Foxy

I picked up a loomis gl2 steelhead blank today. 10' 3-5kg 2 piece moderate taper graphite comp Model No. ST1202 Seems like it'd make an excellent blackfish rod once I spin it up, cost me 120 bucks off ebay. if you're after something longer they may make something that suits your needs. of the choices there I'd be leaning towards the GP 3145 as I've heard good things about excel composites, and that's a blackfish taper aswell. stay away from the 1piece snyder... converting it to two piece wouldn't be worth it ( brass furrels ewww). if you want the mt4144 taper stick to the wilson. should double up as a good light surf rod aswell. I use a live fibre 7144 and cant fault it, it's tough as nails.

yep the road and rail bridge leading out of woy woy. fishes well for blackfish this time of year. guess the jew must've been about though. I was fishing at night. about 7pm, well into dark.

Got my Ps yesterday and also recieved a calcutta TE200 in the mail (ebay ftw) so I took the reel out for a test drive. I was shorebased, tide was just about to stop running in, weather was fine, nippy but no clouds and there was a heap of baitfish activity. Started off casting a powerbait prawn and after a few inspections decide to step up to a 7" gulp jerk shad. A little big some might say but I've been trying to get a jewie on a lure for ages... 2nd cast I come up solid but the hook pulls. Wasnt really expecting it... a few casts later I hook up to something that reefs me, I'm suspecting jew This was all under the rail side. Had to call it as I had no other tackle to rerig as the main purpose of the outing was to give the new reel a workout... So my lure jewie hoodoo persists... cheers owen

I'm getting my P1 plates on monday so no go for me

bit of innox on a cotton bud and gentle coaxing with some heavy line, gentle heat should help the innox penetrate aswell. if that fails try and open it up by undoing the screw and give it a cleanup.

hehe by distance rods I'm talking 14 feet of graphite and souped up abus and penns flinging out 100 grams in excess of 200m. Just trying to get into it and want to do it right. I know the distances seem to be a bit of a wank, as most fish will be at your feet, but what about thoe days when you see working birds just outta range.

Line capacity is the main issue, i plan on using heavy braid and mating it to a longer stick for more of a searching method, plus round profiles I find have a bit more cranking power. I have no problem with using either though you can get almost as much line on a zillion. If I were to go LP i'd give an abu stx a thought aswell with that powerful drag of theirs. still have my heart set on the pluton. how much you getting the ryoga landed for if you dont mind me asking?

Anyone seen this marvel yet in the flesh? I hear they're better than a CTE and was so excited to hear they hit our shores so soon. I plan on getting one for barra fishing.

Yeah I hear you, I still think that anyone buying a top end rack rod deserves to have it spiral wrapped. It is the superior build method imho. If you're dropping close to a grand on a rod you're going to know your stuff and you should realise that a spiral (or acid, whatever floats your sinker ) is meant to be built like that. That big bloke in the vid may not have lost that fish due to the reel rolling around but I'm sure it didnt help at all. can anyone confirm if it's viable for a distance casting stick though. I read about an interesting method for determining the spiral on a distance rod. attach the rods with surgical rubber, take it out to the paddock and do a few casts with the intended weight and the guides align themselves. I'm trying to picture it but all I can see is a gradual spiral over the entire rod with this method. I'll be ordering up a P1 soon so I'll give it a go though. Spirals are advantagous for all other OH rods so I dont see why it shouldnt work on a distance rod. Cheers Owen P.S. sorry for hijacking the thread kirby

Cough*** "Spiral wrap"*** Cough 2 min into that vid that rod looked like it was about to explode due to twist, didnt help him land that fish either. Spiral wraps fix this. There was a bloke who built a spiral wrapped 37kg stand up rod and purposely left the gimbal off just to prove the point that a spiral wrapped rod will not twist. Apparently it worked. If you're unsure of what a spiral wrap is, it's an overhead rod build that has the guides transition from the top to the bottom of the rod in a spiral fashion. You are left with an OH rod that handles like a spin rod due to there being no torque on the guides twisting the rod in your hands as all pressure is applied straight down. Casting performance is only negligibly affected if it's done correctly. I rerolled an absolutely shocking okuma rod as a spiral wrap and now it's one of my go to rods. I've toyed with the idea of a spiral wrapped surf rod aswell. There are other advantages such as toward the tip you can use single foot guides thus saving weight on a 2nd binding. If they're bound right with a locking wrap they shouldnt pull. nothing much you can do about that combo now though, as said a gimbal belt is the best route, but if you dont want your 50T anymore I'll take it I just wish more manufacturers would offer spiral wraps. Only downside is they look different (had a bloke tell me I didnt put my tip section on properly one time ) Cheers Owen

Hey guys just putting this out there. Any raiders interested in a fishing charter up my way? be nice if we can get some numbers up. just a thought. drop me a pm if interested

Foxy here Keen as for anyone on the central coast to fish with. I have a boat, needs a little work to make it more fishing friendly and I cant tow it yet. But if you have a boat I'll be glad to split fuel costs and provide bait. I have my own tackle and know my way around a boat and am interested in all forms of fishing. Only one rule I adhere to is I wont touch the grog while on the water. Afterwards is fine but on the water it's a big no no for me. So drop me a pm if you're nearby and dont mind the bit of off colour humour on a fishing trip. Cheers Owen

it is possible to repair the rod, bit of a task though and it will really dampen the action and balance that close to the tip. you need to find a piece from another blank to fit around the outside of the break akin to a sheath, and epoxy it into place. as you can imagine it probably wouldnt be worth it, just letting you know that it can be done. I've not done one myself but have seen a couple rods done up and it doesnt look too bad but just replacing the tip and rebinding the next few guides is probably a more sound an easier option.

Anyone handled/used one of these yet? I'm itching to get one. Gonna whack it on a 30lb 7' spiral I'm building for throwing around largish barra lures when I head up north. Might also get a 2nd one and try my hand at swimbaiting with a longer heavier rod and massive lures (ie 10" plus) as it's not something that's been tried on barra yet as far as I know. cheers owen

I have a live fibre 7144 mated to a biomaster 10000xt and I can attest to the durability of these rods. in 5 years of using it I've had to replace the stripper once (dropped the first section on a tiled floor) and the eva has a few gouges out of it. given the choice I'd respin it with heatshrink grips as eva on a rod with that diameter is rather uncomfortable. nice stick with allot of grunt. If you're after a rack rod for light spinning have a look at the TICA extreme range... full graphite, but if i remember correctly they use a fibreglass scrim as mine are plenty tough. I use 2 8' and a 9' model, I prefer the 9' model and have it mated to a pflueger supreme 30mg which, aslong as you dont dunk the damn thing, holds up to saltwater really well for a magnesium framed reel. The balance of this outfit is just perfect and if it weren't for the fact that the rod was 9' long you'd swear it was a normal bream combo when using it. nice and powerful rod too, I only fish 10lb braid on mine right now but have used 20lb and it handled it rather well. my only fault with the outfit is that the stripper is a lowish frame double foot and if it ever goes bust I'll be replacing it with a y frame for a bit more distance. oh and the folding hook keeper isnt my cup of tea. I'm also trying to get my grubby mits on a kilwell P1 matched to a tuned 6500c4. a bit much for bream fishing but it should make an excellent 8kg spinning outfit for tailor, salmon and other mid weight pelagics.