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Thanks Matt. Sighh, gosh there is a lot to think about here. I guess I really have to weigh the options some more. My concerns are on one hand I would love to get one custom built in detail to my every liking, on the other hand I don't know if I'd be going overboard with every specific detail. To be honest regarding some specifications, I have not the experience to know what I'd want or is good enough and what is overkill. Reel seats as an example, I have 5-6 rods with different seats, some works more smoothly than others, some feels more comforable than others but they all work and none of them annoys or has broken on me. I guess if I am going to have one built there is no reason not to get anything but exceptional quality, if price is the biggest issue, I shouldn't even look at custom builds. If I had a total budget of roughly $200 for everything, is that going to get me something pretty decent? The most I've ever spent on a rod is $150 (Crucial), I probably can't justify spending a whole lot more than $200.

I've been looking for a rod with specs that are rarely offered by major brands, I can not find too many, as least not ones that are visually pleasing to me. I am beginning to entertain the idea of having somebody build one for me and have many questions about that. - Would it be more or less cost-effective to have one custom built compared to one offered by a major brand? Assuming all parts are roughly equal in quality. Basically, is it worth it? - How much will someone typically charge on top of the parts? Just the labor. (I probably won't have the time to learn the craft and picking up a new hobby will drive the lady mad lol)

As for the 2 pieces, I am bound to shores about 99.9% of the time and it has to fit neatly inside my sedan. Otherwise I would go 1pc all the way but that one reason is a very big one. Bluetickhound - yeah I have the same experience as you but on the Shimano side. I have a crucial and I love it to death. The Vendetta is one tier below the Veritas. Another thing about the Shimano that I like is it appears to have a shorter handle.

I have an extra Abu Orra S spinning laying around and need some opinions to decide between two rods. Shimano Converence CVSC66M2B (eva version) 2pc, spinning, 6'6, med, fast, 3/16-5/8, 6lb-12lb, fuji aluminum oxide, im-7 pros/cons: lifetime warranty, about $20 cheaper, vs the new Abu Garcia Vendetta VNTS-662-5 (coming this fall) 2pc, spinning 6'6 med, med fast, 1/8-1/2, 6lb-12lb, stainless steel w/ zirconium inserts, 30ton pro/cons: 1yr newer model(newer gimmick features & tech), matches reel brand, possibly more balanced w/ abu reel, likely only 1 yr warranty. ------------------- This combo will not be aimed at any specific technique. If anything probably as a do-it-all back up rod. Things I may be using it for: small swimbaits, bottom rig, slip bob, cranks, inline spinners, jigs. i know there is no do it all setup. Even though certain specs aren't optimized for specific techniques but does not mean it can't work. I've used trebles on fast, jigs and worms one mf, slip bob on 6ft. It can still catch fish. Try to look pass the fact that one is F and the other is MF, even though I do already have more abundance of fast rods. These two have the same line rating, length, but weight rating the Vendetta has a lighter rating. Does that mean the Shimano will have more backbone? Does anybody see any glaring reasons why I should pick one over the other? Right now I am leaning towards the Shimano for the warranty.

Yeah, I learned to fish as a kid only on the Ugly and fished every technique with them only until about a few years ago so that way of setting the hook is the most natural way for me. Tip down and either pull up slack or let the fish pull the slack and then the over-the-head hook set. i am still very noob with my xfast, and fasts (not as bad) because of this tendency. Sometimes I use treble type lures with a fast out of convention, LMB throws my hook so easily, either that or I am ripping it out.

Looking for suggestions on rods for a specific application. Not necessarily looking for specific rods, but more of types of rod (action, length etc). Looking something for pier shore fishing. Something that can cast as far as possible. Casting rigs with 1oz - 1 1/2oz sinkers with live bait primarily leeches and occasionally baitfish and crawlers on #8 / #10 line. Ideally 7ft. Previous I have been using a pass-me-down 6'6 med FW ugly stik that is rated only up to 5/8oz but I have been using this for over a dozen years w/o any problems. But the rod is slowly falling deteriorating. I bought an Okuma Tundra surf rod bc i saw it had a higher weight rating and sounds like that is the idea of a surf rod but I quickly returned it because it look like it was for catching sharks. I just need something that is fairly light and thin that can handle the pikes and LMBs. Should I just stick to what works or is there a better option? Are there any surf rods (spendier) that might fit the bill? Other option might be Ugly Stik Tiger which seems like FW rods with higher weight ratings.

