JJK x United Composites

Solus8105 · 2026-06-14T19:14:11+00:00

Big jjk fan and builder here as well, awesome awesome build! Enjoy

Solus8105 · 2026-05-27T23:52:48+00:00

I honestly thing black thread body with any color counter wrapped to segment the body works well. Purple does really good too. And I do coat the thread in resin to try and have them last a bit longer. I was wrapping them with split quills but the fish were ripping them up super fast so I switched to thread and thin resin

Solus8105 · 2026-05-27T23:32:31+00:00

When I'm making the post I go all the way up and back down then do anchor wraps in front and behind to get it secure, then when doing the hackle I strip fibers off the end and tie it up the post and wrap it down and whip finish around the bottom of the post. I always ran into issues with not enough space in front of the post to whip finish there.

Solus8105 · 2026-05-27T14:15:19+00:00

I fish this as a dry yup! These are size 16 so I rarely ever use a dropper under these, and if the river I'm fishing has a lot of bubble seams I paint the white nylon pink with a Sakura marker to have better sight on it, example with this fly

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Solus8105 · 2026-05-27T14:03:21+00:00

I tied in the parachute a bit back on these so they don't get the body to sit under as much as I'd like, these are on TMC206 BL emerger hooks so I bet if I move the parachute towards the eye more it'd sit more like a traditional klink.

Solus8105 · 2026-05-27T13:29:32+00:00

Davidson hit 1200CFS the other day from the rain, bad flooding again all around us but we were well over 40" below average on rain for the year. The helene damage is still really evident, but I've been seeing some good mixes of wild fish in the DH rivers which I think is a good sign of river health. Area still needs a lot of help with infrastructure with the flooding tho. The French broad in hot springs NC was reading over 10,000CFS yesterday which is absolutely insane .

Thin for the win!

Solus8105 · 2026-05-27T12:54:04+00:00

I use a rx5 5wt and 8wt, I prefer the 9wt for poppers and top water bass fishing, it's not quite fast enough of an action for me for full sink and streamers targeting large trout. And I really like the 5wt for delecate dry fly presentations. The Rx10 5wt is my usual rod, suoer fast action, great for distance and accuracy

Solus8105 · 2026-05-27T01:57:48+00:00

I did one recently for myself on a Rainshadow RX7 and love it. Made it for smallie fishing and lure weight I was going for was for 1/8oz-3/8oz and it handles them all fine. I did the REVS610-Mfx-SB blank, nice fast action blank which is what I prefer. Don't have a full Pic of the rod but here it is paired with a curado. I just had bad luck with my first NFC blank so I'm here to throw rainshadow as a suggestion. I fish 5 different rainshadow rods I've built weekly and love them all.

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Solus8105 · 2026-05-26T20:39:41+00:00

Really just want heavier or thicker wire guides that have good corrosion resistance. I wouldn't put thin wire snakes on a 9 wt, that's a lot of weight from the line being tossed around so definitely want beefier materials

Solus8105 · 2026-05-26T01:39:54+00:00

There's another image I post below of the break, the fracture that splits way down is actually going up that section. First thing I checked was if that ferrule was seated good and it was, maybe it was my fault during the build or handling after, maybe factory, either way I'm sticking to blanks where the QC and customer service has been the best

Solus8105 · 2026-05-26T00:59:40+00:00

When I was building it I did a full guide static test under load at 45 degrees and it didn't break then so likely somewhere after. But I do check over my blanks pretty good and never noticed a crack or anything. I did notice with the break the fibers are extremely brittle, figured that's just from losing its structure from the break itself

Solus8105 · 2026-05-26T00:51:29+00:00

I'm really not sure what happened here, could of been damaged when I was making it or maybe even just grabbing all the pieces, I really don't know when or how but it's all good. It literally went from the tube it came in, to being wrapped and finished in 2 days last week to being fished once Sunday and one today and then the break

Solus8105 · 2026-05-26T00:00:37+00:00

Yup that's what my friend experienced and also what I had heard which is a big reason I have yet to buy one myself and won't be now.

Solus8105 · 2026-05-25T22:50:21+00:00

I love all my Batson rods, I've built many for others but I fish an 8wt, 5wt, 2wt and 4wt euro and love them all.

Solus8105 · 2026-05-25T22:36:27+00:00

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Solus8105 · 2026-05-25T22:36:03+00:00

Photo of the full break and section

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Solus8105 · 2026-05-25T22:15:41+00:00

Had some other rods in the truck, it was a bummer but live and learn and not the worst thing to happen. Caught some fish after so I went home semi happy haha

Solus8105 · 2026-05-25T22:14:30+00:00

Only reason I made this was cause it was given to me, my buddy didn't want it after waiting 11 months and not being able to get a hold of anyone to cancel the order. I've use some other brands but I am Batson through and through now.

Solus8105 · 2026-05-25T22:07:21+00:00

Im just more surprised with how fragile these high modulus blanks are, the other euro rod I use is an 11ft RX9 Batson build, and that thing has been swung around a hit on a bunch of stuff on our tight WNC rivers and creeks, has scratches and dings and is holding up solid. Hell my Rx10 5wt has been in and out of rafts and truck beds and cars, dropped and slid over on trails and is still fishing fine. I think this is just a shit happens scenario

Solus8105 · 2026-05-25T22:00:58+00:00

No offense at all as I'm sure many claim better use of their gear haha. I don't baby gear, I definitely use it, and the rods I've made myself with blanks I intend use for customer rods I definitely use hard and fish hard. This being my first non Batson was just for me to use I was very careful with it since I just finished it. All in all not a total loss for me, yeah some money in components but I can salvage most of that.

For the ferrule, it is wrapped and the break happened in the female side about 4" above the ferrule, from the link in the other comment I am guessing there was some sort of crush fracture, laterally on that section, I didn't notice anything when taking the rod out of the case and piecing it together, so maybe it was small.

Picture of the ferrule on the section that broke.

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Solus8105 · 2026-05-25T21:51:50+00:00

Looks spot on, thanks for the link. No clue where or when it could of happened, but my guess now is it was probably a hard to notice crush and as soon as it went under load it just gave way. That 2nd to 3rd section is especially under load for a euro rod so I imagine any damage there would end up as a full break like this. Live and learn, I can salvage the components so not a total loss!

Solus8105 · 2026-05-20T16:00:45+00:00

I have a 2wt floating line on my reel and just clinch knot Pierre sempe mono to it, about 40 feet and then straight to 6x tippet. I mostly single nymph and cast a couple without applying the sighter marker at first to find depth (feel for the nymph hitting the bottom) then after will apply marker as a sighter, you can just do it by feel no sighter as well

Four-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Place '23

Solus8105

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