MickD

The biggest factors in runner weight, where the sensitivity is best maintained by light guides, are frame material and size. Titanium is expensive, but light. Price point is very important in selling assembled, big box store, rods, so in most cases titanium is out. Small is good, but I don't think all anglers are ready for the really small micros yet. They take a good knot to pass leader knots through, they can ice up in cold weather, they look fragile to many anglers, so most assembled rods use bigger guides with stainless steel frames.

What you're seeing here is the contrast between removing a tiptop that was installed with epoxy and one installed with hot melt. Hot melt takes very little heat. Epoxy will take you into the range of damage to the blank. Try the steam before you cut it off. You may luck out and get it off without damage. Then try the Dremel on the tube to get it to spit. Don't cut the blank until you've exhausted all the options.

I have never had a guide get grooved. Even the old cheapies on the big box store rods I used to use. Even with braid. The guides near the butt have little to do with sensitivity, unlike the runners, the ones near the tip. You want the lightest you can get along with there. I have had a number of tiptops groove, which is why I always use SIC tiptops. As stated above, if you have not tried braid, you have not yet taken advantage of the biggest sensitivity improvement you can make.

My son just caught a number of smallies in a mid MI river with small surface lures, Pop R's. The fish were sighted before casting to them and on the first one, it refused all the plastics. But nailed the Pop R. Might take a small one along.

What size guides? Can you tell how many layers of the leader are in this knot? I can't figure it out from the video. Looks like it might be big.

All good advice except, IMO, for this. For a new user of braid to leader knots to master the FG without a whole heck of a lot of practice is very unusual. And unless he is using very small guides it is not necessary, the double uni or Alberto will work fine. The easiest, most reliable knot is the double uni, IF the guides are big enough, like 6mm runners. It took me a lot of failures of the FG before I found a way to doing one pretty reliably, and I still don't fully trust it and use it only on my smallest micro guides. If done right it is a great knot, lasts a long time since it doesn't get beaten up by the guides, goes through any guides cleanly, very strong. But. . . It probably should be mentioned that many fishermen don't use leaders with braid. They tie direct to the braid and say they do well. I like a leader because I just think it will be less visible that braid, it gives a little stretch in the system, and when I cut off lures or lose them, I lose a little leader, but not the braid, which in time with direct tying, will get shorter and shorter.

If you are going to use it for surface some times, use mono since it won't sink like FC and ruin the action of some surface lures. Some have gone to mono for everything to avoid the "foibles" of FC. I use FC fly tippet material since it is a little stiffer and I think tougher , although I have no data. Anyway, I don't have problems with it for non-surface techniques. As implied above, the big question is what knot are you going to use. The FG is the best if you use micro guides AND can learn to tie it well, which could take some time and mistakes. The most reliable, IMO, especially for a newbie, is the double uni. I'ts a big knot, not suitable for small guides and 20 pound test leaders, but it's easy and hard to screw up. A really good small knot is the Alberto, but it has its foibles too. You must stick the tag end back out of the loop properly or it WILL fail, and a really hard setting of the wet knot will give the most reliability. Look for the posts under "Alberto knot mystery failures solved?" for more info.

For just one rod that will do it all pretty well, MF. Power and action can be measured, with CCS, and can be objective, not subjective. Preferences for different powers or actions are subjective. Length is objective, easily measured. Preferences for length are subjective. But the length of the rod does not have an impact on action and power. Any length of rod can have any power and any action. This does not mean I disagree with your preferences, but just the second sentence.

Here are two photos of Albertos tied with 15 pound braid and 20 pound FC, with the braid taken off. The lines in the top picture is the FC as it looked after the braid was cut and unwoven from the knots. The right line in each photo is the line from a hand-tightened knot. The loose loop (right in each pic) is the FC from a knot which was progressively tightened to close the loop as much as possible with the final set using only my hands, no tool. The tight loop is the FC from a knot tied the same way, but the final set was done with a tool to prevent hands from being cut and which allowed a tighter set, just like the set one does on an FG. In the top photo you can see it didn't open up when the braid was removed. In the bottom the image shows it after I opened it up for a better view of the condition of the FC. You can see that with the tool the FC is much more "distorted," from the braid embedding into the FC, just like one sees with a well-tied FG. The appearances of the finished knot differed in that the tool-set knot was shorter than the hand set knot. (9 wraps in each knot) The FC loops at the end looked about the same to the naked eye. It is logical to me to conclude that the tool-tightened Alberto knot will be more reliable than the hand-tightened knot, just like in the FG where a very hard set knot is more reliable than one not set very hard. I don't like to use super glue as it seems to always get where I don't want it, like on my fingers, and I don't like the white blob it forms. And it seems that when I need it, it has hardened in the tube/container spout and is a general PIA.

Yup. I think I have that figured out, but. . .

I believe in order to close the loop properly with the heavier/stiffer leader materials that one has to tighten it hard like the FG. Twice through the loop with the braid sounds like a good idea, will try it.

