Rockstar - Don't let anyone tell you how to fish them. Because quite frankly it doesn't matter. Throw it out, bring it back and it'll catch fish. I don't use them much, I have no idea why, but they are the first lure I tie on for my nephews. They're easy to fish and hard to fish wrong. And they usus...

I saw you ask on the other board and would agree with the Shikari, Rainshadow and St. Croix selections provided. I, personally, would be going with the Shikari. One of the problems I'm seeing is a lot of people telling you this rod or that, but none of us know what depth you'll be fishing. Or what k...

The only thing i dont like about the Croix rods are is that they are so stiff in their rating. I hear this all the time and in my opinion, St. Croix is right on with their ratings. The actual LURE WEIGHT ratings. You can't look at those Medium and Medium-light terms when comparing rods. That's just...

80%!?! Wow. All I can tell you is that I just got a pair of new Lowrances last fall. Color GPS and color depthfinder. I will never go back to grayscale! I love color. They are much easier to read in the sunlight. They are much easier to read in the dark. The differences in color variation are much e...

I use Fireline for nearly everything up to 14 pound test. After that, Power Pro.

Depthfinders have no directional discrimination. A wide beam will take a broader picture of the bottom. That can be good, it can be bad. Over really deep water your cone gets terribly wide and you loose a lot of detail as there is just too much info coming back to the finder. For shallow it works gr...

Lowrance makes the best units in my opinion. At least here in the US. Garmin is a close second. The 102C by Lowrance would be a unit I'd recommend. Sonar is in a cone and displayed on the screen from left to right. The sonar screen is NOT a picture of what the bottom looks like. It is a series of sn...

In their original bags in a Worm Binder.

Great middle of the road rod. Mid range modulus with very good sensitivity and plenty of durability. St. Croix has an excellent warranty and very good customer service. It's very hard to go wrong with St. Croix.

Spiroh - Yes, Loomis is reintroducing the GLX blanks for builders. They should be available shortly.

Something we have in common Matt

No way!! Not many of us out there. I sure miss that job. I just couldn't stand living in a city. I needed to get out. And that meant finding a new career.

This is a big advantage for custom rods. All those variables can be taken into account when building the rod. The first guide is sized according to the spool diameter and is placed on the blank in relation to the spool shaft geometry. I don't use a chart to tell me where guides go. Mass manufacturer...

No problem Ben. Feel free to email me if you've got any other questions. Skeeterboy - Feel free to email me if you've got some questions. The best place to get started is to research. Just do some looking around on the net. A great book is out by Tom Kirkman and is a must have if you are going to st...

I built a few Titaniums. Very nice blanks. Light, crisp feeling.

Since All Star has been purchased and has now stopped making blanks available to custom builders I have had no reason or opportunity to use the new Platinums.

For me, component selection is all based on what applications the rod is for. With those choices, it looks like you want ultra sensitive and high end. Or at least that's where I'd be. Don't use Loomis. Their quality control has been terrible the last few years and getting a reasonably straight blank...