Grady White 8 Day on the SOA

[stoked4fishin]

Wednesday 10/5/16: Day 1
I arrived at Alan's at 3:50 am.  He pulled an "all nighter" getting ready, so he hadn't slept at all!  We loaded up and on the road by 4:05 am.  Looks like we haven't forgotten anything!
We made a few stops on the way down to San Diego.  First up was United Composites.  Alan showed off his new Raptor, Viper, and Invictus rods custom wrapped by Jon Vadney.   Randy Penny, owner of United Composites, and former Seeker rod guru, was truly impressed with Jon's work, and asked to pass that along to Jon.  It was awesome to meet a SoCal rod legend!  We then went around the corner to Cousins Tackle for a factory tour.  The tour was really cool.  Got to see the entire process from start to finish.  They actually rolled an all carbon blank during the tour.  They build all of the hypolon grips in the factory from blocks of material that they bore and shape for each model rod.  They go with a slower approach to applying the epoxy finish to the wraps, in that they go with 3 coats, vs. 2 from other makers, with 24 hours dry time in between coats.  They believe this provides better penetration of the epoxy through the thread, thus providing a stronger bond and increase corrosion resistance for the guides.  Overall, it's a pretty impressive operation.
Next it was on to a series of tackle shoppes (for you Europeans on the site ) to spend some $.  First up was Ken's Custom Reel in Oceanside.  Ken's is a totally cool place.  It's very small, but loaded with good stuff!  Ken and Wayne are 2 cool dudes indeed.  I bought 2 KK Pono Wahoo Bombs.  These are handmade in the Hawaiian style.  Ken threw in a Raider Jig with my purchase (like I said, Ken's a cool dude!).  Squidco was next.  Jon, you were right.  That place is old school bitchin'!.  I only bought a pair of AFW Micro Crimpers (gotta find the right tool for those #0, 1, 2 crimps!).  After Squidco, we stopped by Charkbait.  It was just ok.  There didn't seem to be much stock.  Last stop was Anglers Choice.  Now this is another awesome tackle shop!  As we were walking around, I hear Alan say "the tackle shops where we live suck!".  This is another shop that isn't too big, but is packed wall to wall with cool stuff.  I bought another wahoo bomb, and some mylar tape to finish off the "Berg Bombs" I made for the trip.  The last stop was at Fisherman's Landing Tackle Shop.  I went solo, as Alan finally crashed for a couple of hours.  Didn't buy anything, their prices seem pretty steep.  They do have an awesome selection of rods though!
Alan – Thanks for riding along!  It was a good time, and that drive would be a total drag by oneself.

[Shark Hunter]

Thanks for the play by play.
I hope you guys catch some bigguns!

[Dominick]

Stoked sounds stoked.  Good fishing guys.  Dominick