I built this one from scratch. The 7 foot 30-50 pound e-glass blank was cut down to 5'6" or thereabouts. I then painted it black, wrapped it acid or spiral style with turbo boat guides using cobalt blue with silver accent thread. No fancy patterns just business. For the reel I used my Taiwan Avet SX clone and it matched and balanced beautifully. You can see the reinforced ferrule near the fore grip where I cut it down to fit into a foam lined zip up cloth bag as a carry on piece. I was more than pleased with the results and fighting capability of this mini-version of a deep sea rod. It felt great with no fatigue factors ever. I did switch to my 2-speed Avet clone on deeper waters and I believe I've found the combo for me. Might just build another in gunmetal and silver for the 2-speed reel.
Steve-O
(http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6281/babybluei.jpg)
(http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8858/babyblue1.jpg)
(http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/5185/babyblue2.jpg)
man, it's nice to see that SOMEONE is actually getting out to fish! i'm headed out tomorrow morning with roger and jeff. it will be my first trip of the year. alan
Alan, yea, I fish plenty here in Utah...but this is the biggest game in town. CARP- either mirrors like this 12 # beaut or common carp up to 30#. The rod and reel combo behind me is a self built spiral wrapped 30-50 # class 7 footer mated with a Abu Garcia Black Max I rebuilt from your site. The blank is the same as the above only not cut down. A flea-bay special of 5 old white e-glass blanks for $30.00 Carp angling requires tossing a lead of 1-2 oz and a hookbait boilie covered in a tennis ball sized blob of break-away, scent field creating mix of birdseed, bread crumb and flavoring mix. No chumming in Utah nor is corn allowed (carp all time fav bait) but the regs don't specify the bait size - only that it must be attached to the hook and line. Like lobbing a half pound cannonball. Folks look like I'm nuts until the fight and landing happens. Then they want my recipe to which I reply bread dough and birdseed.
Steve-O
Best of success to you on your trip!
(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/35/carp1002.jpg)
looks to me like the photo of the month!
That's one gorgeous fish Steve, I've never seen anything like it. Thanks for sharing.
Beautiful fish... that thing looks prehistoric! Nice catch!
Dom
Steve-o: What kind of fish is that? It looks like a well done wood carving. Dominick
Quote from: Pescachaser on July 24, 2011, 06:32:24 PM
Steve-o: What kind of fish is that? It looks like a well done wood carving. Dominick
Yea...the captain was bored so he carved it out of his leg. ::)
It's a mirror carp.
So if that's a 5'6" rod, that's a pretty good size butt in the second picture, what did it weigh in at ? Also what blank did you use ?
Hey Alan - Photo of the Month?!?!? I thought you were just kidding. THEN there it was under PHOTO OF THE MONTH....thanks!
Mirror carp it is. They have the fewer larger scales versus the common with a uniform scale pattern. The only non-pressured, easily the hardest fighting fish in Utah is the lowly carp. This pond is clear, clean, circular and chock full of BIG carp. Now when I fish them they tow me around the pond in my kayak.
The hali-rod -The 7 foot 30-50 pound e-glass blank was cut down to 5'6" ... Well , I don't know WHAT I was smoking when I typed that!!! They were 5'6" BEFORE I cut it down. I bid on a bundle deal of 5 e-glass blanks on ebay a while back. Got 'em for $30.00. No-name brand as I recall. Built the one behind me in the pic for carp fishing and it is still 5' 6" with an Abu G 6500 Black Max reel on it.
The baby blue halibut rod was the same blank- no name e-glass 30-50 pound class cut down to 4 foot 10 inches with a reinforced ferrule installed to make it a two piece travel rod.
The Halibut in the picture - Five and a half feet and weighed out at 150 pounds.
(http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/4364/p6130048.jpg)
Sorry about the wrong initial info.
Steve-O
Hey steve, are the 6 guides on that baby blue rod going in the opposite direction from the bottom 2 or did I have too much espresso this morning? If I ever get lucky with one of those mirror carps, it's going on my wall, it's so gorgeous it looks fake. I tried some of that bait on the Chesapeake, well similar to yours but was having a though time keeping it on the hook :-\, I think it was too soft. this one was pink in color.
Not too much expresso Alto but a good observation. The guy who first spiral wrapped rods like that was accused of being on "acid" hence the term "acid wrapped." Commonly referred to nowadays as spiral wrapping,eliminating rod twist when using a multiplier.
Thanks for the explanation Jigger. I never seen that before, I would think that it would create more friction, but then again, what do I know.
I've got a custom spiral wrap from Capt. Neil in L.I. For what I use it for (live lining and drifting eel and bunker) it works awesome. There is very little torque on the rod cause the line is already at the lowest point in the rod like a spinning rod. Ya gotta try it, Sal... it actually works, but I don't know how it would work on the troll.
