bulldog1935

@Hytekrednek The Smith Super Strike is copied from the old Fenwick Champion handle, but re-done in magnesium. Smith offers completed rod blades - tough to find stock, because they're popular in Japan. They also offer a collet so you can use old Fenwick blades in the handle, and offer butt ferrules in a diameter range so you can build your own rod blade. So far I only have the S-glass blend aimed for my 1/2-oz niche, but able to cast 5 g off the tip. As I mentioned, super skipping from my small water kayak. Best price I found on the handle was Amazon.jp. Best prices on rod blades is Asian Portal, for what stock you can fish up. They scalp both on ebay. Best reading up is Smith Ltd. website using Chrome to translate.

that must be why it says bass in the name (not) The Japanese have a dozen offshore niches for their BFS reels. Part of what makes it a System is that you can move the same reel to niche rods for mountain stream, boat, shore fishing, offshore UL jigging. This is how people in Japan use them - all they have to do is turn around to find a different niche, and they take advantage of all opportunities. This is exactly what Hiro Motoyama (who coined BFS) was promoting in all his books 20+ years ago. oops, the bass BFS rod doesn't say BFS If it's marketed to the US, it's bass niche, because that's all the Japanese know about fishing in the US - they've also learned use of buzzwords in marketing from the US.

Hiroyuki Motoyama coined BFS in print, c. 2000 To him, it meant Bait Finesse Shore (fishing), tying it directly to Caro roots. (rhetorical - how many bass boats do you guys think run around Japan) As I mentioned, salt BFS rods have only appeared in the past few years. Valleyhill calls their salt rod RFF for Rockfish Finesse - they don't want to confuse you, made more and more evident on this thread. Before WWII, Shakespeare didn't call this reel BFS, but that's what it was - alloy spool, factory shallow cork arbor. The reel was called Tournament Freespool. Progressive rods were easier to find then than the stout paras Heddon made for muskie. The matching silk threadline is 4-lb. If you have the big $, you can find a Meek No. 1 from turn of the last century. There will be 40 collectors trying to snag it before you get there.

This is a pretty accurate date - you can question how valuable or even how handsome those Fenwick wraps were. @TnRiver46 Two of the best rod designers and builders of all time, John Harrington c. 1960, and Bill Phillipson 1971 - a splash of mylar. If you go way back, cane rod builders had signature wraps. Leonard, c. 1915 FE Thomas, 1918

@TNBankFishing I've turtled twice, only lost a water bottle (and had spare water in my cooler). Home-made rod leash that glides on trolley line, with buckles to separate the rod. The link below shows the salty version with twine-seized ends. Can make them simpler using Acrylic/PE tape to seize the knots, and the tape holds up forever.

I think spinning rods need the extra length for kayak fishing, and IMO 6'10" to 7'1" dials it home. Going to lighter lures and still wanting fast mid and stout butt may want it slightly longer. Anything wrong with keeping two rigged rods in your kayak, the MF and the MLF? If you made the switch to baitcaster, you'd be likely be happy with a shorter rod there, say 6'7" or 6'8"

Where you're always going to find it is custom salt and surf rods. This website came up, and there are some tasteful examples of his wrapping details. https://naplescustomfishingrods.com/the-finished-product/ But there's a fine line between bastante and bastante * When you see the latter, it's tough for me to imagine someone paid extra money for that. Simple wraps with maybe a little tipping color makes me happy. Valleyhill does a nice job with finishing details, mostly choice components, and using resin color. but this is still why I choose them - the colors just happened. ______________________________ * @Deleted account - the word transliterates "enough" but it translates too much

You can totally change their nature with the aftermarket parts made for them, shallow lightweight spools, improved spool bearings, lightweight ball-bearing LW parts, mag brake. I built this reel for braid and casting 1/2 oz, but setting up the mag brake, discovered it can cast 3 g and is totally backlash-proof. It's also the best skipping reel I've ever used.

Yes, while a few mm won't make a huge difference, the line should leave the larger spool with less friction. Note that both of these spools are made for the same line diameter - the big 74-mm diameter surf/tournament reel is all about casting distance. Both spools were made for 8-lb test mono or PE#1.5. (The PE#1.5 is 35-lb test in the highest-strength braids)

Both casting distance and line pick-up rate of the larger diameter spool, especially if the frames are the same size. e.g., Shimano makes one 2500 on their 1000/2000 frame, the other 2500 models and the 3000 models share the medium frame. The stroke is the same within each frame (small and medium), but the spool diameters increase on the larger model numbers that match each frame. You also gain reduced line memory with larger diameter spool.

