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About Me:
fulltime fishing bum, part time guide
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Interests (Hobbies, favorite activities, etc.):
anything having to do with the water. i just bought my first kayak this year. lovin' it!
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What I do for a living:
Rodsmith at Jawbreaker Customs
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Jbh92885 reacted to a post in a topic: FUJI KR Concept VS ZENAQ RG guide system
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Sofiapou started following jawbreaker
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Nizar reacted to a post in a topic: could this be a guide problem
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custom guides on a lamiglas surf and jetty
jawbreaker replied to greeny's topic in Rod Building Forum
you are the one who doesnt know what youre talking about. i might be in MI now, but lived in Hyde county, NC for many years and was a regular at hatteras, kill devil hills, nags head, etc. my Dad still lives there, about 5 miles from where the ocracoke ferry lands. i built a lot of surf rods out there, probably while you were still in short pants, many of them still in use. ive taken about a dozen orders for surf rods in the past month from repeat customers who are all convinced i KNOW what im doing. ALL WE DO is build rods, and thats all we have done for years. this isnt a sideline for me, and i dont have a wife or girlfriend with a day job to help pay the bills. a couple years ago i got a gift basket from mudhole at christmas. in case you dont know, these are given to their 50 biggest customers. ive sold several hundred custom rods this year already, probably half to repeat customers or people referred by previous customers. i thought i would come on here and share some of my 35+ years of experience with fellow fishermen and i get another rod builder disagreeing with everything i say, probably because he is afraid he will lose business. -
custom guides on a lamiglas surf and jetty
jawbreaker replied to greeny's topic in Rod Building Forum
with titanium guides you have to use the proper guides. i built a rod for a tournament musky fisherman, Joey Rozanski, 2 years ago on a 22oz bushido extended to 9'6",made for casting 1 pound bulldawgs in tournaments. i cant imagine any rod that would put more stress on a guide train tyhan this one! i put titanium turbos on it and they are still holding up. the turbo frames are designed for heavy weight. a similar rod he had built by another guy with alconites had the guides come out of the wraps after only a couple tournaments. for heavy spinning rods i use the vertus heavy frame titanium guides and ive never had to replace one. i saw a picture on facebook recently that showed some titanium guides that had pulled out like you mentioned. i dont know how heavy the rod was, but the guides were obviously the light frames. the front leg had pulled out and the rear leg appeared to be bent under the finish and the finish wasnt cracked. this suggests that the guide was bent while being aligned. this can happen with any guide if youre not careful lining them. ive seen this on a lot of factory rods. a guide frame is engineered like a bridge...the maxiumum amount of strength with the minimum amount of materials. once a guide frame is bent even slightly the structural integrity is compromised and failures will occur. most manufacturers will be happy to give you some guidance on the proper guide to use for any given application if you ask them. -
custom guides on a lamiglas surf and jetty
jawbreaker replied to greeny's topic in Rod Building Forum
youve NEVER had the rings pop out of fuji alconite fly guides or tops?? AMAZING! all the rod builders i know have. -
custom guides on a lamiglas surf and jetty
jawbreaker replied to greeny's topic in Rod Building Forum
i just finished replacing the guides on a lammy, a loomis, a shimano, and a custom st.croix for a customer. the guides had the "cosmetic" rust under the wraps and they were literally falling out of the rods. there were a few amateur repairs done to some of these already. with the cost of the new guides, labor, and shipping both ways the bill was close to $400.00. if rust is present under the wraps its due to the guide deteriorating. after enough of this deterioration the wraps become loose, and also get soaked, accelerating the process. most of these guides appeared to have adequate backfill on the original finish....it didnt help. i dont know the history on any of these rods, or what care and maintenance was applied, but it was ultimately more than cosmetic corrosion. my personal favorite guides, when applicable, are the REC titanium nickel alloy recoil guides. no rings to pop out, absolutely corrosion proof, and just about indestructible. i also really like the way that these guides have a minimal effect on blank action compared to the action of the finished rod, and they cast like a rocket. -
if its backbone you want in a 9' blank the new St.Croix SC-II, 70/30 musky blanks are a tank! ive built a few rods on the 8 oz rated blanks, and they may even be under rated at 8 oz. these rods are a beast!
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batson/rainshadow has, or is in the process of, overhauling much of their line of blanks. ive been buying closeout priced blanks for months that are still listed as current production blanks but are actually already discontinued. graphite technology is advancing and they have to stay current, even if it means discontinuing some nice blanks. i used to panic every time some of my favorite blanks were dropped, but the blanks that replace them are almost always better. with the recent advancements in carbon molecule impregnated resins and fabrics designed to complement them i wouldnt hesitate to give some of the new ones a try.
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custom guides on a lamiglas surf and jetty
jawbreaker replied to greeny's topic in Rod Building Forum
be sure to wash after each use if you go with the fuji byag. these are a lower grade of stainless, either 304 or 308, and will rust if the salt gets to them. alps and american tackle offer similar guides with aluminum oxide or zirconia rings and 316 alloy stainless frames for about the same price, or less, that are more corrosion resistant. even these will still corrode with enough exposure to salt, but they hold up a lot better. a lot of factory rods use alconites on their saltwater rods, and ive replaced a lot of them. St.Croix uses the BYAG on their avid series rods, but on the avid inshore, tidemaster, and mojo inshore they use a 316 alloy guide. all the legend series inshore rods use titanium frames. you get what you pay for. -
closing the bail on too much slack in the line is exactly what causes this....but how do you get the line tight with the bail open? when he says he is having the same issue with several different reels and line it points to an issue with the guides, or the design of the reel can also play a big part. it can get expensive trying to find the reel that is "just right" for any rod. if a little tuning to the guide train will make the rod compatible with more reels its a cheap fix. modern rods are being designed to optimize performance. in order to achieve this they often become finicky about the reels that work best for them.