Dom
where they excell is when a large fish is hooked.when the fish pulls the o/head reel will rotate to the top of the blank.if its built right.its easy to test.run your line thru,tie to a bucket of water and lift.troll,cast,live,jig.dont matter.they are good.easy to build.buy your self a 2 pc spin rod.change bottom couple of guides,top section under rod,reel seat on top and away we go.how about that sal!!
Guys - Wallace is DEAD ON the money with his explanation. On the bigger or stronger fighting halibut I caught in Alaska in June I could have opened my grip of my left hand and the reel would have remained stationary on top of the rod because like he said the torque and pull is now underneath pulling down. I spiral wrapped it counter clockwise so the torquing from my right hand reeling is slightly offset by the line going over to the left and underneath. It works. I'm a believer and these are my first two rods built this way.....but not the last. Cabela's offers one online and in the catalog. I think it's a Fish Eagle by name...not sure. This baby blue rod was a torture test experiment. As were four others I CUT IN HALF and installed reinforced ferrules into. All did fine. My intent was to have them with me on the plane as a carry on without having to lug a rod tube and check them. The longest half was under 48 inches on the bamboo rod. so no worries on the plane. I like the spiral wrap and the cut down rods. I highly doubt they would endure well on a more furious fish species like YFT or BFT or other heavy high speed freight trains. Worked on halibut real well but they are only good for a couple three runs to the bottom and then just resist like a sheet of plywood coming up. A barn door WILL give you a good hard battle with some body aching workouts.
My next trip is down to the Trinity river in Texas for a river monster gator gar.
Steve-O
Steve, nice halibut! Where did you get that Avet clone and what brand is it? Anyone can get a brand new Avet SX for $150 + $8 shipping off of Ebay right now so I hope there are some substantial savings to justify going without the AVET warranty and support but obviously, that clone can pull in the big ones.
ccalls - here's the link to a post about the three Omoto brand reels I purchased.
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=1685.0
I got the two speed silver one for $100.00 plus $10 shipping. Which is a clone of the Avet Raptor $500.00 reel. Savings? You Betcha! and the reel is a tank.
The graphite 2 speed was around $90 and the little blue Avet clone was about the same as I recall.
The current ebay deal on Avet SX's is a great deal. If I didn't have the clones - with which I am totally satisfied, I would buy one.
Here's Alan T's tutorial on the Avet SX clone.
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=46.0
The bargain basement deals may be harder to find now on the Omoto/ Avet clones now that they've gotten good press by users. I think there's a guy on here selling them...maybe Black Pearl?
hope this helps,
Steve-O
That Raptor clone for $100 is an awesome deal. I just did my own search and it seems like dealers are selling their Omotos as much as or even more than Avets. Thanks for all the info.
Quote from: Steve-O on August 07, 2011, 06:35:27 AM
I highly doubt they would endure well on a more furious fish species like YFT or BFT or other heavy high speed freight trains. Steve-O
Steve: This comment intrigued me. Do you think your rods won't work because they are not beefed up enough, or spiral wrapped just won't work with these big fish? As you may know I fish for YFT in Baja regularly and I am curious to know if a beefier rod would work down there. Dominick
My thoughts behind that are coming from the fact that I took a one piece rod cut it in half and installed a brass reinforced ferrule. Having only seen videos of BFT fishing and other like species and the weight of the fish, the fight and length of it would plus the repetition of more such battles would reveal the weak links in my home built rods. Most big game stuff is built based on a one piece blank for maximum strength. OR the travel stuff carries a high price tag.
Probably some self depracating insight as to my abilities thrown in for good measure.
The same rods held up on my gator gar trip but those fish were more like logs and submarines that bullets or torpedoes.
As far as spiral wrapped rods go....I'm sold on them after my limited experience. Anything crafted for or by me will be acid wrapped!
Time and more fish will tell.
Steve-o
Quote from: Steve-O on September 02, 2011, 04:19:16 PM
ccalls - here's the link to a post about the three Omoto brand reels I purchased.
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=1685.0
I got the two speed silver one for $100.00 plus $10 shipping. Which is a clone of the Avet Raptor $500.00 reel. Savings? You Betcha! and the reel is a tank.
The graphite 2 speed was around $90 and the little blue Avet clone was about the same as I recall.
The current ebay deal on Avet SX's is a great deal. If I didn't have the clones - with which I am totally satisfied, I would buy one.
Here's Alan T's tutorial on the Avet SX clone.
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=46.0
The bargain basement deals may be harder to find now on the Omoto/ Avet clones now that they've gotten good press by users. I think there's a guy on here selling them...maybe Black Pearl?
hope this helps,
Steve-O
Actually, the sliver one is a Poseidon S-12II 2 speeds. It is not the same as AVET Raptor at all. In addition, I know that OMOTO will be coming out with a reel name Vortex which will be comparable with 2 speeds AVET MXL or MJX Raptor.
I have arranged one of the Vortex 2 speeds to Alan Tani for review. It should be there is few months. It is being tested in UK and Germany.....