Designing A Finesse Rod

[basslover12345]

Let me know your thoughts:

Slider head rod:

- REC Component’s Recoil Tip Top Guides (For the top guide)

- Tennessee-style cork handle.

- WaveSpin MicroWave Guides (For the rest of the guides)

- Medium-action

- 6’10 foot rod OR 6’8- IM6 or IM7/IM8?

- Fast Taper rod

- Not to stiff

- 1/16^th to 1/4^th

- 4-8 pound Line test

- Fuji Vss reel seats

- Black thread

- Spinning handle attached to the butt ferrule

- One piece rod

- No dropshot hook keeper

- Flat-sided fighting-butt (If possible)

[S Hovanec]

Not a fan of a Recoil for the tip. I'd use an Alconite or TiSiC.

LOVE Tennessee grips!

Haven't played with the Microwaves yet so I have no opinion.

I'd probably go with ML. If you venture close to the bottom end of your lure ratings, a M will be too much rod to cast very well. The lure won't load it enough.

IM ratings are a joke anymore. Nothing more than marketing, so don't look too much into them. I can tell you what I'm using for this type of rod and what I'm gonna build over the winter for myself. Currently using a St. Croix 5S69MLXF. It's my favorite rod, EVER. I've built many many in this action and power in SCIII, SCIV and SCV. All have performed fantastically. On the books for my new build is a 5S610MLXF. It's the 2013 replacement for the 6'9". The only reason I'm building is..... you can never have too many rods! Gonna pass the 6'9" on to the wife cause she needs another finesse rod!

[fishking247]

am i the only old school guy here? full cork handles, fuji dps seat with the old school fuji hardloy guides. fuji hardloy guides are the most durable guides imo. the alconites are nice too.

[SirSnookalot]

I don't really understand what the need is for a flat sided fighting butt, especially on a light rod. Honestly I had to look it up, I never heard of one before, and after seeing the picture, it looks useless to me. Maybe the butt should be renamed, there is nothing fighting about. A fighting butt is a gimbal butt to be used with a fighting belt, hardly for panfish or bass.

am i the only old school guy here? full cork handles, fuji dps seat with the old school fuji hardloy guides. fuji hardloy guides are the most durable guides imo. the alconites are nice too.

All of my Hurricane Redbones have hardloy guides and full cork fore and butt grips. The only negative to those guides is that I have had quite a few rust out, these are saltwater rods and used in SW. Fairly inexpensive and fast repair, so it's not a big deal. In fact I have no idea of what kind of cheap generic guides are the replacements, but those don't rust out, go figure. I can think of only 1 cracked ceramic insert on all the rods I've had, that was quite a few years ago, I'm not real picky on the guides. We have guys here using 18 oz reels on 30 lb class rods and casting them all day, weight is not our issue.

[J Francho]

A flat sided fighting butt is simply for comfort. It rests nicely under your arm while fishing. It's nice for two handed casts as well.

[Teal101]

Get a ML blank, look at the St.Croix SCIII lineup. You can always trim a 7' rod a bit to get it down to 6'-10" or so, always trim the butt. Ditch the recoils and wavespins and go with some Fuji Alconite or the SiC guides. Personally I dont use anything other than TiSiC on all of my rods now. I do like the alconites for a budget setup though.

[S Hovanec]

Personally I dont use anything other than TiSiC on all of my rods now. I do like the alconites for a budget setup though.

Finding that I'm doing this myself more and more on my personal builds. I'm gonna try the Ti/Alconite K-frames on my next build tho. They offer a pretty good savings over the Ti/SiC's Truthfully, the only reason I use the Ti/SiC's is because I Iike the color of the frame! Once you get into the #4's, there's not much weight difference between the Ti and SS frames.

[basslover12345]

I'm considering the following:

MHX IM6 blank model SJ841-MHX, 7’, 6-10 Lb. test, 1/16-5/16 oz. lures fast action, lite power.

Fuji VSS spinning reel seat 16mm

[Delaware Valley Tackle]

IMO, the ML-XF is the way to go. The St Croix is a great blank. If you want to save a few bucks the MHX is really close. A Tennessee grip uses slip rings so the VSS wouldn't work it'd be one or the other. I'd pass on the Wave Spin guides for this build since casting distance shouldn't be a concern. I'm not sure what you mean by, " Spinning handle attached to the butt ferrule" but for a minimalist build skip anything that adds weight without purpose. I prefer a ceramic ring in the tip but I've used Minima4 guides (SS insert) with good success. They are super light and inexpensive.

I have a 6'10" MHX w/ Minima 4 guides, micro top and Carbon Tennessee handle that weights 3.2 oz complete. I pair it with a CI4 and 20# braid.

[Teal101]

Finding that I'm doing this myself more and more on my personal builds. I'm gonna try the Ti/Alconite K-frames on my next build tho. They offer a pretty good savings over the Ti/SiC's Truthfully, the only reason I use the Ti/SiC's is because I Iike the color of the frame! Once you get into the #4's, there's not much weight difference between the Ti and SS frames.

I used the TiSiC K guides on my last big build. It was for an 8' XH Musky rod. I wanted a good strong guide material for fishing 80lb braid all day with heavy lures and big fish. I went K because of the braid as well, not that casdting setups have much issue with tangles. This rod was going to be heavy so I opted for the Ti, every little gram counts!

When building UL, L, and ML rods, especially in finesse applications where sensitivity is a must, i wouldnt use anything other than TiSiC. Every gram added to the rod deadens the feeling, and when you're fishing a rod with the same diameter as a spaghetti noodle I want every bit I can get. I do use the SS/Alconites for cheaper builds.

I'm considering the following:

MHX IM6 blank model SJ841-MHX, 7’, 6-10 Lb. test, 1/16-5/16 oz. lures fast action, lite power.

Fuji VSS spinning reel seat 16mm

Look at the following blanks

MHX HM-SJ782-MHX

MHX HM-SJ842-MHX

St.Croix 3S66MLF

St.Croix 3S69MLXF

Phenix UMBX-S700M-B