ikaika

I’ve got a reasonable collection, I’ll grab some pics when I’m home: 1980 Gibson Les Paul Custom, 1986 Charvel Model 5, 1996 Fender USA Strat, a 2003 Breedlove acoustic, and a new Schecter SLS Elite 7 string fan fret. I had to sell my 4x12 due to space limitations, but I’ve still got a Marshall JCM2000 DSL100 head and a 2x12 in addition to my NeuralDSP plugins. Definitely a fun way to spend time when I can’t get to the river!

Common issue with zero degree mounts over hard bottom; there have been a bunch of threads about this on the Garmin board when guys get their new fancy mount and suddenly have interference. If you’ve got one, maybe try the stock Garmin mount and see if the interference goes away.

I think the meta point here is that you can always find ways to spend MORE on a livescope setup. Whether the extra dollars you spend translate to meaningful utility to you is a very personal choice...the good news is that you've got options. I didn't feel like a turret, 16v battery, or fancy wiring harness were worth the cost when I added livescope to my Caracal...might be for some folks, but to me that money is better spent on gas for more fishing trips. I went with a Garmin Echomap 126sv UHD for $1500 from Bass Pro, and LVS34 + GLS10 for $1500 from a sponsor on Bass Boat Central. Total for the entire project plus consumables/mount for the new graph was $3200. Echomaps jump up in resolution from the 9" to 10" units, but the 10" and 12" have the same resolution...if you're not wanting to break the bank, I'd be giving the 10" graph a hard look. I think Bass Pro still has some on clearance for $1000 as they're making room for the new UHD2 units, or you can scour the classifieds on Bass Boat Central for a good deal. Definitely agree with all the folks saying lithium is the way to go, get a good 12v battery and wire it separately from your trolling motor so you don't get interference.

For sure, I appreciate the follow up! I've got the 4-10oz range covered in my quiver and am really chasing the perfect blank for all my Toxics...the search continues.

That would be super helpful if you do get it out on the water to test. If it really can't throw above 3oz I'll have to decide if i just build it as a punching rod or if I dremel a couple inches off the tip and roll the dice for science!

Pics aren't working for me, but I have the same blank and am undecided on how I want to build it. What's your assessment of the weight range the blank will handle?

The reason foaming a 250 is tricky is because you need the foam to be strong enough to hold the screws at the joint of the bait. I've done a few with 15lb Foam-It and while it works great and the foam is bulletproof, you have to cut down the weights a ton so it doesn't sink like a rock. For your application where you're not worried about holding screws, I'd use the lightest stuff you can find so you don't have to muck around with weights as much. It's important to weigh the bait before you foam it and then you'll have something to compare to when shaving down the weights to dial your sink rate. Be warned, it's messy and in my experience it's super difficult to keep the foam from getting on the outside of the bait. No big deal with a 250 since it's hidden by the skin, but you could end up with spots on the outside of your Ghost that need to be sanded to get the foam off. You can mitigate this by strategically placing your vent holes, but on my first couple baits it was definitely a learning experience. Good luck.

Tranx 300 in the 5.8 ratio works well for most things. I reach for the HG version when I'm fishing big glides but otherwise the 5.8 is my default choice...it's still a 30" per turn retrieve so it's not slow by any means. I haven't fished a Curado 300 so can't comment on those, but many others here use them and are happy. For the 2-4 ounce range, a Tatula 200 has been in my rotation for a while and is also worth a look. Good luck!

MK Precision 440 for me...zero complaints using the AGM setting as directed by Impulse Lithium when I bought the batteries.

Go on Amazon or Temu and find centering pins that are 40-45mm long and 7mm diameter. I like to cut out the middle pin with a pair of dykes, and then you can slip your hook onto the open eye and close it with pliers. It’s like $15 for 100 of the things.

I talked to them and for whatever reason the Alumifoam was not available. I got some Foam-It 15lb density and it is shockingly strong. If I was doing it over again I would try to get away with a lower density; I found that using the 15lb density I needed to almost completely remove the ballast behind the front hook hanger to get the sink rate I wanted.

For those of you who have gotten your Epitome 807 blanks, how long was it from order to shipping? I see they’re rolling out live inventory but this wasn’t shown on the status when I checked.

I’m in the FG knot camp, but I put a tiny drop of thin superglue on it to keep the half hitches from coming undone over time. Too much and the knot is stiff going through your guides, so don’t go crazy with it. Chris Zaldain did a good video on how he ties it, check that out if you haven’t already; everyone has all kinds of tricks or techniques so just pick a video and practice that way until you’ve got it down. The trickiest thing for me was getting the weave to hold, the first half hitch is the most important!

