Garry2Rs

I just got here and suspect this has been mentioned in the preceding four pages, but as a reformed tackle maker, here goes... Closed eye Spinnerbaits don't run straight. The reason is that in order to run straight the hook and the blade-arm need to be aligned This isn't possible with a closed eye. If you use leaders/snaps you can keep everything tight with a small piece of surgical tubing, or wrap some thread/braid around the eye, behind your snap and cast away.

These two rods are for a client in Manitoba, where they tell me the wind chill is -40. I took these pictures this afternoon, when the wind chill was +75F. I hope you-guys are staying warm and dry. Garry2R's. Detail of Harley-Davidson theme and Tiger-wrap.. Detail of Giants theme and Tiger-wrap...

These figures, about a 20% loss in mileage, match my experiences. I also found that a good boat cover helped.

Wow! Talk about a blast from the past... Eventually I had good success with many smaller swimbaits with hard and soft bodies up to 6 inches. The 8 inchers, not so much... Probably because I didn't stay with them. After all they are much more realistic than a Suick or Sledge etc. My first problem was I caught Kawartha Musky and bass up to seven pounds on solid body frogs/toads, or Flukes that cost a few cents apiece, instead of the price of a case of beer! Another truth was I soon got tired from throwing the big stuff and start looking for my spinning rod and the Senko bite...grin. Garry2rs

Very Nice!

Hi Brian; Glad to hear the weather is moderating! My daughter is flying, out of Buffalo tomorrow, for a short visit. I feel better knowing that she won't have to drive through nasty weather to get to the plane. Garry

Hello frozen friends. Hope you are staying warm and dry. As you might guess, December in Arizona, is quite different than in Ontario. Down here the Oranges and Lemons are ripening! Soon we will have to make gallons off citrus drinks, just to get rid of them. Thank goodness Smirnoff's is only $10.00 a bottle...Wink. I continue to wrap rods and I'm still in love with the Tiger Wrap. Here are my latest efforts. Crank-bait in Orange Detail... Casting in Green: This rod was built last year, but I recently added a Tiger wrap to dress it up. Detail... Crank-bait in Brown: Detail... Spinning in Blue and Yellow: Detail: This is a new San Francisco Giants themed rod:(Note ripening Lemons in background.) Detail of front end... Detail rear grip... On the SF Giants rod and on the Blue/Yellow I wasn't happy with the way the orange, white and yellow thread darkened, when wound onto a charcoal coloured blank. I used Colour Preserver, but when the finish dried, the orange had darkened, the whites had a gray cast and the yellow looked slightly green. To keep the whites "clean" and allow the other light colours to retain their original shades, I sprayed the areas that would have light coloured thread with flat white primer...This cured the problem. Happy Holiday's Garry2R's

After this post first appeared, last Winter, I built a couple of Spiral Wraps and used them for Pike fishing in the Spring and for Bass last Summer. These were built on two piece IM6 blanks and my intention was to remove the extra guide and convert them if I didn't like the feel etc. What I found was that they cast very well and were not inconvenience in use. I placed the bumper guide (the guide that sits at right angles)on the same side as my reel handle so that, when the rod was laying on the deck, the extra guide was facing up, out of the way. I liked them well enough that this Fall I built a new one piece rod in this fashion. Although it isn't a big deal on a Bass rod, one of the practical benefits of this design is that, when fighting/lifting a heavy fish, the rod doesn't want to roll over in the hands. This would seem to be an attraction that folks using 7000 Abu's, or any of the other large round reels, might really appreciate. PM me if you would like to see pictures etc. Garry2R's

Nice!