Yes, lifetime membership. I had solved the issue of sticking the line tag through the wrong way, but still had a few that unraveled. Not while tying it, but after a few hours on the water. This looks like a lot better deal for $10 than the ring. Note the first review that said it works well for repairing plastic lures , too. Will try your method. I have found (in my chair) that after tying, and sticking the tag (braid) through the loop, and pulling it to start forming the knot, that when I get it fairly compressed, pulling on the tag end of the leader mostly closes the loop at the end of the braid "stack." Then I moisten and tighten the braid, then back to pulling again on the leader tag, then putting the big pull using the main leader and main braid. If the wraps of the braid are done right, the knot will be small and straight, with no leader loop open.

Finger saver looks like a great product, but pretty pricey. Being a member of the CHOF (cheapskates Hall of Fame) I just have to find something around the house with a soft surface that will grab the line like the saver.

Some of you may remember a time ago of my posting that I was having trouble with Albertos unravelling. I thought I had it figured out about a year ago, but then I got another this year. The problem is always the same, the knot unravels and fails with no force on it. The knot is not getting overloaded. I've spent quite a bit of time while watching TV tying the Alberto with 20 pound leader and 15 pound braid. I think I've finally figured it out. I have noticed that unless the knot is really set hard after tying, like you have to set an FG, that sometimes the leader loop at the end of the knot is not fully closed. This is probably worse the heavier the leader gets as it's harder to pull it closed. I tied a bunch of them setting them very hard, using a dowel to wrap the braid around to get max tension without cutting myself, and the knots all tightened up with no opening of the leader loop visible. I think the tag end of the braid on some of my knots was slipping out of the leader loop. Perhaps a couple half hitches of the braid tag end would help, too. Like the FG. Time on the water will tell. If you are having trouble with the Alberto try using a tool to set the knot very hard (while wet of course, and with the braid tag end exiting the loop in the right direction.)

https://www.rodbuilding.org/read.php?2,458796,458796#msg-458796 Take notice of the second post from one who is very expert on all aspects of rod building. Simple, easy peasy, not in the way when not using it.

They are loaded in compression while being retained between the blank and the seat and they are plenty strong enough. In fact many builders use only about an inch long section at each end of the reel seat on fresh water bass rods and have no trouble. I've never had a seat come loose ever, no matter what design seat or what design arbor. I believe this is the experience of most builders. The rods that are offered in big box stores often use cardboard for shims and don't use enough epoxy to keep water from the cardboard. No doubt masking tape done right will last forever.

I use the Supreme, not the XT, and mine is in its second year, used a lot. It's on a 7 foot Point Blank, and the combination is excellent. No drag problems. In January I caught a 45 inch cuda on another reel with a 12 pound max drag, so I think the max drag of the Supreme for most fresh water critters is fine. For $100 you would not be risking much. I don't think you'll find a better reel for that $$. If you want to up another $50, even better.

I have one, fished it for about a year, very fine reel. It has an anti-reverse switch, which I like. Not all reels have them and the manufacturers are not making it clear when their reels don't have one. Very smooth, drag is adequate for anything I'm doing. I wouldn't hesitate to use it for bones, reds, or cudas.

Building your own rods allows the option of adding a fastener for lanyards that can prevent losing another.

If your motor won't start instantly every time on the water, find out why and get it fixed.

Do a search for "simple spiral" , much easier to layout, performs as well as any other spiral wrap. Here is the short version: Lay out all the guides as if you are going to build on top. Rotate all the guides to the 180 degree position. You can be done here, but if the line touching the blank between the first and second guide bothers you, then add a very low guide (bend to get it as low as possible) with a ring size about the same as your second guide, half way in between the 1st and 2nd guide AT 90 DEGREES. All this guide does is keep the line off the blank, a function that some consider unnecessary. I spiral in the direction that will result in that guide and the reel handles being up when laying on a boat deck, so to the right for right handles, left for left handles. Some will do a stress test to see if they can get by with one fewer guides, but I don't. I've never seen where an extra guide hurt anything (I use Fuji KB/KT runners, size 5.5 ring). I guess it wasn't as short as I thought, once I added tips/editorials.

I tried the knot a couple times, just ended up with a mess that wouldn't tighten down cleanly. Might have done it wrong, but still see no advantage to this knot.

I think you lead molding guys, and maybe plastics molders too, need a support group which would communicate between you so you all don't have to buy all the molds. You could borrow. By the way, don't get involved in fly tying. It will just get worse.

I see no reason why the double uni or the Alberto would not work for this scenario. All you are working with are the ends, and those don't know whether the other ends are on a spool, reel, or loose.

This not what we normally call a double uni, not a clinch knot, and not a blood knot, at least not like the blood knot instructions I've seen. It looks like it will be very large, possibly larger than the normal double uni. It also seems to me that it should be wet when pulled together, and I think the tag ends should be "set" after tightening it, then the whole knot set again. Might make it less likely to unravel and might make it smaller. If this knot is in fact bigger than the normal double uni then I see no advantage in it.