All you need is a good PH#1 Phillips screwdriver - 4-mm shaft diameter is best. The hook to pull bearings from knobs comes with new knobs, but you can make something with stiff wire (music wire). This is an SLP Works handle that also came with the bearings, shim washers, and Phillips screw. Most aftermarket knobs only come with the hook tool and shim washers.

careful, it's a slippery slope. There are some beauties out there in wood and cork. One thing I've always liked about the Livre knobs, you can hook them between two fingers, the round end seats in your palm beautifully (crank power) - and the tapers between thin and big-round are faceted, which feel totally natural in an index-finger-knuckle-thumb 3-point grip.

@Creek Chub 1 absolutely - they're both Shimano A knobs. even the crazy-big rubber knob from the 5000 will fit, but I don't recommend it - - it weighs 1/4-reel.

Nothing is easier, more reliable, or safer than using a spring scale at the first guide (closest to the reel). There are $6 to $10 scales out there that do the job just fine, and are highly accurate - 8- or 10-lb range is perfection. People who claim to know their drag set without measuring it don't set their drag, period - they're just blowing air. I have a classy old 8-lb Salton spring balance. Susie landed this after two 50-yd runs on XUL with 6-lb braid and 1.5-lb drag set. fish of a lifetime, and prepared for it As far as tearing out soft mouths, proper use of the rod is more important than varying drag. No fish has a softer mouth than the beast just above - the hook came out in the net.

T-knobs are the first thing to go on my big reels. I'm sure I have 3 stashed in reel boxes... There are choices out there - any Shimano A or Daiwa S knob will swap into the existing handle. Shimano offers Yumeya knobs, and complete handles. The T-knobs will go right on your small-frame reels - they're all Shimano A. You can find a long list of handles and knobs that will swap-in your Shimano. Hedgehog Studio will have the most choices for both handles and knobs. IOS offers an adapter that will let you use Daiwa SLP works handles on Shimano. One problem you run into with big aluminum and big rubber knobs is that they're heavy. My favorite spinning knobs are Livre, which are titanium hollow shell and half the weight of most other big knobs. This is my near-offshore 5000, with 65-mm SLP Works handle, and the big 37-mm Livre knob is only 14 g, vs. 28 g for Yumeya aluminum or 35 g for Shimano rubber. Next to it is my Twin Power 3000 with my favorite Livre counter-balanced handle and EF30 knob. I generally prefer counter-balanced handles on spinning reels - they improve feel and prevent the bail from turning under its own weight by gravity. I like the smaller Livre and Avail knobs on my UL. Below are my Vanquish C2000S and Stradic C1000S The little Stradic handle has a mix of Livre and Gomexus parts with the Avail knobs. Short-pitch doubles are fantastic on low-geared spinning reels - they give you the option to crank really fast.

First question is whether your drag is properly set. If it's set so high that you're drawing (stretching) the line as it bends over the tip guide, it changes the physical structure of the line polymer. If you could look at it on a microscope, you would see overall thinner line with thicker nodes every fraction of a mm. Each of those nodes is where the polymer chains are coiling up under strain. (I do this for a living, including analyzing plastic failures.) For 8-lb line, I would set the drag to 2 lbs - I always use a spring balance at the guide closest to the reel. This, at least as long as the rod is rated for 8 lbs. If the max rod line rating is lower, drag should be set to 1/4 of that amount to protect the rod. We target big fish on XUL tackle...

just about any of the ebay and etsy sellers of custom rod socks and tubes will make you what you want.

you shouldn't be changing your drag when you catch a fish. Before you leave home, you should have your drag set with a spring balance to 1/4 of the weakest link - line or leader test, or rod max line rating. You'll be amazed when you find out how much drag 3 to 4 lbs really is. I set mine at the guide closest to the reel. 7-lb drag set is enough for bluewater fishing. Fish with soft mouths that tear out hooks are one place you may want to Reduce your drag after hook set. @Deleted account that should be either ¿Que dice?! or ¿Como?!

