fishnkamp

Their graphite blanks are all a little different. Send me an email to fishnkamp@comcast.net. I got a suggestion for you.

Dobyns makes a great rod also. I have really become fans of the Irods, Dobyns and Powell. I fish some of each of them. I used to love the G Loomis stuff, but not so much since it was taken over by Shimano. Certain things were cheapened up in my opinion. I have not fished with the FR735C but a friend does. I have had it in my paws just not with a fish on the other end. It feels a lot more like a $200 rod.

If you are interested in any of the Dobyns rods give the guys at Dobyns a call. Twice I have called and gotten really great info. If you call you may even get lucky to speak with Gary himself as I did once. There is another web board like this one run by a guy he sponsors. It has a Dobyns forum on it. The owner answers question about specific models but frequently so does Gary himself. My friend Kris ( also a member of both boards) has had his questions answered by Gary several times. It was great as he was thinking of getting a flipping Pitching rod. not only did he get hia question answered he got a bit of history of how the rod was designed. He bought the Fury FR765 Flip and I got to cast it the other day. That thing is sweet! If you read "mag heavy" and both the suggested lure weights and lure types it gives a good idea how the rod will react.

God, you are in their backyard! If you go on the links I posted there is at least 20 fishing shops listed in California alone that carry them in stock. The second link takes you to their online dealers which includes Tackle Warehouse, Bass Tackle Depot, HI's Tackle Box, Last Chance Tackle, Outdoor Pro Shop, and Tackle Express all of which are located in California. The factory is located at 5342 Lewis Rd Agoura Hills, CA 91301.

My wife and I use 4 G Loomis 6 foot spinning rods (2 ml and 2 medium) I also fish a 7 footer for drop shotting and a couple of 6'6" mediums for things like Sencos rigged wacky, weightless, and texas rigged, tubes grubs and Ned Rigs.

All Daiwas look that way to a Shimano guy, glad I appreciate my Daiwas they just work work and work!!!

Actually I like to have two spinning rods and since your arsenal is full of ST Croix look at adding these two rods. First I would add an Avid X AXS69MLXF which is a 6'9" medium light extra fast tip rod and covers lures from 1/8 to 1/2. I fish a similar G Loomis rod with unweighted plastics, Z Man TRD Ned rigs ( and if you are not fishing these little mini Senco style baits on their 1/10 or lighter heads you need to be!), small Sencos (like 3 to 5 incher), and it would work for drop shots as well. I throw a lot of old school bait like Kalin 5 inch grubs on BPS Perfect Finesse Worm Hook jig heads. I also like to throw light tubes on this rod. My second spinning rod suggestion would be a Avid X AXS68MXF. This is a bit heavier spinning rod . It specs for 3/16 to 5/8 lures. My G Loomis rod that covers this allows me to fish larger floating worms and my light to mid weight texas rigged plastics, heavier weighted tubes, shakey heads, the 6 inch or larger Sencos either weightless, wacky or even texas rigged. As for baitcasting equipment, I think you are covered unless you want to fish heavy slop, so pitching and flipping, frogging, punching would come into play. You may or may not even need to fish this way depending on your body of water that you fish

What type of fishing are we talking about. Is this going on spinning gear to finesse fish, a baitcaster with light to medium heavy baits or are we talking going into the deepest darkest holes meaning frog. flipping and pitching? What lures and what type of structure and techniques? I ask because I use lots of different lines, some light some medium and some heavy pound test and also I use all types of mono, copolymer line and different braids for different purposes. Lines that are more abrasion resistant can be tough as nails but require some work to handle their memory. Tell us about what lures you want to fish, what rod or rods you are using to fish this way and finally what type of structure you are fishing. Just as an example I like to fish finesse baits on spinning gear especially around docks. If I am fishing the big lakes I visit out in Tennessee, like Dale Hollow, or Center Hill I can get away with thinner diameter fluoro or even mono. If I dock fish here on the Chesapeake Bay or the Potomac River I will encounter tough barnacles growing on the pilings, and even in some places old sunken ships with rebar or other metal debris. I go to Berkley FireLine, or Power Pro braid but add a leader made of P Line CXX moss green line copolymer line in 10 pound test. That line is made like steel, has a lot of memory and breaks around 22 pounds. The memory does not matter in this spot because I am only using 4 feet of it. I use similar logic for all of my fishing spinning or baitcasters. Anyway give us some more info and I will be happy to help more specifically.

