T4XN

[Rivverrat]

 This was my first Penn 4/0 based build. I think this skinny reel will find a regular place in my arsenal for the river.

Adam's  "Threese7ens"  drag insert, I don't believe could be much better.
Great job Adam !   A very worthy upgrade for any like myself who are wishing to push the envelope on a Penn 4/0.

Tom's " Cortez_Conversions " side plates finish it all off very nicely.
Listen guys this fella, Tom has got to have some very nice tooling to turn out the level of work he does.

Also Alan's " Black Pearl " owner of Pro Challenger & his stainless double dog bridge & sleeve is kind of the lock work that allows us to amp out these reels & be able to fish them for a while with out them falling apart in short order.

 Randy, " Vintage Offshore Tackle "  thanks for doing these. Its a reel I never knew I needed. Extremely useful.

The star wheel from Tiburon. So is the MK11 handle & knob. I'm going to say, when I unpacked this handle I was disappointed seeing it wasn't Tiburon's knob design used on Okuma' Makaira series of reels.

However once in place on the reel my disappointment changed greatly. This handle & knob is
Freaking Fantastic !!
Its milled from solid aluminum & is very comfortable. This knob & handle transmits power from my arm to the reel better than any other style I've used.

This reel will be fished with 60 - 100 lb. line.


       
Sal !! Thank You For Your Help !!!   ...Jeff

[Darin Crofton]

Beautiful work, Jeff!!!
Can't wait to see pics of the big cat's you wrestle with it!

[Frank]

Sweat reel, Jeff!!!

[ReelFishingProblems]

That looks really great!
Nice work

[handi2]

Great Jeff.

I have the Tiburon handles on all my Tiagra trolling reels. They are the best.

[Rivverrat]

Great Jeff.

I have the Tiburon handles on all my Tiagra trolling reels. They are the best.

I'm beginning to wonder if these handles arent to much for this reel being the amount of leverage they provide & the issues I'm experiencing... Jeff

EDIT: After speaking with Sal & him reminding me of the past testing he's done I believe I may have just experienced some bad luck. It's frustrating when this stuff happens & we are looking very forward to fishing a reel after completing it. Oh well, reality of it is it's nice to have these kind of issues in light of what others may be experiencing. It reveals just how blessed I am... Jeff

[Rivverrat]

Keith, It's great to have you posting regularly... Jeff

[steelfish]

Beautiful reel Jeff

That XN model has lots of potential, with all the upgrades available for the 113h.
Mine will have a place along with the baja Special
BTW, that foregrip of the rod look pretty original
Do you have more pics of the rod?

[Rivverrat]

Here you go Alex.  

United Composites CP 70HP. One of the fastest if not the fastest action blank made. This model is a fantastic 50 - 60 live bait rod. Especially around structure.
This blank also lends itself well to pulling & cranking down method when using big star drag reels & heavy line.

One of my most used rods. I've repetedly plucked 25 & 30lbs off the floor with it demonstrating the strength of this blank to people.
Any fish 30 lbs. & under that are hooked well come over the gunnels with out using net or gaff.

This is the first or second rod I ever built.
I had to have it & couldn't wait for my order to come. So I used the components I had on hand for this build.

So no, the colors dont match. I'll be redoing the butt section. Never cared much for it myself.  Others who've used it like it.

Extremely durable very nice looking blank. So unique I can say there are no blanks like it being made by any others... Jeff

[steelfish]

thats a really nice fishing rod amigo, I didnt noticed the "dont match factor"  until you pointed out, it looks really good with the accesories and components you used, specially that unique touch of the spiral on the reargrip.
I might be wrong but did you used a XHN 20 size guide as striper guide or its a 25 size?
-also, have you experienced on that reelseat if you reel move a bit while reeling on hight drag settings ?
asking cuz I have a factory super seeker 80lb that have an Afco reelseat and the reels move uncomfortably while figthing a fish even with the reelclamp tight (havent tried overtightening the clamp but read that its a regular problem with the afco reelseat), I like those forecast reelseats but they look really similar to the Afco ones, and wondering if I better pay extra for the ALPS centralock.

I wont hesitate to use that same blank and components on Baja for YT and groupers but I already have a rainshadow RCJB84XH blank that I need to build

[Rivverrat]

Alex, I'm not an expert on this.  However I have never had a reel move under load using the Alps Centra lock or Forecast reel seats. I believe because of the way they are designed to take the reel foot they work better than most others among a wider variety of reels.

The stripper guide is a 20. On some blanks I've used a 25 when the rod will be used with a 4/0 size reel. I set my stripper guide lower on my heavy personal rods than what most others do. This is because I want every thing the blank has to give & most of the power in a rod blank is down some where low. I've also noticed that most people don't really pull that hard on a rod. They hold on to it with out really pulling much at all....

Any way I talked with Alan here & I will be building rods using primarily UC blanks. Nothing fancy, 2 colors of thread 3 at the most. True working rods. This will give people a true custom fit rod with the opportunity to try a new blank at an affordable price... Jeff  

[steelfish]

Alex, I'm not an expert on this.  However I have never had a reel move under load using the Alps Centra lock or Forecast reel seats. I believe because of the way they are designed to take the reel foot they work better than most others among a wider variety of reels.

thanks buddy, I already got an ALPS for a seeker blank, I think I will be getting a forecast easytight to try it out on the rainshadow blank

The stripper guide is a 20. On some blanks I've used a 25 when the rod will be used with a 4/0 size reel. I set my stripper guide lower on my heavy personal rods than what most others do.

nice, Im going with a 20 as striper guide too cuz my mak15 is really low

looking forward to see your UC rods builds amigo

[gstours]

As a tip for preventing the reel from moving in the "too big" reelseat try a 2 layer wrap of electrical tape to the reel foot on each end. and reinsert.  If it needs another wrap add it.  🤷‍♀️ Just makes a world of difference.
     Replacing the reelseat is a big pain.    As you know.💁‍♂️

[steelfish]

As a tip for preventing the reel from moving in the "too big" reelseat try a 2 layer wrap of electrical tape to the reel foot on each end. and reinsert.  If it needs another wrap add it.  🤷‍♀️ Just makes a world of difference.
     Replacing the reelseat is a big pain.    As you know.💁‍♂️

clever, great tip Gary

[Fishy247]

So no, the colors dont match

But red and blue make purple, so....