Ed.

I will give you a call tonight. Cheers Ed.

That wouldn't have been Jeremy by any chance?

Went to a local Tackle World store today as I had some time to kill whilst waiting for the missus's car to get serviced nearby and checked out the Shimano Anthem SW spinning rod in a PE3-5 rating as I have its bigger and stiffer PE8-10 version, so the sales person hands me the rod and first thing I check out is the guide alignment with the backbone, sure enough it is out by 90 degrees. Salesmans response is that they are all made in China, as if that is a good enough excuse for it, now this rod was about $380, so not a cheap rod, for that price I would expect a quality product. Obviously not, so I just walked out. Generally I avoid Shimano products due to this lack of quality control and no interest in fixing these sort of issues.

I suppose it's a bit like cars, someone wants to drive a Mercedes and others will drive a BMW or even a Hyandai, they each have their particular features, niceties and performance but in the end they all get you from Point A to Point B, and some are nicer to drive than others. For example have a look at the following setups I have. For my GT setup I chose a Penn Spinfisher SSV8500LL (under $200) and a Shimano Anthem SW PE8-10 ($320) rod, total about $520 on special, Penn also make the Slammer in the same size but another couple of hundred dollars more. I looked at the specs and whilst not exactly the same, the Spinfisher is a decent reel and would be more than adequate for the job. So for my needs I couldn't justify spending any more. I would hardly use it more than once or twice a year so at that rate it will last me a lifetime. I also have a Fathom FTH30LD2 which is a compact and light, but strong 30lb overhead 2 speed reel, and at that size should handle the majority of fish that swim in Morton bay or outside it with possibly the exception of 3m+ sharks or giant bill fish, I then came across a Makaira 15T, 15Kg size, 2 speed, more solid and slightly heavier reel. However it is similar in capacity than the Penn, with a bit more drag but the selling point for me was the helical cut gears which are much nicer to use than the Penn. That reel was a $850 dollar reel which I got on special for $700. Both of these game reels reels will catch the same sort of fish but on special the Makaira still cost more than twice what I paid for the Penn. To me, it was worth it, as it is a more solid reel and will handle more stress from larger fish than the Penn, at the end of the day I would enjoy using it much more than the Penn, even though the spec's are similar, hence the analogy of the cars. I could have bought a much cheaper reel and rod which still would have done the job but probably wouldn't be as nice to use. So pretty much of the all of these reels will catch similar fish, but there also comes a time when you have to justify the cost of a setup. If money is no object, then go for the expensive gear, but it isn't a necessity to do so. Especially if you are only going to use it occasionally. Using the more expensive Makaira probably isn't going to end up with me catching more fish, but I will enjoy using it more and for me in this instance I was prepared to pay more for that reel than I normally would. For my use and needs, I would have a very hard time trying to justify paying any more for a reel and rod setup.

My most expensive reel was about $800 on sale and for rods about $350-400 for parts only as I built them, the most expensive rod off the rack I have bought was about $320, having said all that you don't need to spend anywhere near that amount for a setup, and could get away with using a setup up between $60-200, depends on what fish you want to catch, where and how you want to catch them, if you like to use good quality gear and want it to last, etc., etc. I knew a lot of professional fishermen who preferred and would just use hand lines on a plastic spool from a boat (about $2-$6) and they caught plenty of fish, as they did it for a living, the results speak for themselves. Off a boat you can use anything, from a shore base and need to cast out then a rod and reel will be required, so no simple answer as so many factors need to be considered.