If I wanted to try and diy something for a Tyrant I’d probably start with shaping a chunk of rigid closed cell urethane foam to fit the cavity and seeing how it performs. I’ve got some two part foam that’s a 15lb density and incredibly strong, but there’s a lot of lower density ones you can find that would be even more buoyant since strength isn’t really important here.

Huh wasn’t planing on spending that much when I woke up this morning but he sure got me. A fool and his money.

I fished out of a Titan 10.5 for a long time before buying my boat, and that thing was a fishing machine. Super stable and tough as nails. It’s heavy, and even though I’m a strong dude there was no way I was going to get that thing on and off of my Jeep…I bought a kayak trailer and if you have the space it makes life a lot easier. Yakima makes great ones but they’re expensive. With the trailer you also can’t really just go park wherever and throw the kayak in the water…gotta find a place with trailer parking, so some lakes or launches won’t work because of that. Everyone is tempted by inflatables. My first watercraft was an 8’ inflatable whitewater raft because it was the only thing I had space for. They come with a lot of sacrifices (stability, durability, etc). If this is your only option to get on the water then yeah it’s 100% better than shorebanging but it’s nowhere near what you’ll get with a rotomolded kayak.

You’ll have to get the whole guide replaced, you can’t just replace the ring that got knocked out (these rings are typically made of some kind of ceramic, not plastic). He also uses a heavy duty tip top, and in order to replace it you’ll have to get the thread wrap and epoxy redone…it has a small metal tab that extends under the thread wrap with epoxy on it. A local rod builder can do this for you, shouldn’t be terribly expensive. They should be able to match the factory thread wraps when they re-wrap it so you’ll never know anything ever happened.

The deflection chart is interesting, shows it bending similarly to a normal SWB-806 with 32oz of weight. The tip is a 6.0 vs a 6.5 for the 806, so I’m a little lost with the lure rating up to 8oz on this new one…is it really going to be beefier than an 806 that’s rated to only 3oz? Guess we’ll have to buy some to try, but it’s gotta be pretty special to justify the price gap vs. the IM swimbait lineup.

I'm sure there's a totally logical explanation for this, but why is there a sasquatch/raccoon/bearded guy photoshopped onto the front deck of your Ranger?

I'd be looking at the NFC BB-809 if you want parabolic. Unlikely you can save the reel seat or the handle, but a Fuji ECS reel seat like what Dobyns uses is pretty cheap ($5ish) and EVA grips are cheap too. I buy components from either Mudhole or GetBit Outdoors for the most part, so you can click around on their sites for ideas. Mudhole also has a good youtube channel with instructional stuff if you want to go watch a bit about the basics of rod building. Basically you'll need to accomplish a few things: Fit the grip and reel seat to your blank. You'll need to ream the grip to fit the blank. They sell tapered reamers with sandpaper spiraled around them, either for use by hand or chucked up in a drill. No real way around buying a tool of some sort for this. Glue the grip and reel seat onto the blank using a 2-part paste epoxy like ProPaste. Cleans up with denatured alcohol or rubbing alcohol. Mudhole sells little sauce packet things of ProPaste that are enough for 1-2 rods, so don't buy the bigger containers unless you intend to build more rods. Lay out your guide spacing using the manufacturer recommended spacing. Temporarily attach them to the blank using skinny masking tape, or the tiny rubber bands they sell on Mudhole Wrap the guides with thread to hold them permanently to the blank. Use nylon color-fast thread for this. You'll need some way of holding the spool of thread, something to hold the rod while you're turning it, and something to provide tension on the thread so it's not all loose while you're wrapping. I started out by modifying a cardboard box to hold the rod, and running the thread between the pages of a heavy book to keep some tension on it. It wasn't great and probably caused me more headaches than it was worth. I spent $60 on this hand wrapper from Mudhole and it's not perfect either, but it's much better than my box-and-book contraption. They just recently released a $35 version that's no-frills but will get the job done. You'll also need razor blades to trim tag ends of your thread, and a thread burnishing tool to make sure your thread wraps are packed closely together. Apply finish to protect the thread. To avoid having to buy a rod turner, I'd use a quick-drying urethane finish like Permagloss instead of a 2-part epoxy. You'll need to apply several coats to get enough build to emulate an epoxy, or you can do 2-3 coats and your threads will be fully protected but still visible. Its extremely thin and dries fast, so you never need to worry about turning the rod to avoid sagging like you do with epoxy.