I have the Hagen's "Professional Wire Former" with the heavy wire kit. It is rated for .58 wire, but will twist .61 (16 gauge stainless welding rod) if you lubricate the wire. Garry2rs

Hi Chris; I own a professional wire bender that will do the job. Tie your skirts and assemble your baits, then set them aside until April. When I get home, you can come up and I will help you finish the whole works in a couple of hours. I can also show you how to tie the best skirt you have ever seen, at the same time. Garry2R's

Thanks guys. I have a new green coloured Tiger Wrap in the works. It's on a 6'6" Medium weight (783) Spin-Jig blank, rated for 8 to 15 lb. line and 3/16 to 5/8 oz. baits. This rod will feature the new Micro-Wave spinning guide system and a new style of one-foot hook keeper. So far I have turned and installed the cork grips and finished the decorative wraps. The missing parts should arrive early next week. This might be my prettiest rod yet! I will post pictures when it's finished. Garry

Hello cold weather friends. I hope you are warm and dry. In Yuma AZ. the day time high is still around 90F. We are trying to stay well hydrated... Thank goodness for cheap Yankee beer...hahaha. A couple of weeks ago I shared some pictures of a new rod with a San Francisco Giants theme. Since then it has been out fishing, and caught several fish, while awaiting some art work that was out of stock. Last night it got finished off. Inlaid logo in butt cap... SF Giants logo inlaid on fore grip. Tiger wrap detail My friend is almost as happy with the new rod as with her team's World Series win!

I don't know if this has been touched on already, but I start fishing for Crappie in April, then Pike in May. All through this time I catch and release a lot of Bass. In NY State some lakes are open for "Catch and Release Only" prior to the regular opening. I think this is a very good idea. I don't eat Bass anyway, but I feel that this is a big first step in converting fish killer folk to the joys of CPR.

Thanks guys. I really like turning my own grips, making the lines flow together. The guides went on this morning. It's been on the dryer since about 9AM. Today was very windy, but it looks like things are calming down. If that holds, I'll water test it tomorrow.

Last summer, a friend brought me some feathers from a Blue Jay that was dead beside the highway. This week I inlaid a few of these into a blue Tiger Wrap casting rod I am working on. The rod blank is a Mag Bass 843, which means it's a 7' medium heavy rod, rated for 1/4 to 3/4 ounce baits and best suited for Pitching, Jig&Pig, Spinnerbaits or Texas Rigs. The cork pieces were hand made on my old lathe and the reel seat threads were shortened to exactly fit my Calcutta and Chronarch reels. This is how it looks so far... Feather detail... Rear Tiger detail... Front Tiger detail Trimming the threads on the reel seat gets rid of about 1/2 inch of unneeded threads. I think it makes for a nice "custom fitted" look when the reel is attached. Garry2R's

Hi Chris; To tell the truth, the dogs and I are sweating it out in Yuma... Lots of 100+ weather...Only three days this month have been below 90. It is supposed to cool down a bit for the next week, but after that, we go back into the oven...I'm doing my best to stay hydrated...grin. 2R's

Thanks Guys. It's true that I'm here to relax and fish. However, when the sun goes down, one has time on their hands... 2R's

I have a friend, here in Arizona, who is from San Francisco and remains a huge Giants fan. She drives back to San Fran in the Spring for preseason, and subscribes to mlb.mlb.com on the computer, to watch every game. We are fishing buddy's, so as a surprise gift for my friend, I threw together some spare parts with a little TLC to make her a Giant's thyme-rod. The Giant's team colours are Burnt Orange with Black or White, for home or away. Grip and reelseat detail. Tiger Wrap... This close-up with flash shows more detail... It still needs a hook keeper and I intend to add a Giant's decal before applying the final coat of finish. Garry2R's

In the last two or three years I have built at least 5 Ultra-Lights looking for what I really wanted. Most UL's are very soft, and are live-baits rods in my opinion. That's fine for lobbing soft baits, but I wanted a rod with some snap, one that would also throw 1/8 oz. spinners as well as bobbers with 1/32 and 1/16 jigs with small plastic grubs or tubes etc. The rod that is my currant favourite was a one piece 6 ft. spin-jig blank. I stretched it to about 6'6" by adding a splice inside the reel seat. It has the power, but can also handle everything else that I want to use. The beauty of this rod is that it had the power to land bass in the 5 pound class, that hit my small baits...Out of season..grin. I used high quality guides and a special wrap-around cork handle on mine. Loomis and St.Croix both make very good blanks in this class, but my blank was about 1/2 the price of their high-end jobs. Obviously, the cost of a hand made rod is largely dependent on what handle and guides are used, so depending on how much a guy wanted to spend on Bling this rod could sell for between about $150.00 and $250.00. If I were doing it for myself I'd use the new Microwave guides in best quality, and an Areo type grip, that keeps your hand off the reel-seat threads...This would be a state of the art rod and could sell for about $175.00. I have these parts on hand, and am going to build a slightly heavier rod with them...If any one is interested PM me and I will send you a picture. Garry2R's -- If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there.