The only rod I have that comes close to those specs is the Shimano Anthem SW 792 popper rod but it might be too stiff for your needs as it is a PE8-10 and can handle 100-250gm weights and it is 7'9" and 2 piece, Shimano also make a PE5 version in 8ft which handles 50-150 gm also in 2 piece and they are all about the $300 mark, don't know any thing about the last one as I didn't pay much attention to it when I was looking for a heavy popper rod. I would say if you are after jewies and that sort of thing then my first one would probably be too stiff and way overkill, I bought it for the purpose of skull dragging big GT's away from the reef walls, the second one going by it's specs would probably be better suited. Probably worth having a feel of it assuming you can find one in a store. I got mine at Tackle World in Lawnton who had to bring one in to show me but they also had quite a few different brands and types, and I chose it out of about 6-8 different rods, I also usually don't buy Shimano gear but made an exception in this case because it seemed to be the best built one for what I wanted to do with it. Back when I lived in WA, I used some Tiger Ugly Stiks which I built up to about 9ft, and I used 4-5oz star sinkers with a live 150-200mm herring attached, so pretty heavy and couldn't cast all that far with them, I think the whippy tip with that much weight works against getting any great distance, however that still worked for me because most of the time the jewies weren't that far away from the rocks at the breakwalls it was just that casting weight that was the problem. Anyway, that was a long time ago but every now and then I check out the latest Ugly's and their action doesn't seem to have changed all that much over the years. If you do get lucky and hook a large Jewie, those Ugly stik rods are pretty well unbreakable even with high sticking and will tolerate 1 or 2 line classes above what they are rated for, not referring to the newish graphite type ones which you can't high stick those. Just my 2 cents worth.

Nah, wasn't me, I deny everything, innocent I am, your memory must be failing , or mine is, which probably is more likely! Cheers Ed.

I think that I remember you making some snazzy wraps on your rods, that was before I went over to Perth. (before 1980 maybe) anyway I started making my rods over there. Had a bit of time on my hands to go fishing and enjoy life, how life has changed, I have forgotten what a fish looks like now.

Those were the days all right, we had to get to the milk bottles before the magpies or crows got stuck into the lids. Don't know what their fascination was for the lids, maybe it was because they were shiny or something. I can't imagine they were after the cream but who knows? I also grew up on powdered milk, we didn't own a fridge in those days as we had just come to Australia so powdered milk it was! It was a few years later we started to get deliveries of bottled milk. Where we came from, we didn't have Corn Flakes, so my Mum used to add the made up powdered milk, warmed it and then added it to Corn flakes, and to top it off gave it to us about 5 minutes later, do you guys have any idea what that horrible gluggy concoction tasted like?Yuk!!

Thanks Misha, I also added extensions using a short aluminium tube on both of these light Ugly Stiks, I think from memory the blanks were about 168cm and extended them both to 203cm. That was in the days when you could actually buy just the Ugly Stik blanks in Australia from a distributor. As the spinning reel version eventually had damaged guides and I didn't really need another light spinning rod, I stripped that one completely and made it fit the bottom half of a 2 piece heavier Ugly Stik that I have put SiC guides on it, that way it can be used as a light and long bait casting rod.

Hi Misha, yep we do know each other like for about 50 years! I will send you my details via PM.

Sylvathorn, I just noticed your first name is Misha and that you come from Bowen, is Sylvathorn just your user name? and if it is just a user name does your surname start with K?

From the looks of it, they didn't put any epoxy under the middle of the reel seat and only on the ends. I fill up the entire cavity under the reel seat with epoxy so the middle of the seat doesn't flex, I don't know if that is a good thing or not but it is just the way I have always done it and seems to work well. The only time I had to replace a reel seat was when the one I had that cracked had a thin stainless steel hood over some nylon at one end and that cracked after many years of use, so probably had a manufacturing defect that finally gave way. Thinking about it some more, it was sort of the twin of the Ugly Stik with the pattern that I pictured before, as I made a pair of them, one was a spin stick and the other a bait caster. I ended up stripping everything off it and converted it to an extention, so I could get extra reach for light fishing off the end of breakwaters and that sort of thing. I fitted it to the base of a two part heavier Ugly Stik which brought the length up to around 9ft. Didn't put a pattern on it though. After stripping everything off, I sanded it and put a coating of two part Erskine's epoxy over it to protect the blanks fibres, so now I can use it as a long baitcaster rod. If you going to use some of the the fumed silica in a coating you will have to make sure not to use too much of it as it will thicken it up as it is a thixotropic, and may not self level easily, I assume that you want to hide some defects out of the blank you are doing? Is that correct? Just out of curiosity, is that real seat that you cut off made out of thin stainless tube? If it is I didn't know they made some like that.