Its a Toad where do you live? There are some dealers spread around the country, and Tackle Warehouse is definitely one. Check here for a dealer in your area. http://www.irodfishing.com/category-s/122.htm and online dealers here http://www.irodfishing.com/category-s/121.htm I do not own that particular rod but I do own 2 other Genesis II rods. I have a Gabes Rip Rap Special which I love throwing traps and small to mid size crankbaits. My wife uses a Genesis II heavier finesse spinning rod for frogs. Man that rod is sweet. I am lucky i live in Md so I have both Anglers Express in Hunt Valley MD. as well as Susquehanna Fishing Tackle in Lancaster PA. Both of them would be happy to have one drop shipped to you anywhere in the USA. They are both great to deal with.

My frog rod is a 7 foot MH original Veritas with micro guides. It fishes a frog fine. All Abu Garcia Veritas run a half power heavier so my 7 ft Heavy was too heavy to frog with but perfect as a jig rod in deep water as well as punchin. You asked for rod suggestions for under $130. We need to clarify something here. Most rods that frog well flip and pitch fairly well. Punchin can be a stretch depending on how heavy a weight you wish to use, If we are talking about 1 ounce or so weight then yes it can be done on a frog/pitchin rod. If heavier than you need two rods. Having said that here are my best suggestions in your price range. Dobyns Fury FR 735C for $110 For about $!50 take a good look at the Irod Genesis II IRG754F “Fred’s Magic Stick” It should handle all of your frog, flipping and pitching needs. ALso look at a Powell Mac 3D 736 CEFFrog Mag Heavy rod also for around $150. As for a reel match it up with a Daiwa Tatula, Tatula CT, or Tatula Type R in 7-1 or 8-1. These reels are work horses. My Veritas has a Tatula Type R in 8-1 ratio and works smooth as butter.

ChrisD46 beat me to it the Abu Garcia "Ike Series" 6'10 ML spinning rod is really nice, Also look at the Dobyns Sierra series SA 692SF

Sorry I can not help personally with their spinning rods, but I will give you a quick opinion of my baitcaster I purchased the Ike 6'4" delay series jerkbait rod. It is exactly what Ike says it, it has just the right rod action for working jerkbaits but with the shorter butt you do not hit your arm on each jerk. The tip is perfect and it has tons of backbone. I have never had a fish pull the trebles either using it. If I was looking to get a rod for drop shotting and wacky rigging, then the 6'10" ML is the rod Ike says is designed for it. It has a 60/40 ratio of backbone to tip. Going on my experience, the rod I thought I was buying turned out to be exactly what I got., I would believe the 6'10" ML should be perfect for you. Lastly, not that it matters, but it sorta does, the looks are really cool! Check his series of youtube videos. Type in "Ike series " in the youtube search box. Choose the "IKES610-4Rod" video and the " IKES70-5" video.

Choose a rod around 6'8 to 7'3 in a medium power moderate action. Pair this up with a work horse of a reel like a Daiwa Tatula or Tatula CT in a 6.3 to one ratio. This is for shallow to mid depth cranks. If you are thinking about a rod for big deep cranks look at something like this from Irod. I would pair it up with a reel that is between 5 to 11 up to 5.4 to one. IRG7113CC “Fred’s Crank Launcher” Fred designed this rod for deep diving cranks but will work with mid divers and larger shallow divers. Not your usual crank rod, this rod is all graphite and is not whippy and soft like others. It’s tip is strong enough to drive in a hook set yet forgiving enough to play the fish without ripping out the hooks. It will also cast any crank bait a country mile which is needed to get the big cranks down deep. Length:7’11″ Lure weight:3/8-1 1/2 Line weight:8-20 Power: Med. Heavy Action:Moderate If you are speaking about your medium heavy for bottom contact baits I would go between 6.3 and 7.3

