Re: Dogfish Stik
Not sure what reliability has to do with a fishing rod?
With a trolling rod, I look for quality of build, quality of components and then weight. The quality of the components and the weight are the easy parts. The quality of the build is the part that most don?t get and quality of the build is what separates the good from the bad.
I had a customer bring in a ?very good? quality custom trolling rod for repair the other day. The metal reel seat was loose. Upon digging into it, I found that not only was the reel seat come loose, but the gimbal was loose as well. When I tore the butt down to repair the seat I found that the person who built the rod used cardboard to make the shims in the butt. What happens to cardboard when it gets wet?
BTW: Very few, if any, "affordable" blanks are made in the US. Even fewer component are made in the USA. Buying Asian imported parts and assembling them in Iowa doesn't make the rod Made in the USA