I am not sure if the fumed silica will will give you a longer working time, I used mico ballons in with poly resin and it actually shortened my working time as it acts as an insulator so the heat buildup makes it set quicker, same as mixing it in with 2 part polyurethane, it halved my working time. It does thicken the mix though nicely so no runoff. Haven't tried it on epoxy though but would expect a similar result. Might pay to test it first though. I rarely replace the rod butt and or reel seat so not that much a issue for me as mainly I will build a rod completely or just replace guides, the only time I had an issue was replacing an epoxied rod tip and that did become a problem, ended grinding the tube off with a dremmel.

I am not sure if the fumed silica will give you a longer working time, I used micro balloons (which is a bit like fumed silica, but it is a filler where's fumed silica is a thixotropic) in with poly resin (boat building) and it actually shortened my working time as it acts as an insulator so the heat buildup makes it set quicker, same as mixing it in with 2 part polyurethane (lure making), it halved my working time. It does thicken the mix though nicely so no runoff. Haven't tried it on epoxy though but would expect a similar result using 5 minute epoxy and the fumed silica, might pay to test it first, be interesting to find out though, please let me know. I rarely replace the rod butt and or reel seat so not that much of an issue for me as mainly I will either build a rod completely or just replace guides, the only time I had an issue was replacing an epoxied rod tip and that did become a big problem, ended up grinding the tube off with a dremmel. Lesson learnt, use the Dremmel! I think if you do a lot of repairs or build rods than the 5 min epoxy would definitely be the way to go. I usually do the tips in 5 min epoxy but this time I must have forgot. Cheers Ed.

As with most things, if your throw enough time, money/and or effort, most things are possible. If your guides are OK, and as Sylvathorn said, work from the bottom up. This is the way I would do it and others may do it differently. Depending on the taper of the rod you may have to make a tapered cone of wood which you stick into the bottom of the rod which will help push the bottom grip on and up to the reel seat when the time comes. The way I repair a reel seat is once I lightly sand the seat area. Put a bit of masking tape on the remaining fore grip and mark the center position of the seat on it for alignment, also protects the fore grip from excess resin, then I put 3 or 4 (4mm wide) thin rings of masking tape in the seat area. Just put enough tape thickness on the blank so that the reel seat lightly slides over the tape to the required position and holds the seat central on the blank, and once the tape is pressed hard against the blank, I cut out a few small openings out of the rings with a razor, that way once you cover the area with epoxy and put the seat over the rings the epoxy can flow between the rings and any trapped air can escape. I usually tilt the rod up and use a hair dryer to help make the epoxy flow better by warming up the seat, it helps fill the voids as the warm air escapes out through the gaps and just top up the resin as required till the gap between blank and reel seat is full. Keep on eye out on any escaping resin which may go on the taped fore grip as you don't want it running all out. Wait till the seat resin has truly set before doing the grip. The hardest part will be the bottom grip, as you will be pushing the grip over the widest part of the blank first, and it has to be relatively tight on the end where it meets up with the seat. That's where a taped piece of dowel helps to get this part started, epoxy under the bottom grip will help it slide onto the blank and keep it there once it sets, after the bottom grip is on remove the taped dowel and clean up any mess, then it is just a matter of adding the bottom gimbal. Similar to the reel seat, two thin strips of tape with cut outs and epoxy up, again tape off the bottom eva/hyperlon grip to stop the epoxy going onto the grip, clean up excess with solvent and just line up the X in the gimbal with a rod bucket. I usually have a large syringe on hand with a very thick needle (about 14-16 gauge vet supplies) to squeeze any extra epoxy I need under the grips to help it slide where it's needed, It's more likely to happen when pushing grips from the tip down. Overall it might sound complicated as I have tried to explain all the details but it isn't really, it's not a hard process but just time consuming, and once you have done one you will be a champ at it. One last thing, it would be of benefit to plug up the bottom of the rod tube so the epoxy just doesn't keep filling up the bottom of the blank, you want the resin to stay in the rod gimbal section. As for seat types, it depends on what size and type of reel you put on and what is available. Hope this helps. Cheers Ed.