I came across a few tackle-news items that I thought I might share... Shimano has signed a deal to distubute japanese lures made by Jackall in Canada and the USA. This will give Shimano it's first entry into the lure market...Look-out Rapala. If you were one of the many who were impressed with Sufix 832, there is more good news. Sufix has launched a sinking braid called Gravity 2. This line has 8 threads, like the 832, again two are Gore-text, however the new line also has two threads that have a very high specific gravity (they're heavier than water). The new line is said to sink at the same rate as Flourocarbon...Might be just the thing for deep cranks or dead sticking in the wind. Speaking of braided line...Power Pro has two new lines...The first is called Bite-Motion and has black bands that work as strike indicators. Does that sound like a Fireline Tracer rip-off? The other is called Super-8-Slick and claims to use a "diamond weave" and have "enhanced body technology." To me it looks a lot like that Nano line that Berkley brought out last year. Now that the weather is changing, you might want to check out MarCum Technologies. They're showing a new colour underwater camera with a built-in depth finder. Great for all you ice fishers out there. Unfortunatly I will miss the chance to test it myself. By Sunday, I will be in Arizona and won't return until April...grin. Garry2Rs

Hi Brian; I bought a Quantum PT Tour Edition in southpaw a few years ago. Our late friend, John Francis had one and I thought it was very smooth casting. My plan was to put it on a BPS flippin' stick that I never used...IMO, that's the only place a left handed reel might work better for a right handed caster. The fact is I never really liked this flippin rod, even with the new reel, so until I build a new rod for it, the reel is here gathering dust. 2R's

If there is wave action to add "life" to the plastic, you can fish it wacky under a bobber. Cast over weeds or other likely fish holding spots. Garry2rs

What do you mean the crank is slipping? Could the drag be loosened off to the point the spool is slipping? If you are going toward the Kawarthas I have a high end left handed Quantum I can lend you. PM me ... Garry2R's

Sight-unseen, these sound like Shaky Head or Drop-Shot worms to me. With skinny worms, a hook with a screw or push-in bait keeper can be used. The point of the hook is pushed into the plastic to make it weedless. I don't like the idea of "small" hooks, however, fine wire hooks do sort of go with small diameter baits. Basically with plastic worms you want the bait to flutter as it falls, dead stick and zig-zag as you twitch it back. To achieve this you would want to hook any plastic worm so there is lots of loose end to flap. As an alternative, making the worm roll on the retrieve is very effective too. There are bait needles to thread a line through the worm so the hook is closer to the tail. Normally you tie the hook on after the line is pulled through the bait. Another easy way would be to use a two or three hook worm harness. These generally have a small spinner blade and some beads attached. They are often associated with Walleye fishing, but I have caught plenty of Small Mouth on them. In either case you would want a quality swivel to minimize line twist, as you cast and retrieve. Another old threaded worm method, for tough plastic worms, is to hook through the tip-end, with about a #1 long shank hook. Pushing the worm up the hook shank, to the hook eye. You just pop the hook point and barb out...The worm has a bend in it. Fished behind a swivel it will spin on the retrieve. There used to be something called a Florida rig, where just the tip of the head-end of the worm is hooked on a short shank hook and you cast and twitch it back. The hook point is exposed. If a weedless hook is used this will go through fairly heavy cover. If the worms float, an exposed hook will swim over many weeds. Either way, cast it over weed beds and twitch away. Garry2R's