This is easy. Let's start with 2 bait casters. Choose a rod around 6'8 to 7'3 in a medium power moderate action. You never mentioned your budget so here are a few examples. Rods that work for this can be as inexpensive as a Berkley 6'6" Lightning Rod Shock ($50 or less). Next level up a rod like a Dobyns Fury FR 705CB.($110), or a Powell Max3D 6104 or 705, Another great option is an Irod Genesis II Gabes Rip Rap Special. Lastly look at a Falcon Bucoo Micro Trap Caster. All of these run around $130 to $160. Pair this up with a work horse of a reel like a Daiwa Tatula or Tatula CT in a 6.3 to one ratio. This rod can handle any small to mid depth diving crankbait, square bills, almost any treble hook bait as well as many of the reaction style baits like spinnerbaits and chatterbaits. Depending on which one you choose it can also handle a little topwater action also. The second baitcaster can either be a 7 to 7'4 medium heavy fast action rod which rate 1/4 to 3/4 or perhaps one that is a bit stouter and could go 1/4 to 1 1/4, This rod will handle all bottom techniques like worms, creature baits, etc. either carolina rigged or texas rigged, as well as jigs and other baits that crawl, hop, or jump. If you choose the bit heavier rod it can also handle heavy spoons fished in deeper water.. Consider rods like a Dobyns FR704C or an Irod IRG 704C. Match this up again with a Tatula but this time more like a 7.3 to 1 gear ratio. You will be moving the bait more with the rod than the reel but you will be able to reel inquicker to fire out another cast or catch up with a fish that runs straight at you. Now spinning rod. It is best to have a rod that can throw really light baits. If you are not fishing the Z Man TRD Ned rigs you need to be. It uses a mushroom head jig that only weighs 1/8 of an ounce or most often 1/10, 1/15 really light and the body looks like a 2 inch Senco. The rod needs to be able to cast such light baits so maybe a 6'6 to 7 foot ML XT with a lure rating of 1/16 to 5/13 or 3/8. I would also throw drop shots, grubs on jig heads,and unweighted worms or Senco type baits on this. If your first spinning rod is a true medium and it covers the 1/8 to 1/2 ounce baits it would fit my next category. That would be a rod fitting those specs and I would use it to throw all of my light texas rigs, say 4 to 6 inch worms, creature baits,craws etc with a 1/8 to 3/8 worm weights. I would throw tubes and baits like Silver Buddies, vertical blade baits on here as well. Any texas rigged plastic heavier than 3/8 I would be using the baitcaster most likely or your heavier spinning rod. I lie your spinning gear setup with braid. I have come to use Berkley Original Fireline in 14 pound test (same as 6 pound mono in size) along with a 4 foot leader made up of P Line CXX in 10# moss green. That stuff breaks around 22 pounds. P LIne Halo works well for leaders if you choose 6 or 8 pound test Halo. That is my 4rod (or in your case 5 rod ) arsenal, as I would suggest you build it. Now as I said you asked for suggestions or advice without actually giving a budget for each. I gave some suggestions on rods and reels. They are all great rods and reels. I personally use them myself for the exact purpose I gave you, Obviously a company like Dobyns has the Fury series for $110 but if your budget is above that than look at the same rods in their higher series. I love their Sierra and Champion XP series so if you want to spend $150 to $300 on a rod look at them. I related retail prices but often these rods can be found cheaper with a little online snooping. As for a baitcasting recommendation. I really do not advise buying cheap reels with the intention of upgrading. These Daiwa reels are workhorses and when I say that I mean they will cast well, be easy to adjust, have very good drag systems and will hold up over a long time of use. To me it is not worth buying a reel with lesser qualities. I do not recommend the really high priced reels for someone starting out new to this equipment. The very best bang for the budk today is in the $100 to $200 retail price reels. Again I compare the reels at their retail price so a Tatula that retails for $150 is a great deal when you find it for $100 shipped. I hope I put it into some categories that make sense to you and some ideas of the equipment that will fulfill those needs. Good Luck and let us know what you think. I am sure others will have their opinions too

Check out P Line Halo. Just make sure to drop the spool of line in hot water just before you spool it an you should like the way it plays. 6 and 8 pound ought to do the trick. 8 pound Halo breaks way higher. so does p Line CXX 10 # in moss green.

You actually did cast my Quantum Escalade 6'8" rod, That was the one I showed you that Dicks sold. That rod has my Okuma RTX30 on it. I use it to throw Sencos, and lightly weighted texas rigs. However it would throw lots of other baits too. I like your choice of rod. The one you choose specs as 6'6" medium light fast action rod. It suggests using baits 1/8 to 3/8 4 to 10 pound test and the rod only weighs 3.7 ounces so a light reel will balance it best. Bryan's choice was an Avid X 6'8" Medium fast and it weighs 3.8 ounces so it will balance the same.

Watch out for the Symetry reels they have been having some trouble with them binding up. Shimano does not seem to have a solution. This makes me nervous, since my wife uses one on her frog rod. MD Rookie if you want to play with my reel I can bring that reel out to you. Put it on your rod and see how you like its feels. By the way, we are all packed and leave for Dallas Fort Worth Saturday and go watch the Ravens play the Cowboys Sunday. Soooo glad we bought that bag of chips and pulled that sticker off that bag.