Looking to get a better understanding of which attributes causes it do what and such. Specifically with willows and swing blades. I am just beginning to understand the properties of the cup depth and how it affects the action. But I read something a while back about guys bending the tip of the willow / swing both inwards and outwards to achieve a specific action. Does anyone know how these changes affect the action?

So I am planning to make a few for a fishing trip to the Miss River. i was thinking about making a few with the mesh on. I was wondering if I could skip the oven curing and using a coat or two of clear nail polish. That is all I have right now, it seems to work pretty well with my jigheads. Or is there something critical about the baking that can't be substituted? I'm sure the hobby store nearby has some epoxy that I can use but nail polish is much cheaper or is it that much more beneficial to use epoxy?

IDK Atijigs, I am just beginning to get into this whole thing and that sounds like its way over my head. I am still shying away from getting an airbrush set still, making molds sounds really out there for me right now lol, and it doesn't sound to inexpensive. What is the cost something like that btw? =============== @Cadman: As far as the tag ends go, I actually didn't do anything special to it. Being that I didn't know how far I could get on this I didn't spend any extra time on it. On the ends of the lure, while heating up the paint to interact with the tulle, all I did was use a wire shaft to slightly pet it down. On seam though, by the time I remove the clip, most of the tulle is embedded in the paint. I just snipped off whatever that was not stuck, leaving 1/4 in gap. Again, I didn't really spend any time trying to take care of the loose ends as I was more focusing on the paint/ mesh thing. I think I can get it to work though if I spent some time on it. I will give the your epoxy method a shot. But let me remake a few, I want to try some more contrasting combos and this time I'm going to take care of loose ends. No pun intended.

Last year I met a guy that bought broken rods in bulk from places like BPS and Cabela's and fixes them as a hobby and sells them for almost nothing. I bought about four from him. He told me the ones I got were broken near the tip and he that he just put top guide down one so in all, one less guide and 2-4in. shorter. My question is.... Assuming he has done a good job at repairing them, 1) Do the rods lose or gain any power? 2) I'm certain the (tip) action has been altered. Is it correct to assume they are now faster than what they were rated for? The one thing he told me that confused me was.... the rod is a mr walleye series 6'6 ML fast. He said after fixing it, it should be more like a medium than a ML. Does that sound right?

ATIJIGS I don't think that will be possible. The idea is possible but in my case I don't think it can be done. It might work with the hexagon pattern but that is still a stretch. You see, the material of the tulle is so fragile and thin that if I try to accentuate the pattern it would not look as good. To exaggerate it, I would need to make the mesh sink deeper in paint, then be able to be re-heated enough to be removed w/o damage to the top surface. The margin of error will be even thinner because obviously the deeper mesh is in the paint the more heat it will take to soften enough to be removed. That extra heat might already be enough to liquify the top surface before the indents are soft enough to let go of the mesh cleanly.

Various results using 3 different tulle mesh. All on 3/8 tube. Be gentle =) Blue mesh on white. I really like this look. i would love to be able to get a finished ready to use product to look like this. The color on the mesh can give some good contrasting highlights with certain color combos. I just wouldn't know how to do the open ends and the seam. ------------------------------ After peeling the mesh. I could have done a better job. I didn't reheat slightly to soften the paint and just peeled. Quite hastily at that. ---------------------------------------- Since I had lots of cracks because I didn't do a careful job at peeling, I had to re-heat a little more than I wanted to in order to not rid of the cracks. If I redo this one, I could probably retain a little more detail and depth. ================================== A smaller white mesh. This one is the one I had best results with. The material made it easier to work with and was more heat resistant than the other ones I had. pre-peel. Again I just love it with the mesh on. And if somehow this can be cured or protected, I think the mesh on will offer a tad bit more protection than it would after you peel. Maybe it might be able to preserve the pattern better in the oven too, maybe. -------------------------------------- After peeling. This time I heated it back up ever so slightly a few seconds at a time, then peeling very slowly and carefully, Peeling only millimeters at a time, rinse and repeat. Very little cracks but the grooves are very powdery and flakes whenever I touch it. --------------------------------- I slowly and lightly reheated it so the grooves are no longer powdery or flaking off. Didn't appear to lose any detail and you can kinda see the indents are hard and shiny. Looks more like reptile scales than fish scales but mehhh. ======================= Random Experimenting. Dipped in paint two times to get a thick layer. While the mesh was on, heated until the mesh was embedded very deep in the paint, the paint expanded and bubbled through the mesh. Removing the mesh was hard and lots of cracking. Ugly, I find it disturbing to look at. (hey maybe if it was a different color, fish might mistake it for a clump of eggs lol) ---------------- Severely cracked so I had to heat until the cracks melted. And this = what it looks like when getting too close to the gun for too long.