Built to the cheapest possible price, but if the person who owns it and likes the feel of it enough to pay for repairs then go for it.

Many decades ago when I started building my own rods, I used to do some rod binding patterns, now as age has crept up on me and very occasionally I build a new rod, I just put a base of thread down, put a fish sticker (from Rodworks in S.A) over it and after colour fastness, just epoxy the lot. Gives me something to look at (or wish for) and takes only minutes versus the hours spent threading in a pattern, not to mention, I don't have the dexterity in my fingers or patience to do that any more. As an example, the light weight Ugly Stick, that's the one with the pattern, I did resting it between the arms of a couch chair (no lathe then, twirl, twirl and twirl), the colour has faded quite a bit since it is about 45+ years old and on it's 3rd set of guides, and the rod with the fish image in the last 6-8 years, no prizes for guessing which is my preferred way of doing things now. Only gripe nowadays is that I can't source Hyperlon, makes the rod a bit heavier but doesn't get subject to dents and the grip feels better in my hand.

I am not familiar with that particular model but as a general rule, I find the baitcaster reels (for me) are more accurate when casting, and you don't get any line twist with them. That said, they do have their downsides too, such as not being able to cast light weights well with them and the lighter the weight the more potential "birdnests" you may get if you don't get the settings or your thumb right. I try to get baitcasters that have a magnetic drag (preferably) or a centrifugal setup in them and preferably with both. I am assuming that the "DC" part of the Conquest means that it has some sort of electronic backlash control built into it, so I have no experience on how well they handle backlash. I suppose it depends on what fish and environment that you are fishing in and targeting, having said that, I do have a soft spot for baitcasters and prefer them, although I have several of each I always grab the baitcasters over the spinning reels. The rest are overheads so not really baitcasters as such. They each have their uses, ie; if I was in the boat and chasing tuna that were eating small baitfish then the small spin setup with a very light lure would be the go, but once the lure weight went up, then my go to setup would be to grab the baitcasters. I find them much nicer to fish with, but that could be just me.

Although I wasn't born in Melbourne, I did spend most of my early life there till I started travelling and then came back, married had a couple of kids and then escaped permanently with my wife and very young kids to Qld., you couldn't pay me enough to live there again.

Could be, I don't buy much from overseas anymore due to the time it takes to get here, I bought some phone screen covers recently for my new phone and GST was applied, and as I said before, that GST amount may not even be sent back to our A.T.O, these were cheap items and the seller didn't have a lot of sales in his history. So I wouldn't call them a high volume/value store, unless he has got a heap of other stores as well which wouldn't surprise me.

Tax was never was applied to anything under the $1k value, but a few years back Hervey Norman and a few other companies complained that they were being disadvantaged and since then GST was added to all purchases regardless of value coming into the country, generally it is applied overseas at the point of sale and is supposed to be forwarded on to the Australian tax dept., by the sellor. So it may or may not show up on the receipt but should be applied, whether the GST is actually forwarded on is another question.

Nice relaxing day out, you should try the purple fleshed dragon fruit if you haven't already, they are much nicer.

Personally, I would recommend that you give every reel regardless of brand, a light spray with fresh water after use, this also includes the rod as well, to get the salt off the guides. Only takes a minute or so and will help to keep the gear lasting longer.

Bit of Betadine antiseptic and your good to go! One thing to be mindful of, is to let someone know exactly where you are walking because if you were to suffer some serious damage and not able to walk out then no one would find you in the long grass. You can't rely on having a mobile on you to call for help if you aren't able to use it for whatever reason!