used for patches. The forum which is the basis for this article/library is a very good one. Other good articles are at https://www.rodbuilding.org/library/library.html I print out the article "Eliminate Broken Rods" for anyone I build a rod for.

Most spinnerbaits have an open "tie", not a closed loop tie, so snaps often slide up the wire. If the spinnerbaits used have the open "tie" then tying the line directly to the spinnerbait will be better. Swivels don't make any sense for a bait like a spinnerbait that doesn't spin.

For my cast I always use the RV then KB's and KT's. Looks like the RV is lower, so I would think line slap on the blank might be more of an issue, but I don't really know. What I do know is that the RV6 works fine. Many builders use the LKW for the first guide, in size 10 to get the height right. Works fine. Size 4 is pretty small for cast, in my opinion. The reason for going really small is for sensitivity and possibly (it's debatable) a little casting distance. The difference between 4's and 5.5's for sensitivity and casting distance has to be very small, most likely negligible. But the passage of knots through them is a different story, with the 5.5's being more forgiving of bigger knots. I use 4's on spin where I use no higher than 15 pound leaders with braid, but 5.5's on cast where I go up to 20 or 25. If you have confidence in the FG knot, fine, but I don't. I've had too many fail. I use an Alberto with two half hitches of the braid tag end added. I also don't fish when the water is freezing so I don't worry about very small guides icing up, but if you plan to fish that cold I would recommend going larger than 4's. I would order an extra KT in case you find that with the fast tip you want more than the traditional 8 guides for a 7 foot rod. I always seem to want one more guide. The LG tiptop will work fine.

I rig tail down, not from personal experience, but a friend told me that it was the only way he got bites one day. But having said that, I have not had much action on grubs in the last few years.

It really doesn't matter. OK, guys, unload on me.

Bubble gum soft jerks at times do very well on smallies.

The best way I've found to measure AA is with a digital level which can be placed against the tip extension. You then don't have to have a card leveled + trying to see which line is the best fit. They are only about $20-30. Search Amazon. There are free cell phone apps that turn the phone into a digital level, too. I haven't tried one for this, but might work well.

Yes, they resemble the proportions of the Point Blanks. I agree with your ERN, do you have an AA for the 841? Because of the heavy butt the 841 is surprisingly powerful, and with its light tip it casts light lures well. The true natural frequency of my 841 is surprisingly high for an RX6 material rod. You are going to like it.

Got it. I personally see no reason for 1/4 inch on new wraps. I have never used that much thread. This topic was discussed on another forum recently and if I remember correctly, nothing close to 1/4 inch was mentioned. I use, and many others do too, probably 3-5 wraps off the foot to start the wrap. Considering the mechanics of it, how can anything more than about that have any effect on guide stability? With that guide of yours, no issue. But if you wrap the micros onto an ultra light and use 1/4 inch you will be significantly and measurably affecting the response time of the rod.

One can never have too many rods. It's sort of like women's shoes and purses.

Unless your wrap is intended to match the length of other wraps on the rod, you don't need to make them that long. Just a few wraps before the foot is enough. The issue can be significant out nearer the rod tip because the added weight of thread and epoxy out there can slow the response time of the rod. Depending on the thickness of the epoxy, the location, and the characteristics of the blank. The lighter the blank tip the more likely it can have significant effect.