Billy 40

Exactly the answer to your question. THe Rodgeeks blanks ARE St Croix blanks,and can be painted any color you want, or just coated gloss, or matte finish. If you are familiar with St Croixs, the SC2 are Rodgeeks C2 blanks, and the SC4 are C4's. ROdgeeks also is selling SC5 blanks which are made in the USA and shipped to Mexico for painting and shipping, but I am not sure if they have any fly blanks available in SC5. Price difference is 30% less than the St Croix's used to be priced at, and they have teh same top notch warantee policy.

That is a great chart. SHould be supplied by every supplier to their customers. I love the KDPS for spinning rods, I modify the seat by cutting threads, as well as cutting the plastic section on the KDPS if I want a shorter foregrip. PRett ymuch all of my spinning rods use an NPS + KDPS combination.

maybe you saw a KDPS or HPS hidden foregrip instead of that TVS-TK? WHen you tighten the hidden nut you have to make sure you grab the portion that is installed on the plastic, not the piece that is solid cork. I'm not familiar with all the parts you used, nor the specific quiestion you asked, sorry.

If you have the white milky Brilliance, then it is available, just under a different name: Flex Coat and U40 Color Lock (possibly others). If you have the clearish grey BRilliance 2 - that was Gudebrod 811S and is no longer available. The best CP to use is Chromaseal, it retains the colors better than any other CP on the market that I've tested. It also allows the thread to be vibrant under epoxy, whereas the other CP's will make it look a little bit dull. THis is more of an issue doing Dec WRaps with Madeira, so take the first hand info with a grain of salt if it doesnt' apply to what you are doing. Hopefully you get back into building again

I ask them to give me a brown strip, because most fishermen only use the white side for bait

Rob, when I used to fish off Fluke Jetty near my house, I used an 8'2 FW blank for spining with 8# PP. TEh stripper was a TATSG size 12, and I was able to cast really well ith it. It was pretty far up the blank. If you use a small reel with light braid (2000 size) you'll have no issue using a size 16 LV. It's not as high as other SF guides, but it's not so low that it won't cast.

Splinter

The Rodgeeks XC 734 is perfect for fishing the Helen H, as well sa the charterboats up there. Several of teh captains use them as theur personal rods. The charters allow you to get away with less weight, so the 733 and 732 are ideal as well. Last year my friend used the 730 up there.

Scary that it was in 2004 that I started with the GUSA's and popularized them in the North East, and then I did the same with Seeker in 2009. I made a lot of money for those guys and builders all over the place. It's good to see people are finally catching up to what I was doing 15 years ago.

Glad you're out there using this and enjoying it. Getting some great reviews back on teh 8' series, yesterday a charter captain in SAnibel/Captiva used his XC 805 the day it was delivered and went 2 for 2 on Tarpon with it. Hopefully you get some larger fish on it and prove to yourelf that it has as much power as you think. Several 802's are being made in Florida to toss plastic at Tarpon. Good luck!!

I value my scrap blanks more than I do the first quality ones.

We're all extremely helpful, but only for people that help themselves first. All the WRaps and grips - same thing. Put in some time and fail and it will do more for you to improve once you come to a gathering with somethng that sucks and 10 of the best artists in teh world will each take time to get you on teh not sucking path

THAt's cool, I'll start doing gatherings in October. ANd absolutely not, I do not do stuff like that - I am very big on others putting in time on their own and figuring things out. I'll push you in teh right direction once I see you are putting in effort. Tiger WRaps are not allwed at NERBs gatherings, and that's not a joke. Regarding the guides, you are on teh right path - nobody here giving answers that actually know what they are talking about, guessed. THey spent a lot of time tinkering and teaching themselves. Everyone can do the same