MickD

Live river shad and the Iconelli green "Smash" are my fav's, just got a Helsinki shad, a color that is very good on other SMB lures in clear water.

Here 'tis

I can't believe how complicated everyone is making this. With a few pieces of hardware and a few pieces of treated plywood on can make, even on the lund 16.5, reasonable platforms that allow one to get out onto the trailer frame and the platforms to pretty easily get the boat onto the trailer. I'll take a pic and post it. No need to relocate anything. Depending on the ramp angle, one might have to step into a few inches of water or crawl up through the back of the SUV, or onto the load floor of a pickup. Not rocket science.

This is why I don't take a new reel apart. Or an old reel except for just "looking in" and oiling what's obvious. I've never had a reel out of the box that didn't perform well, and they are just too complicated for an amateur to go very deep. Seems like many on the forum think that the manufacturers send a lot of defective stuff that needs to be fixed before fishing them, and I don't agree. I had a buddy who did this up in Canada, never got it back together right. Took it back under warranty, which was a scam. Buy it, fish it, lube the easy stuff now and then. When it needs more, send it to a pro.

One of my really good days was in clear water, big water, and about 3 feet deep. We were very busy for about an hour with casting and working the DS back with white super flukes about a foot up from the sinker. It works in any depths for keeping the lure a set distance from the bottom. SMB

I have used a 7 foot ML mod/fast action rod for these lures, and I love it for it's ability to get the action I want on the lure, snapping them off the bottom, a little like fishing blades. However, I've had hook set problems, fish on for 4-5 seconds then gone. I think the fish were holding onto the lure for a few seconds, and the rod wasn't capable of getting good hook sets. I went to a faster action more powerful rod and hood sets got better. Go too heavy though, and it won't give good snapping action (if that's what you want). I think a med power Xfast action will be the best, with the light tip giving the lure good action, then setting through the tip using the butt power for the set. I'll know better later this year.

Rod building wrap epoxy is a whole different animal than the structural adhesive epoxies. Wrap epoxy is really a casting resin and it is clearer and levels better than "hardware store" products. I doubt if anyone can get good looking wraps from the hardware store products. That is exactly what I did and have used it for many years. The chuck I cobbled is a tuna fish can with 4 small bolts through the side of the can with rubber bands to grab the grips.

That's what I have, didn't recognize there was a difference.

Now you see what rodbuilding is about, two experienced builders taking you in two different directions. Both will work, but I still maintain, as fuji does , that that first guide needs to be higher in order to be optimum. Not so much about size, as it is height. I agree that the PTS is a very good seat, I just thought the one you chose was easier to build. A turnkey kit may be the best way to start. I always encourage beginning builders to start with an affordable build, not with a really expensive one. With most of us, we got better with every build for quite a while. Better to learn on the less expensive stuff.

I've used my side scan on a very weedy lake and have never seen a fish on it. Great coverage of the weed lines, etc, but I've not seen fish. Maybe there have not been fish as it is a very tough lake. But I think its value is mostly to analyze the cover and structure. I'm interested in the response of others more experienced with side scan.

That guide set has a first guide that is not the optimum height for casters, according to Fuji. It should be a 10 mm, possibly followed by a KB6, then all the rest of the guides can be one size. I would use 5.5's, but For casters I use a Fuji RV6 for the first guide, then Fuji KB's and KT's all the way to the tip with a Fuji SIC LG tiptop. The specs for the blank tells you which tip top tube size to get. I think building on top in the traditional way is best for a first build, and I use 9 or 10, usually 9, guides + a tiptop for a blank like this. I like 5.5 ring size runners for casters, but you can go smaller, but 4.5's are pretty darned small. I would use 4 or 5 KB's (bigger foot than KT's for the middle of the rod) then KT's to the end. Alconite or SIC are fine, I wouldn't spend the money for Torzites for a first build. The Fuji TRVSG RV guide is a light colored finish that will go well with the light stainless KB's and KT's or the light titanium guides. It's available in a dark finish that will go well with black guides or the dark CC Fuji guides. The running guides are so small that exact finish matches is not a problem. IMO The ACSM seat is a good seat that is not hard to build and Mudhole can tell you which bore size is right for that blank. Mudhole can help with the grips. For most casters used for bass fishing you don't even need a foregrip. Use the Mudhole site to familiarize yourself with the building processes,, tools, materials needed. There are many excellent videos on line, too. Mudhole has some and Flex Coat has many. I'd say your specs are close to right, but I would not buy that set, but would start with the RV 6 or KW 10.