I’ve used Foam It in the 15lb density. I’m not sure if this is actually what he uses but I can say that it is incredibly strong. No way does a screw eye pull out of it. Can’t even dent it with a hammer. You could probably use a lower density foam but I don’t know how it would handle screw retention. The added weight of the foam means you have to significantly reduce the weight of your tuning weights. Weigh the bait before you foam it (with the tuning weights) and then afterwards you just cut down the weights so you get it to the sink rate you want. Stock tuning weights plus foam is going to make the bait swim poorly and sink like a rock.

Don’t forget there’s a $10 per blank excise tax, so you’re really ending up paying $70/blank. Still a great deal but just don’t get surprised when you check out!

Get a roll of lead golf tape and you can cut pieces to stick to the bait and tune it, it’s a couple bucks for a big roll that’ll last a long time and way cheaper than suspend strips or whatever. You’ll learn pretty fast how the bait responds to different weight placement and if you don’t like it just peel it off and stick it in a different spot. Super simple fix to the bait nosing up.

Not sure if you're building yourself or having someone custom build, but assuming you're DIY'ing: Getting a set of digital calipers was the #1 thing that helped me order the right components in one shot. Lay out how long your rear grip will be, measure blank diameter to get the sizing of the reel seat and winding checks, and use them to measure the tip of your blank for tip top sizing. Sometimes the rodbuilding suppliers don't have a lot of technical specs on inner diameter or outer diameter and you have to do some sleuthing, but it's a lot better than it used to be. The other thing that's a must-have are some reamers; these will allow you to custom fit your grips and reel seat to exactly the place on your blank you want them to sit. Saves the headache of dealing with tape arbors and other stuff to make up for loose fitting components. Guides: I run single foot guides for all but the first one, and there I use a Fuji K double foot in size 8. Size 7 is about what I like for my belly guides and running guides, and I do single footers for these with Forhan locking wraps to hold them securely in place. Some prefer double footers all the way up, which I've never felt was necessary on freshwater rods, but again personal preference. They're expensive but I like the Fuji arowana torzite tip tops, usually also in a 7mm ring. Torzite is denser than other materials, so the inner diameter of the ring is actually about 0.5mm bigger on a torzite insert than SiC or similar for the same listed guide size. Especially good if you run braid to leader. Spiral or traditional layout is personal preference, but either way you should start by looking at the recommended guide spacing from the blank manufacturer and tweaking based on static load testing. Reel seats: The Fuji ACS is a super polarizing reel seat; some people love it, others hate it, and very few in between...personally it makes my fingers go numb, but your mileage may vary. Make sure you fish with one for a solid day before committing to one on your build. The Fuji ECSM is their most popular seat and has been for years, and while it's not flashy it's super comfy for pretty much everyone. I've used both the ALPS MVT and tex touch seats, which are both fine in my book apart from the nosebleed prices on the MVT seats. Some of the American Tackle seats look nice but don't fit the big blank diameters of some swimbait rod blanks. Grips/butt: For split grips, I'd take a look at the new soft touch carbon fiber grips from CFX. This one is my personal favorite and I use it on pretty much everything. The knock on carbon grips for me was always that they were kind of rough, but these new soft touch grips solve that entirely. The other thing I've done is wrapped a carbon grip in xflock shrink tubing for a more swimbait-y aesthetic if that's your jam. If you want to custom shape cork or EVA, get yourself a steel mandrel and you can chuck it up in a drill to use as a little DIY grip turning lathe. If you don't want to mess with any of that, American Tackle makes some adjustable length carbon handles as a kit you can use, and there are plenty of good cork options as well. Good cork has gotten super expensive so don't be surprised if it costs almost as much as carbon. I personally don't like the big bulbous end caps that are common in swimbait builds since they always seem to get stuck on my shirt, but that's a personal preference thing. I either use a simple metal/rubber plug like this, or a smooth vinyl cap like this. Finish: A lot of people use high-build epoxy to cover their thread wraps, but I've moved entirely to using urethane finishes like Permagloss. They don't yellow, are flexible, and are incredibly tough with extremely low weight. It can be kind of tricky to apply, so if you decide to go this route you should look on rodbuilding.org or post up questions here. Hope this helps.

The 808 is a monster, let us know how the 809 turns out!