12 years, that's old @Carter Clark on your reel, I'm talking about curved washers 71 and handle spring spring 77 and while you're in there, replace drag washers 45 and 48 on Ambassadeur The two concave washers, 5131 - - they're springs that load both the drag stack and the star drag nut. Sometimes they're installed so they curve in the same direction. To get maximum tension, install them so they curve in opposite directions - the ends on the long slot touching each other and forming a football shape together. Curved spring 5115 can also get flattened if the drag is opened up and left relaxed for long times (as often gets recommended on this forum for no good reason). If you want to put some spring back in it - I use bending pliers - but put some curve back in it, then stick it in your oven at 350 - soak it for 15 minutes to get a set temper that won't creep back to flat. These are the pliers I would use.

If you're fishing in shallow grass and need long casts, that weight can make a All the difference. A 1/4-oz neutral-density soft jerk bait (TSL Grasswalker) fishes well in the zone with a slow retrieve. If you try throwing a 1/4 oz (or more) jighead, even with fast retrieve, you'll be hauling up a lot of grass. The sweet spot may be 1/8 oz jighead, where the reel makes All the difference. You should be responsible for your own spool bearings, so there aren't any differences from "one reel to the next"

The needs for backing on spinning reels and bait reels are different. In the case of a baitcaster, you can improve casting by using very large diameter mono backing. The idea is keeping the spool mass down, because that big line has poor stacking efficiency on the small spool. You end up with 20 yds or so 20-lb mono to fill the spool a little over halfway, then up to 100 yds of 20-lb braid (e.g.) on top. This improves casting compared to loading the spool completely with braid or with fluoro. With a spinning reel, the mass is less important than getting good line lay on the spool. The longest cast comes from flat line lay on a spool as full as possible, without hour-glassing, bulging, or a cone-shaped line lay result. These are caused by errors in line lay adding up as the spool fills up. Trying to fill a deep spinning spool with line that's too large can give bulging - too small diameter can give hour-glassing and reverse cone line lay result. Flat line lay helps you avoid "wind knots" on spinning reels, which are caused by multiple loops of line coming off the spool at the same time. (Loose line lay is the worst culprit for wind knots - see manual bail technique for how to eliminate wind knots altogether.) Left is braid only on a 3000 shallow braid spool, and right is a good result with 125 yds 10-lb fluoro on a deep 2500 spool. The reason I picked the spool on the right to show with mono, it both hour-glassed and reverse-coned when I tried loading thin finesse braid over mono backing on a 2nd spool - the mechanism just doesn't like the fine stuff. This will still fish, but not as well as either spool above.

You have to match the spools with the maker and specific frame. Shimano gives a specific spool number to match models and especially spool pitch. E.g., From Stradic to Stella after 2018 all swap spools in the same frame size. Since I'm replying, here are 4000- and 5000-frame spools, made to match PE#2 and PE#1.5 The frame and pitch are Shimano S-28. https://www.plat.co.jp/shop/catalog/default/language/en/cPath/2174_916_1440/optional-parts/shimano-yumeya/yumeya-custom-spool.html

KDW on newer Super Duty (left), but it's hard to see for the Studio Composite handle. Tough to beat this reel for fishing 1/4 to 1/2 oz with long casts, and it casts 1/8 oz surprisingly well. Found a ZPI cap, also, but no luck on a cool star drag. On the right is the cheap AMO thumb-button on my older SD - anything is an improvement over the stock Lew's plastic button. All of my salt bait reels have KDW titanium handle nut (or screw), as well.

We're on the subject of spools, the real difference isn't the cheap plastic giveaways, but quality back-up spools that are designed to achieve perfect line-lay with different lines and capacities. Shimano and Daiwa both do this well, though Shimano does it better, offering more choices and making them easier to find. This is the same reel, new from the box with a shallow braid spool and, and on the right after a bit of customizing, shown with a deep mono spool. As I said, Shimano makes this easy, identifying spool by PE# (standard in Japan using traditional silk thread diameter) or lb-test fluoro - on the left is a PE#0.6 spool, on the right is an F-6 spool. BTW, To prevent your braid from slipping, tie the basic arbor knot, then stick it down with the thinnest tape you can find - I like the acrylic/PE tape - essentially mylar.

yes, I use 2' leaders on micro-guide rods - I put a loop on everything to loop-on paper clips, micro-swivel titanium traces and sacrificial tippet. My surf leaders are 8' and 10', and I have some inshore rods made for braid that the guides were selected to pass longer leaders easily This is a 1" surgeons loop on salt finesse - big enough to pass a 3" cigar cork, and 8" titanium wire bite trace on the right. My Allbright knots will shoot through microguides quite well - they've been shooting fly rod snake guides 40 years.