CTS in New Zealand can probably custom make a blank for you. Apparently pricing is not too bad. As I recall the guy to contact is Stephen Pratt. They roll fly and conventionsl rods in graphite and do lots of work with S Glass.

This is probably crusty old age speaking but I agree with the foregoing comments - as a young man I was more interested in 'stunt' UL fishing and pushing tackle boundaries just for the hell of it. Now I'm looking for tackle that is refined, as light as possible but still practical in the situations ...

We have a pretty good range of Sufix monos available locally and I've increasingly come to think that co-poly monos are seriously under-appreciated for the reasons outlined above. I'm no expert but there are at least 2 basic kinds of mono, the old style Maxima, Berkeley Big Game etc and more recent ...

I have great confidence in these, also good value.

https://japanlureshop.com/catalog/produ ... egory/144/

Haven't owned this rod but have used several Smith rods, the fit and finish is excellent. Cork tends to be above average, the Be Sticky range was designed by Motoyma who knows what he is doing. If you use the search term 'bfs truite be sticky' you'll see some video footage. There is an awesome Fren...

FWIW for UL/L applications (and I haven't yet tried Ester but plan to): 1. For jigs, grubs and SPs generally off some sort of floating craft, 3lb and under FC handles very well indeed and provides very good sensitivity. 2. In moving small water (wading) or still water (floating craft) with not too m...

Haven't owned this rod but have used several Smith rods, the fit and finish is excellent. Cork tends to be above average, the Be Sticky range was designed by Motoyma who knows what he is doing. If you use the search term 'bfs truite be sticky' you'll see some video footage. There is an awesome Frenc...

Evergreen Salty Sensation is equivalent to mid-range Graphiteleader. Having used a high-endish GL, I certainly wouldn't buy another Evergreen SS. Not aware of a breakage issue, AFAIK, Graphiteleader makes the SS for Evergreen.

Looks like super tuned variants of the Revo 3 LTZ. I understand that K.Imae is a big fan of this reel so he and ZPI have given it a new lease of life. Given the complexity of reel manufacturing and the availability of established OEMs, there is no sense in starting reel manufacturing from scratch.

I will have a video up in a day or so of first fish with the Corto. The spot I’m fishing is stacked now with smaller white bass....7-8 inch cookie cutter fish.....I mean literally thousands have made the run to the dam. The bigger fish will show up eventually. I had a Certate 2004H spooled up with ...

Bear in mind that you can get shallow spools for some USDM reels like the Stradic - https://www.hedgehog-studio.co.jp/phone ... t-list/643

I have found that a (Shimano)size 2500 with shallow spool is ideal for >7' Mebaru style rods. The 1/2k are a little too light to balance properly.

The TATTG guides seem to be much less common unless the manufacturer is aiming for least weight in guide train and only monofilament lines are to be used. I've used them with braid but the potential for line fouling is present in way the doesn't happen with the K style. So I would favour K style in ...

Very smooth, no noise.

I've been using Varivas Super Trout Advance Max Power PE 0.6 (from Digitaka) about 5 months for finesse bassing on a Vanquish 2500S. I highly recommend it, I use a 12' of Maxima 6lb FC as a leader with an FG knot. On that rig, whichever braid you pick, I would suggest you go with PE 0.6 unless abras...