Here's the first sampling of how some of the product reviews are going to go. There will be a written and photo component, but since I'm still learning on the video, I want to show some more clips and if you have any technical feedback, by all means let me know. I gave a little spiel about 4 of the big bait rods on this page at the bottom:

http://www.calfishing.com/video/index.html


-Rob

Rob, I like your swimbait rod vids. Hey, what kind of motor did you use to turn down the hypalon? I did a few like that but my lathe motor was smoking hot. I have been using EVA lately but like the feel of hypalon better. Also what blank would you suggest for the larger 12 inch baits? I wrapped up a G-USA 85Monster Mag for a buddy and it works great but it was mucho $$$$$, have you tried any Shikaris or Pac Bay's?.....Thanks Warren

Brian is much more the rod expert than I am. I don't wrap anything myself :) For a super heavy rod, I do like the 800L, but the blank is about $90 usually. Rainshadow has an 8'10" blank, the SW1088 that Brian is itching to do and they are a little more reasonably priced. I haven't seen it yet though. Shikari is supposed to be a good brand, but I have not really fished any custom Shikaris.

I don't know where you live at, but if you want to pull on blanks, there is this shop The Rod Rack in Hayward that has a ton of 8' stuff. http://rodrack.net/ I think the Bay fisherman use a lot of the same kind of 8' blanks that work well as big bait rods.

PS - It looks like Rainshadow blank prices are going up. I think they may have been holding down prices while they got established in the market. They always seemed way under priced to me.

I use full speed on my pac bay wrapper for shaping hypalon and haven't had a problem at all. I've even shaped trout plugs from wooden dowels with the same method (lower grit sandpaper of course) and the motor has been perfect. I've had the wrapper for probably 3 or 4 years and the motor is solid.
-Brian

Yea, I use the Pac Bay wrapper also but I have another high speed lathe that my dad made for me for turning cork and hypalon. Have you tried turning down the entire length of hypalon? I have no problem shaping it but turning down the entire length is tough for me. I use dragon skin and the screen stuff used for sanding drywall...Wish I was able to find hypalon that comes skinnier so you don't have to take it down......Warren

Yeah, I haven't had a problem shaving down 1/4" or so from 14" rear grips. I use that drywall screen, or grill cleaning screen, it's basically the same stuff. Make sure your band is only connected to one motor at a time, like if you're wrapping, move the band to the wrapping motor only, or if you're drying, put it on the drying motor only. There's a lot of resistance on both motors if it's connected to both.
-Brian

Rob,

You are the man! You keep stepping up and making the site better and better. Thanks to you and your constant hard work this is by far the best place to come for infomation on fishing the big baits. Keep up all the good work, you are biulding up some major big fish karma.

Rob thanks for the great video's. What's you feelings on the GUSA 79XF and 79 Mag, along with the Calcutta series of rods?

I haven't tried those GUSA rods you mentioned. I did check out the 711 swimbait rod that Mike was showing at the SF Fred Hall show and it's a very nice rod. Very light, nice components. I liked the handle. Pretty stiff action. It struck me as a rubber bait and large wood bait rod. I don't like using the lighter wood baits like the 9" Slammer on really stiff rods. But stiff is great on the rubber baits.

The Calcutta rods are very nice, but they are very very stiff. The 820XFA is like a pipe. I'm not saying they are bad rods, they just don't suit my taste in big bait rods. I like to have at least a little tip on the rod.

I couldn't agree more about the Calcutta rods. I sold my 815XFA for that very reason... to stiff. I built a GUSA 79XF and am happy with it so far. I have a friend who just built a GUSA 711H revolver style. I'll let you know about it once I've seen it.