spoonplugger1

The commercial carbon/foam grips are not built anything like the original hand poured ones we built 15 years ago and yet everyone assumes they are for some reason, we built them because they were fairly easy to do, a bit lighter, unlike commercial ones, and cheaper than cork. Cost savings? Not so with commercial grips now. There is very little if any difference in weight between the commercial grips be they cork, eva, or carbon/foam. I don't know about you, but my hand is on the reel seat more than the grips while fishing, making the grips fairly irrelevant.

Why guess? Thrasher has a flex profile for every blank they make. If they are good enough for Rich Forhan, they a good enough to consider.

A moderate action rod would have your stiff tip, a fast action rod would have a softer tip compared to the butt power. Check out Trasher rod blanks.

I guess fishing all over the US and other places in the world for all species makes me think a little differently, and an experiment or two have been done by me and others to back up what I see and hear. Many bass anglers have always said they need rods of a certain power to fish a certain place, well myself and others have disagreed more than once, proper presentation, yes, the rest not so much. Fish have mass and muscle energy but they are neutrally buoyant in the water, if not they would sink like a rock to the bottom. A certain amount of energy to fight the fish makes no difference how long, or how powerful the rod is if it isn't breaking something, 5 lbs. force from a MH is the same if it's a ML, or BFS. The blank power mentioned above for that ML blank, ERN 13, is the same ERN as found in a medium power 8 to 12 lb. line steelhead rod, a rod that I saw handle a 125 lb. Salmon Shark off of Sitka, AK. some 20 years ago.

I found nibs to scratch blanks, so wipe offs to try again are more challenging for me, prefer the roller pens for that reason.

Batson SP blanks work just fine for trolling, than you have the selection of kokonee jigging and trolling blanks that are in the 7 - 8 ft. lengths. Frankly I think a one or two power spin jig blank in the 6 to 10 - 6 to 12, 1/8 to 3/8 lure range would also work. Made a lot of ultralight bass rods back in the 80's throwing the new small lures, be they spinnerbaits, baby cranks, finesse worms, etc. on those blanks. Be advised when they say 3/8 max. they mean it, things go from brisk to lob casts fairly quickly trying to go heavier.

One of the Batson SP blanks in the right power ought to work great, and you can get them in colors. GetBit, Angler's Workshop, Utmost, and others. Batson's #1 selling series.

3M nano resin has exclusivity agreement with Pure Fishing, except for the companies that first started using it 12 years ago when it first came out. That was St. Croix, Lamiglas, and Loomis. I have heard St. Croix went their own way with another nano resin a decade ago or better. Last I heard Lamiglas was the only company, their Si line, that used 100% resin in their prepeg used in the entire blank, the other companies used about 15 - 20% nano resin by their own admission. How much difference does that make? The Lamiglas Si 90 2MC, 9 ft., 8 to 12 lb. line 3/8 to 3/4 lure, medium power steelhead rod fails at 61.8 lbs. of load! It's on video. That is drag your ass over the side of the boat pressures if you were fighting a huge saltwater fish in the blue waters. Now the question of G Loomis, and keeping up with the times, fairly recently they have come up with their new to them spiral carbon wrapped rods, very expensive high end, all blanks are built in Japan where the machines are at and shipped here. Don't believe me, would you believe Gary Loomis who worked at Loomis many years after he sold it, and later started North Fork Composites.? Ask him about the discussions trying to convince them to use the new carbons and especially the new resins, the stuff he started using at NFC day one. Originally carbon came in 160 size fibers, GLX was a huge advancement when Gary got it designed down to size 100, now Gary is fiddling around with carbon in size 8, draw some circles together side by side with a quarter, now some with a dime and see all the gaps around the circles that are filled with resin, soft, dense, heavy resin, now imagine circles 1/12 the size of the dime, all packed tight together and the reduction of the resin that would be involved, that is what NFC is trying to and is bringing to the customer.

I prefer the cigar grip myself, I haven't figured out the practical advantage to the exaggerated front taper, the lack of taper in the cigar grip allows the hand to change position over a long day of casting, reducing cramping. Also like the Ritz/Garrison grip on larger rods for the same reason.

Strong is power, stiffness to weight ratio, not durability. That said, when RodMaker Magazine wrote their article on rod breakage and how to tell how it happened, that you can read on the NFC site, they had to go to extraordinary measures to get some of the NFC donated blanks in HM and IM to fail.

Agree with Mike K, I personally think the SK2 seat and a other split seats aren't comfortable on a blank under 12 mm, the bigger the better for comfort.

Forgot to mention IMX isn't even built as high end as it originally was built, otiginally it was, or very close to the first rods built with paper carbon skim, the same thing many high end blanks use today instead of glass scrim, they were a bit tender to abuse because of it, again older resin systems. When G Loomis changed their carbons in the late 80's, early 90's to GL2, GL3, GL4, GLX they discontinued IMX. It was brought back sometime later when anglers just couldn't get their head around what GL4 was, but it came back with a glass scrim for improved durability as did GLX.

They don't, IMX old 80's tech, NFC new US fibers, new US resins. GLX came out early 90's, NRX 15-16 years ago and all that was is going to the same new nano 3M resin used by others also, like Lamiglas and St. Croix, not what I would call keeping up with the times are they? The reel seats and guides on the Edge Rods Black Widow are US made and the Black Widow grips are hand laid up from strips of the same carbon used in the blanks inhouse. NFC/Edge a company using US materials and components whenever possible.