Last night I did a few more and exercised whole lot more caution and patience. Some of them turned out really well. I took lots of pictures, will get them up after work in a few hours. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. About the powder water, really wanted to try that. It would be a whole lot easier to just paint over the mesh using a non-heat method. Dipping and sprinkling a 2nd coat on top of mesh is just too hard to control. The threshold of 'not hot heat' and 'too much heat' is almost nonexistant. More often than not I experience both at the same time, resulting in spotty coverage and overbleeding. I have a bunch of bodies that I am trying to strip the paint off to reuse. I am soaking them in acetone nail polish remover. But the ones that I painted with glitter (mixed with clear) leaves a tough gooey gummy residue and does not crumble off. Is there an easier way to get it off? Should I take the heat gun to it?

Cadman Thanks. That sounds like serious stuff. Well I am pretty sure there have been some creative minds that have thought about this very thing before and crafty hands that have executed this with satisfactory results before. I don't think its any sort of ground breaking idea, definitely not something that would be mass produced and I get rich from =P. Actually its darn time consuming and probably more trouble than its worth but it found it has potential to be very aesthetically pleasing and only in it for the self satisfaction. If somebody told me they already came up with this, I would just shrug and wouldn't doubt them or care. If they said I stole their idea, then I would say 'screw you', because I found out on my own, I accidentally discovered it by screwing up trying to paint over the mesh with a second color using a very inefficient way.

Atijigs I am only weeks to months into actually hands-on with powdering. I have a bunch yet to cure, haven't even cured yet. Not that I wasn't planning to cure, I assume I had to. I gave up with doing a second color, I was just reheating the first layer again after clamping on the mesh, let it melt / soften up enough to interact with the mesh, dry then peel. I didn't think about what the curing process would do to, thanks for bring it to my attention but everything you mentioned makes total sense because when I get the indents with very obvious cracking, I try to heat it back up smoothen it and sometimes it does just that, loses the 3d effects, depth and details. Looks like something that's over-saturated with paint. i just thought of maybe I could just throw a second coat of clear over everything but so far my experiences with clear top coat is big time loss of detail. Is there any different mediums I could use to seal it if curing had to be left out, some sort of spray? What about if i bake it at a lower temp for a longer period, will that not achieve the curing purpose?

completely understand. I will post some when I get home this evening.

(This can be can related to other popular scale mesh threads but completely different method) Hi, long time lurker, first time posting. So my attempts to use tulle mesh to do scales on an inline lure mold (rooster tail) w/o an airbrush utterly failed. I was using powder and tried various ways to apply the second layer over the clamped mesh but just ran into so many problems.... In my failed attempts, I accidentally achieved some very nice effects with 2 different techniques. Both of these I find much more desireable (if perfected) than using the mesh as a stencil ( I am not ready to invest in an airbrush anyhow). I am looking for some advice to fine tune these methods for better results. ----------------------------- method A First layer of powder on, mesh fabric clamped on snug around the body. When heated back up, the paint softens and expands. It seems to "bulge" through the mesh holes and the fabric is melted onto or glued to the body. After peeling off fabric, I get the mesh pattern on the body. The pattern really has some nice depth to it, making it look very 3D. So rather than painting the pattern on its like molding the pattern onto the paint. I tried it with different patterns and various mesh sizes. I did one with a fine pattern, the result was like the diamond pattern spinner blades (this). Depending on the thickness of the powder coat I got variety of effects even with the same mesh. On the good ones, it looks really nice because indented surface is matte, and each individual hole of the pattern is nice and glossy with its own reflection. I can post some pictures when I get home tonight. Problems / concerns: - After peeling, on the outline of the indented surface, if observed closely, the outlines are not clean but rather small jagged cracks because part of the material was "in" the paint. I tried heating one up to see if it would smooth out but the pattern got degraded, began to look messy, lose depth and detail. (maybe too much heat). I peeled after the paint completely harded again so maybe if I had removed the mesh before the paint completely hardened, IDK. - After peeling, the indented surface is matte and can look powdery. I am wondering of that surface is any more vaulnerable to breaking or chipping than the glossy surface. Should I heat it back to a gloss? (which will lose some depth and detail) Any thoughts? (I truely apologize for the wall of text)