That is a pretty light rod. Take a good look at an Okuma RTX30. I have a friend that matched an Avid X 6'8M xf rod up with a RTX 30 and it balanced really nicely. I liked it so much I purchased one for a medium 6'6 Quantum I put together myself. The reels are very light, have a high retrieve and ipt is almost equal to my Daiwa 8-1 baitcaster. All in all it matches nice. They can be found online for around $70.

Go dark grey or charcoal

For what it is worth I fish 7 Daiwa reels. Some are Tatula Type Rs, some Tatula CTs and one is an Exceler. All of them work great. I am slowly replacing all 12 of my baitcasters one or two at a time.

I believe that was a repair of a broken rod actually. Take a few minutes to look thru all of hid galleries and see what you like. Here is another rod he did for a guy I met. That is EVA with some nice extras. If you see anything in any of his galleries you like I would talk to him about that.

Here are two pictures. The first picture is of the original rod (which I had to work to find a picture of in one my old computers). The second picture is of the replacement rod. I hope you can recognise the difference. On the original GL3 rod the rear section of the seat, the threaded section and the metal part that screws down to hold the reel's foot is all metal, it actually says "G Loomis" there. LOOK at the pictures. They are pretty self explanatory. The old seat assembly was used on their rods for years. The seat assembly that replaced it is the cheap plastic one which was loosening up. Sorry, but it was a fact! It was garbage! Maybe it was a supplier problem, maybe it was a company being CHEAP!!!! It is the only rod I have ever had that did it. It was also the last G loomis rod I have purchased.. By the way, since then I have purchased rods from Dobyns, Powell, Abu Garcia, Irod, Quantum and others, and not had a problem with any of them. Here are the pictures. Both pieces that captures the reel's foot is metal in the picture above. That is how it used to be made. Here is how the new one was" I hope that finally explains the difference. That plastic hood and the plastic round nut you screw down to lock the reel in place would not keep the reel tight on the rod. Eventually it would break and it was frustrating to have to keep retightening many times during one day of fishing! Enough said! I am sure others love them, but I wanted the OP to be aware the problem had occurred. .ghoti, If you have built rods over time you probably recognise the seat in the first picture. It was used on G loomis stuff for ever. The second seat is the one they changed to. My solution was to strip it completely off and have it redone using the Comfort grip from American Tackle.I was not saying a plastic reel seat assembly could not work or all of them are garbage, only the one that rod came with and it seems like they still use them.

Indiana Finesse did you get another rod in the mean time?

Rippin lips the guy you want to use is Toms custom rods in Bel Air MG He is top notch and does work for lots of us im MG, VA. DE, etc. He is the guy that did my rod. Check out his website at http://www.tomscustomrods.com/custom-rods-galley. You will definitely like him and he can show you a ton of options that you could choose to put together. He stocks a ton of goodies, but he will let you pick and choose depending on what you want. He has already redone 3 rods for me. One had too long a split handle, which he removed the rear cork, managed to save it, cut the handle down almost 4 inches and reinstalled the rear cork. The second and third were G Loomis spinning rods we removed the full cork handle, seat and foregrip. We replaced them with the combination you see above. TRom is located off I 95 between Bel Air and Aberdeen. Back in the 80's we had a store on RT 40, near Golden Ring Mall, called The Fishin Shop. Tom repaired rods there. He has been doing it a long time. Preytorien that handle is a set of Winn Grips. Winn makes the grips for golf clubs. The ones made for fishing rods are made in the "natural" color with their logo in it ( the one you see in the picture) and a bunch of other colors. I chose the natural because it gave me a cork like appearance that I wanted since this was a G Loomis rod after all.

They did a nice job. If you look at the process my friend Kris did on his boat, he followed much the same process. He did add a few neat things. like he painted all of his deck so it would not rot. Nerve use pressure treated wood in an aluminum boat the acid will eat the aluminum causing lots of tiny holes. That caused him to do lots of repairs. Instead he used the plastic wood for framing and painted all of the plywood. He installed a recessed pan for his trolling motor pedal really nice seatposts and seats etc. It cost money and lots of time but boy they did a nice job. Best thing about doing this is it can be done the way you really like it which would be different for someone else By the way i like the look of the boat you got. With some tlc it is going to become a great fishing machine. Also read thru Petes boat work. Here is another guy that I helped get into his first boat. It is similar to your and needed to be redone. He had his own spin on ti but read thru what he did. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/179868-first-boat/?page=5