Paulus

Actually, beyond the fact that individual taste is the ultimate rule, the only measurement that makes any difference is the distance of the reel seat from the butt. The rear grip dictates wrist/elbow leverage vs. total blank availability; but the foregrip just looks pretty and so far as I know only helps when you want to bring your free hand into play. For my taste, I'd place the reel seat an inch or two further back, but that's me. Notice that he had a short section of the reel seat sawed off, to make the reel seat shorter. Nice work dude! p.-

You can't really go wrong with Simms, and their warranty is very good. I don't have a pair (yet) but I've yet to hear any complaints from any of my friends who wear them. From my own experience: I didn't like the Chota waders I had. They leaked after one season and, because they were closeouts, were not warrantied. They went into the garbage long ago. I have an ancient pair of Orvis, bootfoot, Silver labels which I revere. They are ultra breathable, to this day (got them in 2003) and, though they've required the odd squirt of aquaseal here and there over the years, are firmly in the "can't complain" genre since I bought them for less than 150$. My current pair are Dan Bailey's guide waders, which I love. They are probably not as breathable as Simms Headwaters or Freestones, but they make up for it in the awesome zipper. It has never leaked - unless I needed to - even in the deepest water. They are usually a more expensive item, but I bought them lightly used from a guide in Montana for again under 150$ on ebay. I lucked out with these, big time. I paired them up with the top of the line Dan Bailey's boots, but those have been a mild disappointment. They tend to let in too much silt, and after just under 3 years of at most medium use are already going the way of the dodo. I'll ante up for a pair of Simms Headwaters I think, as their replacement. They have the vibram sole (not felt) and you can get cleats for 'em. Plus, they have a neoprene inner which makes them easier to get in and out of. p.-

Looks like Brendan takes after the old man Thanks for sharing that with us, buddy. I love the part where the fish flashes for the first time. You can tell it's not just Brendan who got excited. Can't blame him one bit. Well done! p.-

I'm heavily influenced by Solo as I have a 2 piece 13' XST and a 3 piece 13' XST, both of which used to be his. Both are great rods. The 2 piece to me feels slightly faster than the three piece and is more sensitive. The 3 piece is much thicker through the base and offers the inestimable pleasure of straightening and pulling hooks whenever you get bored of a fish - or when you accidentally put the boots to them a little too hard . It handles big fish on big water without breaking a sweat. I also fish with a Demarco reel, which Adam Demarco built for me. Since I've owned the reel I've felt no desire to use anything else. Maybe because my previous 2 were 4.5" (Demarco = 5") - a Raven SST(1) and an old Stanton. I liked both reels but the ergonomics just don't compare to the Demarco. p.-

Absolutely wicked! I love the shot with four fish in your hands. That rocks! All I have to say is: Thanks for sharing! p.-

I agree. The size of the tech departments in these large providers means that they don't always have the most brilliant individuals working for them. In fact, working conditions can be so poor that their turn-around becomes an issue, to the point where you're always getting a newbie (so add that up... newbie + idiot = ). A supervisor will at least know who his/her senior agents are, and these are usually the individuals who know how to locate the 2 or 3 check boxes that will re-animate your stuff (if it's possible). Make sure you tell them (btw I did this with Rogers once) a)you're b)you talked to 2 idiots who treated you like c)you're going to cancel your service and go to Rogers The problem should then magically fix itself and, if the supervisor is worth their breath, you should get a credit on something. p.-

We must - but I seriously lucked into some of them. I can only claim the skill necessary to follow the recommendations of my benefactors. Sometimes, you just have to let yourself be guided . p.-

That's a page from a book I'm used to reading! Get up and fish for a few hours, then leave reluctantly to fulfill another obligation - in my case, work. But, it beats not fishing at all p.-

Well done John. Fish of a thousand casts and a beauty! p.-

Thanks for sharing that. We hear about the negative stuff all too often, so it's nice to hear about the really good stuff. Both you guys are to be commended. p.-

sweet pic Milo. p.-

He cometh when thou least expectest... Thou shouldst pick up thine House and move thine down here... Thanks buddy, it's been a lot of hard work... especially the stage I'm at now, when the slightest facial movement provokes itching... All I need now is a Harley Davidson, a leather vest, blue jeans, black cowboy boots and an old WWII german helmet (preferably with bullet hole). Throw in a tatoo, and I'm all set. p.-

Nice fish! It feels great when you finally figure them out, doesn't it? Years can go by and you'll never get tired of seeing that float go down p.-

Awesome . Nothing like a stonefly bite to leave you without a doubt... fish on! p.-

