MickD

Not an elegant solution, but you can put a couple lock loops on opposite sides of the lockers and fit a rod whose ends (flattened slotted) can be locked to the loops. Anything in between cannot be lifted.

It could be that some of us are talking dynamics while others are talking statics. By the CCS definition of "slow", measured as the angle to vertical that the tip makes when the rod is loaded, weight will not affect action. But adding a couple oz a foot down fro the tip, sure seems to slow it down. Regardless, I think I picked the right material.

True, any weight will slow the action. Just tape some lead to the blank. Or, get the right blank in the first place. In this case, I think the blanks made from unobtainium are in order. ?

I believe the Alberto has a lower profile than the double uni. The double uni has 5 layers of the leader, which is the larger of the two lines. The Alberto only has two thicknesses of the leader. My problem with the Alberto is that with vigorous snapping of lures off the bottom it often unravels. Probably my technique-lots of people use it successfully.

I have never mastered the Alberto, something is missing in my technique. The double uni is just about foolproof, easy to tie right, reliable. Its only problem is if you use fairly heavy leaders and small guides. It is a big knot with leaders above about 15 pound test. The FG is a tricky knot and easily can be screwed up. I have finally developed a method that works for me, taking the braid out of my mouth where it always seems to slip before I complete the knot, and eliminating having it right up too close to my eyes. The secret to me is keeping the knot tight as it's tied. If that is accomplished the knot will tighten properly before putting on the half hitches. Done right it is very strong, the smallest knot of all, and durable since it clears even the smallest guides cleanly without getting beaten up. I use saltwater fly tippets in mono and FC. They are hard and tough, much more reliable than FC line used as a leader. The most reliable is the hard saltwater mono LEADER material. A side advantage is that its stiffness helps keep blade baits from tangling on the cast and retrieve. The correct answer to your question depends on your ability to reliably tie the knots and what your priorities are. The only absolute in this issue is that if you use a leader on your surface fishing rig, it has to be mono to prevent the FC from sinking and screwing up the action of the surface lure.

I agree with the above posters who say don't cut the tip. Not one inch. Do all the revisions if necessary from the butt. If you have to move the reel seat then you have a major rebuild that will be expensive - it won't be a move of the existing seat, it will be a remove and replace, not easy to do from the rear. Sell it? Trade it back to the builder for another, as suggested above? You can pretty easily feel approximately what will happen if you cut the tip- tape a guide at the proposed cut point and use it like a tiptop for some test casts and to feel it when flexed.

Yup. I was lucky enough to get two this year, the biggest 6-7. Ned Finesse TRD, for larger one, tube for the other.

You didn't specify what the diameter of the micros is. However, with an FG with the braid and leader you specify , almost any guide will work. But to really answer this question, all you have to do is try it.

"Moderate to slow action with power all the way out." How much power? You have not mentioned the weight of lure you're planning to cast. One of the most important characteristics of a rod is to load properly for the cast. If you are really looking for power "all the way out" , it won't matter what the action is. The tip will be very stiff. A broomstick has "power all the way out" and is a slow action. Problem solved. Sorry for the sarcasm, but I think this is a case of a not being able to describe what you want but you'll be able to recognize it if you ever see it. Or feel it. https://getbitoutdoors.com/batson-gaff-blanks/

Look at the Rainshadow Immortal ( RX8 ) series of inshore popping rods (getbitoutdoors.com) for a series of MF action high modulus blanks. Rainshadows never disappoint, and are good values. I will argue that the Revelation ( RX7) series of inshore popping rods will perform like they were higher modulus than RX7 probably due to excellent design.

For those believing that the rods are filled with helium and are looking for a method of recharging them, while you're at it, find the titanium in the Columbia parkas. And the titanium in the Fords. Keep me posted.

I don't think we can define one specific factor. Some of the newer hi tech blanks have no scrim, so that would take out a component that, while it has a function, does weigh something. Whether the manufacturer found another way to provide the structural function of scrim that is lighter than scrim, I don't know. But the blanks that are scrimless are expensive blanks and I do believe with blanks one tends to get what he pays for. Considering the fact at the higher prices the incremental price increases don't provide the same incremental value increases as occurs at lower prices. If you want a slow action, many like glass, like E-glass. But it will be heavier than graphite and graphite can give any action that glass can. Graphite will be more sensitive. If you want max sensitivity it will be high modulus graphite. With or without scrim. In all blanks design is very important. This is the best I can do.

Go back and read my original response to your post.

If you're asking me, I wrote "favorite," not Favorite. I've never even heard of Favorite before. The blank I was referring to is a Rainshadow. I have two Loomis rods , built by me, and they are very good rods , and I've built many St Croix SCV and Avids. My Loomis's are casting rods and the St Croix and Rodgeeks are spin. I will say that the Rainshadow is certainly competitive with the Loomis and St Croix (and Rodgeeks) that I've built on, and at a price point just under the Rodgeeks, about half the St Croix, and less than half of the Loomis's before they were no longer offerred as blanks. It is interesting that many on this forum state their favorite spin rod is a St Croix SCV 7 foot medium lite power, fast action The Rainshadow appears to be about the same power but with a little slower action. The point of my mentioning that rod was to illustrate how important design is. Here is a rod about two levels of modulus below the SCV and Loomis, and it's a great rod.

