jeff82882

Thanks for the responses guys. I was going to get one of them, most likely the IM700 model, but they just went up in price today. They were around $40 and now they are around $60. Now I'm leaning towards getting a Rainshadow RX7 which I would actually be able to try out as they have them at a store near me(Jann's Netcraft). Everything I have heard about them is positive but I thought I might get the Lamiglas since they were half off but I have a hard time spending the $60 if I don't know exactly what I am getting. What are your feelings on the Rainshadow RX7 blanks?

I am interested in purchasing one of the Lamiglas Liquidation blanks over at Mudhole but I'm unsure of the power of the rods. I am looking for something very similar in power to a 6' or 6'6" St. Croix SCIII Medium-Light. I was wondering if any of you have any experience with Lamiglas rods and how their power is compared to other brands. The specific blanks I am interested in are the IMS781F(IM700) or the XS781MF(? not sure what model). Both of these blanks are 6'6" and rated for 4-10 lb. line with lure weights from 1/8 - 3/8 oz. My main concern is the actual power/whippyness of the rod, I'm not really looking to compare the Lamiglas and St. Croix on a sensitivity level or anything else. Any information would really help so I can decide of I want one of these or not.

Thanks for the ideas guys. I actually just had the wife pick up some superglue as I had a feeling I would be able to make it work somehow. Do most of you use a leader rather than tie directly? I've never used a leader as I have seen no drop-off in catch rate since switching to braid and tying direct. I wouldn't mind putting a couple feet of leader but then I have to decide if I should do a line to line knot(which would take some time to trust) or use a small barrel swivel or quick clip as suggested. My concern with those is that I mainly fish worms and I would not want to alter the fall with the barrel swivel or clip but I could test it at the side of the boat and see how it does.

I am fishing Power Pro 10 lb. test(2 lb. diameter) and many times after catching a fish the line will catch in the eye of the hook where the "loose" end of the eye meets the shank. If I get another bite or rip through some weeds the braid will actually snap leaving the knot still in good shape(just the line around the eye snaps). Sometimes the line is so lodged in there that I can't get it out and I just retie. This happens very frequently so I don't want to retie this often. I've read a Gary Yamamoto article where he uses a 20 ft. fluorocarbon leader but I'm not sure I want to use that much fluorocarbon when I'm trying to use braided line. I could put a smaller fluorocarbon leader but then there would be more stress on that line to line knot when I have a fish on. I also thought about maybe using some silicone or other product to close the small gap in the eye of the hook so the line will not get caught. If you guys have any other ideas let me know. Currently I'm using VMC hooks with a Uni knot. I'm going to try a Gamakatsu hook this weekend and see if I have the same problem. It looks like the Gammy does not have quite as much of a gap at the eye and the line may not be able to get jammed in there. If so I may just swich hook brands. I could go to a higher diameter line but I really like the Power Pro 10 lb. test and I have no need for more strength. Let me know if any of you have had this problem or if you have any solutions. Thanks.

Do you guys have any tips for fishing for rainbows on an inland lake? We bought some "trout rigs" that are kind of like spreaders and tried some powerbait but had no luck. The lake gets as deep as 60 feet and the dropoffs are very steep. How deep should we be looking? We tried in the 12-20 foot areas but no bites. Should we be fishing off the bottom or suspending at a certain depth? Any help would be appreciated.

This is my 1st post and thought I would try and give you my personal experience with boat painting. 2 years ago we painted my Supra ski boat with Interlux Brightside paint. We first tried spraying it as my buddy works at Jeep and has a lot of experience with body/paint work and has his own paint shop in his garage with a ventilation fan. The Brightside paint just would not go on evenly, it would sort of "bubble up" everywhere. We tried different mixtures of thinner and the stuff just would not go on smooth. He said that this was the worst paint he had ever worked with. We then decided to roll it on with a foam roller and this was better. We really didn't use a brush and do the "tip" method as you have read about. We just kept rolling over the area until it looked good. We had a good coat of the Interlux primer on there but we had to keep going over certain areas that just would not cover. It was yellow paint so that was part of the problem but it just didn't cover like it should have, whether it was yellow or not. We mixed everything to the exact specs of Interlux but it just seemed too thin. I'm not sure what model of Interlux you are planning on using but I would highly suggest NOT using Brightside. I had read some decent reviews of it so I thought it would work well. If I were you and going through all this work I would find out what other people use and spend more money if necessary as I'm sure you don't want to do it over. I will say that I have had quite a few people say how nice the boat looks and they can't believe that we rolled it on. I'm much more picky when it comes to painting so I'm not very happy with how it turned out after all that work. My buddy said we could have used some of the high-end car paint that he knows is good stuff since the area we were painting was mainly above the water line. I believe the name of the stuff he suggested was Centari and it is made by Dupont. I don't know if this is the best way to go or not(car paint vs. boat paint), just wanted to give you more ideas. That stuff was about $75 a quart but would have been worth it to me. Good luck.