tHeINFamoUS

I go with Curado 300e’s on my green and gold wrapped rods.

Pretzel logic. Plenty of bass get caught on unnatural colors, profiles and presentations. Anyone that speaks this definitively about what fish are thinking when they eat odd stuff is crazy.

......bait blankets?

Looks like a black rockfish my man. I’ve gotten into a few really shallow schools of them before but they’re generally gonna be a lot deeper than you’d fish for bass. He probably needed all that lead to sink it down into the water column.

I clock hours like that in a high stress job. When I get a couple days off I can wait to get my hands on my girl and big bass. I don’t Wast time or energy worrying about what baits I couldn’t get. I wish one of these Illude rats hit the black market yesterday.....heads would be exploding lol.

It was a ridiculously brutal low 60’s with a 5-7kt wind, overcast with an occasional sprinkle. Brrrrrrrrr...... These fish slurped the mink, slow crank with the occasional stop and twitch when moving away from cover. These may have been the most subtle top water takedowns I’ve seen, not even the toilet bowl swirl, just a bit of commotion and the bait disappearing. Something about the mink, always looks like it’s smiling.

Mattlures hardgills and mag hardgills.

More of an experiment....working on a new technique....if it doesn't work I'll tell everyone

Went a bit playboy on this one. United Composites CE800 Mega, Fuji Alconites, hypalon grips alps single trigger. X-long butt wrap on this one. Can’t believe I don’t have a pic of it finished, it’s beat up now but you get the picture. Peacock wrap, was not easy to figure the color pattern out and epoxying the feather inlay was a pita.

United Composite US 800 Mag, Fuji Alconites, alps single trigger reel seat. Jailbird style, Greg Noll big gun wrap lol. Rod notes: Switched to hypalon on the grips, eva gets slick and dents easily. Love this blank, throw mostly 3-6oz hardbaits on it but it shouldn’t have any issue sticking hooks into soft bait eaters. This one had the first trip hook a fish mojo too.

Thanks. I’ve always gravitated toward toward chevron and closed diamond threadwork. Classic old school look, all the big sticks had em when I was a kid lol.

I like the idea of having a single spot to check out other builds. Might help to add to add some details about them too. First swimbait build. Phenix M1 80H Blank, Fuji Alconites, alps trigger swat, EVA grips. Only notable things about this stick: Handle is approx 20” and I have a small engine lathe so I’m able to customize grips and plugs pretty easily. I custom cut the plug from stock aluminum, weight in the butt balances it pretty nicely. Primary use: softbaits in the 4-6” range and occasionally use for 3-4oz hardbaits. Good all around rod, IMO action is slightly more suited toward the soft bait side. First trip out the new stick had the mojo.

Not a bad way to kick things off! Cheers to many more.

Thanks! Got a good chuckle out of that one..nightmares indeed lol. Midway through these things I always ask myself why I don’t just wrap black on black with a few inlays lol. Thank you. I try to build all my personal rods with the long wrap.....old school flavor right there. Hard to get a good photo while on the lathe, took it outside for a better look at it.

Thought I’d share a rod I’ve been working on for a while and finally about to wrap up....pun intended United Composites RCE900 Mag - it’s a composite blank, graphite blank, top third of the rod is glass . Moderate Action Alps trigger seat. Sculpted hypalon grips. Alps Zirconium Colored Guides ((#20, #16, #12, And the rest are # 10‘s). I use a taller stripper guide because I also use these sticks for inshore fishing and use taller reels. Started with the handle set up, got on the lathe and shaped em up. Went with a modified fish scale pattern for the split grip. Locked em down with a four color blended bar. This stick got shelved for quite a while but when I finally got it back on the lathe I went for pure pain with a long micro scale pattern for the butt wrap. Progress and finish shots. Guide wraps. All done with thread work for this one. I got a couple more blanks to wrap before I start applying finish. Will throw up some pics once they’re all nice n shiny. PS......please forgive the cluttered work bench lol.

They usually pull the list of entrants directly from Patreon.

I agree with bass blaster. A longer rod will help with casting distance but I’m doubtful it’s going to ease the stress on muscles and joints. If you think about it, the further you place a bait away from from the handle, the more effort you’re gonna exert to huck it. It’s Just a matter of leverage and fulcrum points, I’m sure there’s some physics law that would explain it (I’m too far removed from an actual science course to remember). Distance from reel seat to rod tip would probably factor more into casting comfort. I’ve been building my own rods for a couple years now. Lengthening the grip on a fresh build will put the reel seat further up the blank and closer to the tip. I have builds with handles in the 18-22” range, the benefits are a wider grip when throwing long, and more control over the bait when I’m pitching and making roll type casts into cover. I get the added bonus having a lot of real estate to lay thread in the split grip.

There are no “Magic” baits.

Florida.......water everywhere, access to both coasts, fresh and saltwater species galore.

Very clean, my first wrap was a mess lol. Rod number two is always easier.

Grundens North Sea, Anorak or the full zip Jacket. Commercial grade, I’ve had one for close to ten years. It’s not gonna score you any style points at the bar but warm, dry and you can just hose off all the fish blood and slime at the end of the day.

These are gonna be $400 in the black market on Dec 12th at approximately 12:01pm pst.

EVA has horrendous memory, if you wrap it with cord under any kind of tension there will be permanent grooves under the wrap that won’t go away. If you’re never going back to the factory look you’ll be okay.

Deckhand rods traditionally had tarred seine twine (black grip). The colorful alternative you see on jig rods nowadays are mostly 1/16 Atwood Rope (orange grip). I haven’t used paracord on a grip yet....I’m sure it’d hold up. If you want to add bulk to the grip try adding a layer of cork tape around the blank as a base then a single cord wrap over it. It will look a bit cleaner, wrapping over another wrap can be tough to pull off.