Yes, IMX has been around since the 80's, 47 mil modulus, similar to IM7 material, but remember the prepeg binders are where the rubber meets the road, their are a huge diversity in them and surprisingly few carbons that make good fishing rods, modulus doesn't necessarily go up with IM numbers, IM8 is slightly higher modulus but IM9 is not, the toughness in where the differences lie. The money difference in many instances is not the carbons. NFC is the only company I know of that is always playing with the mix and trying the newest carbons and resins. Fiber size is where the most diversity in carbons are happening now, the fibers are much smaller in the new high end carbons so you can pack much more light carbon into the prepeg with much less space between the fibers that are filled with heavy resin. the finer carbons also don't need scrim in many instances because the tightly packed fibers increase hoop strength on their own when you use the new high end resins also. Since you aren't using a lot of resin the natural modulus of the fibers isn't diluted by the very low modulus resins. Actual modulus is the ratio between the two, not some number the companies throw at us.

If you don't want to do it yourself, $20 plus guide cost will get you back in business.

Sacrificing a high end rod and the labor for the sake of a lure, I've seen IM6, IMX, GL3, IM700, Certified Pro, SC III, SC IV, etc. blown up doing the same thing. That's what they make lure retrievers for. I sacrifice lures before rods.

Fast and x fast can be built into any power blank, from any material, the power has to be first anchored down as appropriate than just give it a very soft tip for x fast and not so soft for fast. The Sage SPL fly rods are the perfect example of mistaken identity, anyone would tell you they are and fish like a moderate rod from many other sources. CC the blank and you find it is a low powered, lower than its published power, but for a fly rod about as fast as they get. Many of the Fenwick fiberglass fly and gear rods are the same way. Action has nothing to do with reaction, but many confuse them.

The truth of the matter is that there are a finite number of carbon materials that make a good rod blank, the resins used to bond the fabric together into something we can use is the secret sauce that improves rods today. If you choose to not use NFC blanks and a few other companies or buy your blanks on price alone you are missing out on the innovations that are happening today in carbons and resins, for most companies it is easier to set back and let others do the testing and R & D and then come in with copies after the forerunners prove out a concept. I can think of 4 new materials alone not counting resins that NFC leads the way in developing, one is the complete surprise to them while developing a completely different product for a company that has nothing to do with fishing in anyway. There are the innovators and the also rans using 20+ year old tech brought in from Asia and spend their money on sales speak and flashy ads. The innovators have small companies, that spend a lot of time thinking up new materials and products and producing what they already have out there, for NFC that is oars, carbon grips of two designs, finished Edge Rods, and all the side products mentioned before, the whole time you have choke points in your supply chain and in your production, after all the carbon products at one time or other has to go through the long baking process in huge commercial blank ovens, you need room for rolling tables, wrapping stations, taping machines, presses to remove carbon products from mandrels, etc. Things blank buyers like Rainshadow, Mudhole, Phenix, etc. don't have to have room for, they are pretty much just warehouses with offices, parts pickers and shipping and receiving. Conex boxes and trailers show up, you empty them, put everything away, go to a meeting about your flashy new ads and catalogs, and wait for someone to order the stuff, pack it up and send it out again. Our job is simple, buy innovative US products and contend with the known advantages and disadvantages, or buy the other way. Just don't expect an unlimited quick supply of the best for the least, it doesn't work now and never has. Some put their money where their mouth is. Edge Black Widow Rods, blanks and the material used US; reel seats US; grips in house US; REC guides US built.

There is a bunch of varnished blanks in the rod rack at you closest sporting goods store, what do you think of them?

Not one of those attributes can't be found at a bunch of companies. You don't survive building poor rods/blanks, especially in the upper tier products. Sensitivity is not something you can quantify in a company's rods, or line of rods, how it is built by the company, or you play such a huge part in the end result, for good or bad, one of the most sensitive spinning rods I have ever built was built on a lower carbon, old school guide selection, old school shorter grips and the old heavy reels, I still don't know what was so special, but when a light jig head touched bottom, or structure it let me know like few rods since have done.

Which rod company is closest to you and may have the regional differences and techniques nailed down more solidly? There are differences and rod companies build to the environment they do their testing and R & D in, NFC has a western bent, deeper, cleaner waters. St. Croix a mid-west, the Texas and Florida companies companied have to contend with more vegetation, shallower, stump filled waters, heavier presentations and build accordingly.

Float plane trips are my minority plane rides, about twice the amount as skies. Ballon tire gravel bar, meadow, unimproved strips are far more likely, but I stand corrected though, we did lose some rods and almost the canoe on one lake fly in, one gentleman used my 3 piece back up rod all week because of it. But this is also something that happens fly fishing also when many come unprepared for being hundreds of miles from the nearest rod shop. After spending all the time and money many don't get the right rods and reels are just a dime on the dollar in comparison, but it's a great way to get a camp cook.

Depending on where you go in AK, I would rethink 7+ ft. Even telescoping flipping sticks collapsed to 6 foot 7 inches uses on lakers and pike can be tight on some planes. AK and the NW Territories are 2 piece rod country, even the natives use 7 1/2 ft. 2 piece rods.

A lot of people like the RodGeeks 68MXF, from Rainshadow the IMMS68MXF-TB. A buddy says the MHX SJ843 works. Some have gone Bubba with dropshot, wacky, pretty much all the prior finesse presentations and using MHXF rods, you have to pick your poison by how you fish.

My AllStar BAST 813-T Tops and Tails built rods fit the light tip, good backbone category. Use them for Wacky Worm, Senkos, etc. 1/8 to 1 oz. rated, but I would never throw 1 0z. with it. The blanks are out there, you just can't choose only 7 ft. blanks as your only choice.