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HELP NEED IT WITH GUIDES SIZE AND LAYOUT
jawbreaker replied to sharkfishing's topic in Rod Building Forum
we build hundreds of rods a year and everyone is always happy with them, EXCEPT for the guys that tell me how they want it built. one of the advantages of having a custom built is being able to choose handle style, grip length, colors, type of guides, etc. when they start telling me what layout to use or how to mount the reel seat i offer them a good price on a kit that they can build themselves. i see guys offering advice on rod building forums every day that have obviously built very few rods and would realize just how faulty their advise is many times if they had the experience to know better. pretty wraps and metallic thread dont make a good rod. since your builder is booked 2 months ahead he is obviously doing something right. beware the guys who can start building your rod immediately...there is a reason why they arent booked. -
custom guides on a lamiglas surf and jetty
jawbreaker replied to greeny's topic in Rod Building Forum
if you want to take the weight off the tip titanium frame guides will definitely do it for you. they seem a bit pricey, but these guides are absolutely corrosion proof and will outlast the rod, barring accidents. on certain rods the difference can be dramatic. ill never forget the first rod i ever used titaniums on, a 7' st.croix avid baitcaster, med-heavy, extra fast tip. the tip unloaded so fast that my first 3 casts hit the water about 10 feet in front of me! once i made the adjustment on my timing this thing sent lures into the next zip code! i doubt youll see THAT much difference with your lammy, but it should be a noticeable difference. if you use the smallest guides that you can get away with on the tip it should increase casting distance and sensitivity. if you knot your rigging make sure you choose a size that will allow the knots to pass through. -
if its 1" that would be a 25mm. i have a layout i use a lot for larger reels that uses a 40mm base guide and then drops down to a 25. you might give that a try.
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i find it hard to believe that anyone who has ever tried power pro or spider stealth would have ANYTHING good to say about 832. the single odd strand of different material has a different amount of stretch, and will even cause the line to unravel with temperature changes since it reacts differently to heat and cold. i dont know what the engineers that developed this line were thinking. the disadvantages are obvious. im not particularly loyal to any brands, but this stuff is the worst line ive ever used, and ive probably tried 99% of them!
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its more likely a problem of the base guide being too far ahead of the reel. the old rule of thumb was 18 to 24 inches from the spool to the first guide. some of the spinning rods i build with micro guides that have a 16mm base guide perform best with the first guide placed nearly 30 inches from the spool, depending on the length and action of the rod. with certain reels this can create a problem. i had to take a 180 supercaster off one of my favorite rods because of the way the drag adjustment knob was designed. these have a sharp angle on the knob that can cause the line to wrap around the drag adjuster instead of wrapping on the spool. a reel with a rear drag, or a low profile drag knob eliminated the problem. if your first guide is located more than 24" from the spool you may be able to simply add another guide to fix this problem. it will need to be a larger diameter than the current base guide, and for best results at least an inch wider spacing than the previous spacing. for example, if your current base guide is 26" from the spool, and 10" from the next guide forward, you could add a guide 11" behind the existing base guide. this would put you at 15 inches from the spool. this might be a little tight, but not necessarily. if your current base guide is a 20mm, tape a 30 mm in place and try a few casts and retrieves to see how it performs before you commit to wrapping and finishing it in place. you could also experiment with perhaps changing the position of the first 2 or 3 guides, widening the existing spaces between them. and possibly dropping one guide from the layout if thats what it takes to get the desired performance. by tailoring your layout to the reel youll be using it shouldnt be too difficult to get longer and smoother casts with no issues. a little trial and error goes a long way in guide placement. remember, there is no right or wrong layout as long as you are improving the performance of your rod. look at the smaller guides used on todays high end rods and how much different the spacings are from just a few years ago, and how much of a departure they are from what was considered gospel in guide layouts not too long ago. i started taping guides and test casting 20 years ago and was amazed at what i learned. at first people thought i was crazy, but todays best rods are using some of the same things i learned decades ago.
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rightcoastsurf reacted to a post in a topic: Reel seat loose -- how to fix it in place?
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lack of stretch with "super lines" and fish fighting
jawbreaker replied to music321's topic in Main Forum
thats great! maybe youll want to give an extra fast rod a try. i wasnt trying to start a pissing match with anyone, just offering my opinion based on over 35 years experience in building and testing thousands of rods on all 3 coasts and every major river system in the country for pleasure, commercial, and guiding purposes. -
lack of stretch with "super lines" and fish fighting
jawbreaker replied to music321's topic in Main Forum
high stick breaks dont usually happen on a hit, unless you're swinging the rod way back over your shoulder. this usually happens at the boat, and many times after the fish is in the net. if you mainly only catch smaller fish a fast action is perfectly fine with braid.