Weight is the enemy of sensitivity, so heavy is bad, light is good. Which leads to small and light guides, because weight way out there on the blank has much more effect on sensitivity than weight in the butt. Small, light guides contribute not only to sensitivity but to balance because most blanks over about 6 feet are tip heavy. Achieving lighter weight leads generally to manufacturers using higher modulus materials in their blanks, the higher modulus resulting in lighter blanks for the same power. Which leads to better sensitivity. BUT. . . A very important ingredient in a really outstanding blank is design. For example one of my favorite blanks is a 7 foot medium light RX7 blank that costs well under $100. When I built one for my son his first reaction on fishing it was that it is "really sensitive." He uses it for tubes for smb, an application that I think it is a little underpowered for, but he loves it for tubes even though he has two SCV St Croix's of the right power. The finished rod weighs 3.6 oz, if I remember correctly. How one determines how all this mixes together is not easy, but if I wanted to buy the most sensitive finished rod of a certain power and action, I would look to the reputations of the manufacturers and the highest levels of their rods. I know of no way to measure sensitivity. One thing you cannot do with modern high quality rods is evaluate them by twitching/wiggling them. (exc maybe fly rods) They don't wiggle with their hi mod materials and light guides. They leave many who are not familiar with this level of quality thinking they are too stiff. One thing you can do that will tell some of the story is to take a miniature scale to the store and weight different rods. Scales are cheap on Ebay or Amazon, and are very accurate. Weight doesn't tell the whole story, but if you're confused about the merits of one rod vs another, and one weighs in under 4 oz and the other is 5, it's very difficult to get a 5 oz rod (unless it's quite long or very powerful) to be really sensitive The old 7 foot spin Ugli Sticks weighed about 5.3. I don't think it takes a retail price of $800 to deliver a great rod. I haven't been in the rod market (I build my own) lately, so am not sure what the top of the line (or close to the top) Loomis and St Croix rods go for, but I'll be you can get a great rod for about half that, or a little more than half. The price-value relationship that we are used to in many products works for rods, too. Meaning that as you get pricier and pricier the incremental value added per dollar spent is less and less. Finding the sweet spot that meets your needs is the challenge.

I have no complaints on the old Cabela reels by Daiwa, always and still smooth, and all the new Daiwas are silky smooth.

Never assume he doesn't understand you, always keep telling him what you want him to hear. I've been told that the recognition/cognition isn't a constant, but comes and goes.

One thing I've noticed about a couple of my "hot spots" is that smb at one time of the day are just not there, yet stopping back later in the day often finds at least a few, and sometimes many. Especially if a new wind comes on. I always make at least two stops during a day on the water in the location that has the "hot spots." I've noticed that my best spot in former years has not been as good the last two years. It could be the water level being so high, or something else, or i may not have gotten there at the right time. The last time we went this fall was a cold, sometimes rainy, never sunny day with a decent wind. The water was quite dirty from winds the previous couple days, and we found one spot that really worked. 25 with only a couple dinks, a couple over five, four just under 5, and the rest 3/s and 4/s. 10 days earlier I had taken 28 similar fish out of the spot with one over 6. I'm hoping its magic will continue into the next season.

Need to know if only at speed or all the time. Two different scenarios which could have two different solutions. Not enough info to contact Humminbird. If only at speed all parts and connections could be perfect and there still could be a problem with locating/tuning the transducer position/attitude. If this is the case Humminbird can do nothing.

No, because if the tip is straight up then balance means nothing. All the weight is directly over your hand. It could be distributed over 7 feet or 7 inches. It makes no difference. As soon as you tip the rod down balance begins to show itself, and its effect is max when the rod is horizontal. It's physics, it's not I. The guy in the video is right. For the reasons he gave. IMO. I have not been able to break my grandson of holding the rod by the butt as he ends his casts, and if he overshoots on the cast he cannot do anything about it.

Come on guys, it is not about "they." It's about you. You make the choices, buy or don't buy. You are not being forced into anything. How this even got into a discussion about balance is a mystery to me. It the tip is up, balance is not an issue. At 90 degrees balance has no effect on anything. As you go off 90 degrees, then it (balance) becomes an issue. It is at its max at horizontal. But for most tip up techniques, balance is not as important as many argue.

It's not just about weight; it's about weight and where it is. And the technique.

Once you get it cleaned you'd like to keep it from corroding again. One way to hold it off for a while is to "paint" it with liquid epoxy. But that will chip off in time. Most keepers are said to be "stainless steel," but from my experience building rods, the anti-corrosion characteristics are inferior to guides. I use REC titanium alloy keepers and small ceramic ring fly guides for keepers, and they do not corrode like most keepers. The fly guides may be bent to give an angle which will work as a drop shot keeper. If the corrosion gets to be too much to deal with, replace it with either of the above options. Or any other keeper made of titanium alloy.

On another forum the X-Rays have gotten very positive reviews. However, the service has not. Before ordering I recommend calling and getting an in-person commitment for the shipping date. Some real horror cases have been reported, then recently a very positive one on the quick shipment from them. Try Point Blanks for a top notch premium blank. They can be ordered and drop-shipped from Anglers Resource direct, which is pretty fast and reliable.

Do it, it will hold up quite a while. Fly tyers do it all the time. What works best is to add barring with the sharpies. There's something magic about barring, whether it be cranks or feathers or hair.