Absolutely right! It is not that difficult to make your own setup to get objective numbers on power and action. If you have a workshop with a vice and a level floor you can do it. Then you'll get a good understanding of the ratings you see, and you can even test a new rod to see if it is what you want. The testing does no damage, leaves no marks, so the rod could be returned if it doesn't fit your needs. CCS was developed for fly rods, but it works for any rod, period. https://www.common-cents.info/

While this suggestion may spoil everything, buy at least one new tech reel, like a Daiwa. For under a hundred dollars you will get a reel that will be like magic to you. But. . . maybe you don't want to know.

I like braid for deep cranking, like the sensitivity, have no trouble getting the lures down. Keep in mind that there are sinking braids available. Also , since braids are so thin compared to other lines the water resistance is less allowing the lure to get down well depending on relative diameters . I use a leader because I'd rather cut leader to replace a snap or lure rather than cutting braid.

I would do that for one situation, but since I don't do it much, nope. The situation is slow rolling a spinnerbait-if I did that a lot I would use my old Calcutta with a 5.2 ratio to make it easier to retrieve slowly. I like higher ratios for most everything, so that rod/reel would be dedicated to slow rolling.

I see no advantage in this knot except that it is easy to tie. But it can be done wrong-i did one today that failed the leader instantly. But if I get it right, it still is not a very slim knot, nothing close to FG or Alberto. More like a double uni, which works well exc when the leader gets too thick and my guides get too small. I did a few more Albertos today, and am getting it down. Looks like it has a good future with me.

6 pound floro can be handled on a spin reel nicely, but what do you have to give up? 15 pound braid will cast as well and isn't fragile like FC is. Get a good size fish that gets into a weed ball, and it's over with 6 pound test. I don't buy FC any more, having tried and tried to find a good one at a reasonable pound test (did'nt), so a really "good" FC will be very expensive, and won't last nearly as long as braid. And it's more fragile on getting tangles resolved. This solution doesn't make sense to me.

It's not clear what he is pulling through. Maybe I'll figure it out when trying the knot, but is it the leader or the line?

If you want to cast lighter lures then get a rod whose lure weight recommendations/specs get pretty close to the weight you want to throw. Being a builder I can probably get more options than buying factory rods, and what works best for having a very large range of weights that cast well is a medium power extra fast action blank, like the Point Blanks. In order to have the power at M or MH the tip AND the action at XF the tip has to be pretty light. Which means that you are essentially using the tip to cast the lighter lures and the backbone to cast the heavier ones. This is an oversimplification , but it's true that XF will give a larger weight range of easy casting. Using this logic, if you can find an XF action rod whose lure range gets close to your lightest, it will probably work well. Might be M or MH power.

I tied an Alberto today, 21 # Hitena Pure Line to 12 # Sunline flouro leader material, and it really went well. Part of it is due to the Hitena not being as limp as previous braids I was tying, so it kept a little away from the leader down and back. It didn't messily clump up as it was wrapped. When I tightened it , it turned into a very neat looking, very small knot. I cannot imagine it unravelling, but will give it a try. While theoretically larger than an FG, it is plenty small enough to go through size 4 micros. Wish me luck.

Use no lighter than about 30 pound test braid on the caster, don't set your drag too tightly, no problems.

I doubt if Yozuri will disappoint. It is one of the most respected companies. The most likely possibility will be the flouro won't work that well. Not because it's a bad spool, but because it is flouro. I've given up using flouro for line, exc for one combo. I use it for leaders a lot, though.

Seems funny that with all the talk I hear on this forum about "bad batches" of line, I've never had one, and I'm old enough to have bought one heck of a lot of line. I think line problems, other than problems with trying to make an inappropriate line work, are problems with loading the line onto the reel, or cracked guides, or twisting it, but it's not about a bad batch of line. IMHO

Hitena PureLine

My problems were clearly unravelling, not a failure of either line. It usually happened when snapping swimbaits off the bottom, a lot like snapping a blade bait aggressively. I'll try the suggestions.