Every year, I like to take a couple of days off in November, so that I can enjoy at least a day or two of fishing for rainbow trout dawn to dusk. This year, I was really lucky and had most of 3 days. On the 3rd day, I had some family business to attend to, but it merely delayed my arrival and didn't diminish my results very much. I traveled quite a bit, going north, west and east, fishing with such notorious characters as Solopaddler, BillM and Wallacio. Each day had its successes and learning experiences, and I'm much better off for it. There's a lot to be said for spending time where the definition of "stress" is how much pressure fish are exerting on your line, "late" is a missed hookset and "angry" is an apt description of a fish's strike! Without further ado, here is a pictographic exposé of my three day chromer holiday: Day 1: Fish were present in the system we fished, but the only person I saw consistently slamming chrome was Solopaddler himself. I got a chance to try spin-casting for them, although with less effectiveness than him. I managed two good, solid hits, and the second one literally tore the swivel open and made off with the lure. Houston, we have a problem! I wasn't lighting them up much with the float fishing setup either, until he actually told me "stand there" and "fish that seam"; and when I did so I went 2 for about 9 within an hour. The bonus was that the 50km/h winds that had been forecasted never materialised. Instead, we had calm weather with the occasional shower - PERFECT for steelhead . Part of the fun of fishing with Solo is the parade of chrome that you get to witness. He's posted some of them already, but here are my 2 favourite shots of the bunch: And this sweet hen he caught float fishing (with Nanofil spooled on his reel): Day 2: This was probably my favourite day of all three. It was certainly my most productive. It included Wallacio and BillM, cigars, deadly hiking, deserted river banks and many silver bullets. The fish were not as big as Day1 or Day3, but they were the most energetic as a group by far. Hooking into these fish was like getting into a fist fight with berserking psychopaths. The instant you set the hook into these beauties, they launched like wacked out rockets, jumping numerous times, changing directions in unpredictable and incomprehensible fashion, and generally leaving you breathless. At one point, I hooked a good sized fish in a section of river where I didn't really expect it. Our battle see-sawed for almost 10 minutes before the hook pulled. Wallacio and I got to see enough aerobatics and chrome flashes to satisfy us, despite the lost photo opportunity. Here's a collection of the ones we landed. A beautiful specimen caught by Wallacio: Same fish, different view: BillM releasing the biggest fish of the day: And a couple of mine (including an elusive glimpse of my MOvember MOstache) Day 3: This was the day where family obligations kept me close to home. At first, I was a little disappointed by this since I expected very little success. There hasn't been much rain at all in most of southern Ontario for the past week and a half, and this was going to be a relatively windy day. And unlike on Day 1 when the forecasted gale never showed up, Day 3 pretty much lived up to its gusty billing. My first choice for the day was a big time let-down. Some anglers were catching fish, but they were pretty much shoulder to shoulder and it was nearly impossible to get in on the action. To make matters worse, if you fished anywhere else on the river, you were looking at a dead float, fighting off sleep - or envy, if you could see those other guys getting fish off in the distance. Destination 2, which I expected to visit for less than half an hour, was the exact opposite. Despite the low, gin-clear conditions, fish were present and they were everywhere; all you needed to do was pick a spot and be patient. Here are the two that fought the hardest: Same fish, different shot. I wish they made point-and-shoot digital cameras that could capture the spectrum of colours that this fish presented. This is only the barest approximation. It was just a jewel of a wild Lake Ontario fish. This fellow was about 32 inches in length, comfortably over 10lbs. He gave me the longest fight for the three days, excepting perhaps the fish I missed on day 2. I was blurring the background for this picture, and I thought I should also blur my gigantic frenchman's nose... just for fun ... almost makes me look better... p.-

Awesome job, Ron. Thanks for representing us. p.-

I like it. The "eyes right" is what got me p.-

Slowly coming back to reality now... 3 losses in the last 4... Oh well... it was nice while it lasted. p.-

Glad to have been one of your spectators, bud, but even happier to have had a chance to experience one of those strikes. It was literally like hooking into a train going the other way !!! Can't wait to see the pic of that 38 incher p.-

lol! I'm there with you. I'm sure they might've eaten mine to get that big! p.-

Um... he does know about Momma bears, doesn't he? p.-

And it's such a nice river to fish! Thanks for sharing p.-

Wicked post! Thanks for sharing this incredible experience p.-

Why not? Your answers are more than adequate to the questions asked. And I'm not just saying that you did good work idly. Choice of dimensions, choice of materials, choice of components... etc... they're all personal choices. We all have very good reasons for our preferences. But sometimes some of the fun is in comparing. We all take something away from it. If you think about it - anyone who writes a Masters or PHD thesis, has to "defend" that. To complete work on your own rod, with components and dimensions of your choice - which you doubtless very carefully went through and considered - is amazing and catching a few chromers with it is the cherry on the cake. There's no debating that. But in a very real way, you're in the "graduate" realm now, and we're very interested in your choices, and any suggestions - though they may not seem like it a priori - are meant helpfully. They're compliments, really. If Solo or I thought that your work sucked, we wouldn't bother commenting. p.-

Point taken. I certainly meant it in the most constructive fashion - not negative at all. Again, I think you did a gorgeous job. I might ask you to build one for me in the future . The only reason I suggest it - other than for the purpose of discussion - is because I used to prefer it the way you do now. Ever since I lengthened the fore grip and shortened the rear grip, I found myself not wanting to use it the other way anymore. Having a longer rear grip feels like fishing with a shorter rod, if you ask me (though, admittedly, I realise you didn't actually ask ). Both my current 13' builds butt up just a little more than half-way down my fore-arm, and I find that that's sufficient leverage for me. Neither of my pins are as amazingly light as your SST, so maybe that's why I don't feel a tremendous amount of imbalance either. My favourite is a 13' 2 piece Rainshadow XST, which used to belong to Solopaddler. The easy way to settle this for yourself, of course, is to wire/duct tape your reel further back, on your current build one of these days, just to see. Or if I'm ever lucky enough to fish up your way, you can borrow one of mine for a couple hours as we crush chrome together. Certainly, if you're down my way (east of Toronto) feel free to PM me. With luck, I can set you onto some of those chunky Lake O. critters . p.-