Arra 1322 with low rider guides

[Saltheart]

Has to be almost 20 years ago now that i was doing the east beach , Camp at Burligame scene several times a week. I remember on day late late Nov when we were all hanging around waiting for morning and afternoon blitzes and the occasional monster Blue fish schools. Now at this time I was in my 30's and very strong and fished 4 days a week at least so i was on top of things. i could cast far and accurate and used a 12 foot rod that time of year so i could reach anything within say 130 to 150 yards of shore.

Well one morning this kid about 13 comes walking out with a rod that was only maybe 7 feet long and it was an off the shelf department store rod. this kid with little ffort lets go a cast that just put everyone else on the beach that day to shame. technique always beats fancy gear. I had the similar experience one late afternoon when I ran into ron Arra fishing the mainland side of the canal. Now we were both using an XRA 1205 but mine was perfect with an NGC style build but his had a foot or so broken from the tip. he still outcast me by about 50 to 60 yards. now I can cast pretty far compared to most so to see someone with a the broken version of the same rod outcasting me by what amounts to "a mile" , was again a vivid reminder that technique beats equipment , hands down.

[MAKAI]

Analogous, to a years ago baseball playoff I was in. This kid half my size with the most perfect swing could flat out crush a baseball. After a couple of games, myself and the other outfielders would play him just shy of the warning track. He had 4 Hrs in a short series that cleared the fences by 20 ft. Mercy !

[Stroth]

Interesting thread.

I have done allot of reading and allot of playing around with low riders.

About two years ago I built a ssu1321mh with low riders. I remember reading stuff on fuji's website in Japanese. I actually got a teacher that I know to translate it for me.

I think salthearts posts are right on. I love the rod, it came out great. Not perfect, but very good. Easily the best rod I have ever built myself. I did spend hours with all kinds of different guide set ups and hundreds of test casts. There are so many other factors that play into casting that i honestly think for most of us guide setups are pretty minimal. In the same breath though, I took this thing out to wasque and had a bluefish every cast while others were every 4 or 5 casts. I could get that extra 20 yards that they couldn't. On that day I needed the extra distance, but on just about every other day that I fished that distance was not important.

My ssu absolutely smokes. However I find it to be finicky. In other words if I take ten casts 7 will be good, but then 3 will be sort of off. Kind of like a pitcher throwing wild. Put all that power in the wrong direction, and you have a powerfully bad cast. The tip of the rod ended up a bit heavier than I thought it would, saltheart is right on about the guide feet being long on the lowriders.

I also have an all star 1209 that I built with new concept guides, just with smaller frames. Old timers look at it and scratch their heads.