spoonplugger1

Great people, great products, I have yet to use one of their products that was not better than expected. Been using the entire RX6 line, including fly rods for 15 years.

The blank material is very little of the price you pay, the labor involved is the thing, muliflagged, multimodulus blanks take more research and development also. The high modulus materials used today haven't really changed at all over the last decade, not all materiàls work well in rod building, and no blanks I'm aware of using the high modulus materials is made with only that material, it would blow up on you. The reason I mentioned mult-modulus design.

Watch your fit and finish, don't put anything on the blank that doesn't need to be there, and you might even do better.

Go to the Anglers Resource site, scroll to the bottom of the page, select videos on bottom left, there is a half dozen or so there. In essence, you don't need to space the guide differently, it is a lighter weight solution to the height problem, where they found a normal 10 mm was the best first guide choice, they needed the max height of the 10 mm to get the minimum height necessary of the line and guide ring off the blank. Remember gravity is effecting everthing, nothing will run on center. Where the guide goes therefore shouldn't change.

Did you watch the Fuji video? The one I watched also included the cast version of the system.

Do you know about Stubborn Rods in Sacramento?

Just for reference, the SB720-4 was a more powerful and faster blank than I anticipated by it's specs. If you want a four piece, just might work for you.

I'm sorry, from your first posts I thought you had looked at some pretty expensive gear and was now looking at blanks. The GLX Escape series is considerable cheaper, excellent quality, but they used to build 4 models, now I believe only two, the ones that are gone were a casting and spinning version of the same blank, the HS 9000 a hotshot blank they have sold as a plug rod for salmon/ steelhead, a Lindy Rig rod and decent jig rod for walleye, as an inshore rod in their Greenwater Series, it's not the only hotshot blank sold in this series by the way and a few bass blanks are here too. My favorite store bought Permit rod is here on a hotshot blank. North Fork Composites has excellent one and two piece versions of some of these no longer available G Loomis blanks.

The G Loomis GLX Escape travel rods are something to think about. I have a 7 1/2 ft version they no longer make that has been carried everywhere from Easter Island to Alaska for 20+ years.

Chris, was that the red Texalium tube, or the red kevlar? The red kevlar looked more black between the red weave pattern, made it look darker overall.

Just like every angler for any species, the longer the rod gets the heavier it will be and the more out of balance they will be. It's inevitable, all the rest of us who fish many species just have long accepted this, or have in many species never had a balanced setup due to the gear needed to get the job done, maybe it's time for all of us using long rods, or in the case of longer and longer bass rods to just accept the downside that comes with the benefits we think we are getting. We longterm rod builders went through a long grip/ balance faze back in the early 90's, Bull Dog Jig Company had Lamiglas build a series of rods built with longer grips with a saltwater type fighting butt composite cork knob on the end, a very nice looking full grip. I still have some of those ends from when I built similar grips, you need 1 1/2 inch cork rings to use them, and quality cork that size, even back then, was fairly hard to find.

I get a kick out of wore out bass anglers using the lightest rods and reels out there, when the musky, pike, striper, salmon anglers, etc. fish all day too with longer and heavier, rods, reels, and lures. Musky anglers throw lures the size of a pidgeon on 8 1/2 - 9 ft. rods. Throwing chickens is what they call it and they even add more weight to the hook.

Think less, fish more. Make them as light as you can then fish them.

Saw a bunch of Thorne Bros. rods used back in the 80's when I was stationed on the USCGC Mackinaw in Cheboygan, MI. Mostly steelhead spinning rods built on 9 ft.Sage 7 and 8 wt fly blanks and musky rods, their musky blanks were of their design.

An extensive review of the rod was done at Tackletoour some years ago, it was in their top tier of reviewed rods. Take a look at what they said about it.

I've fished LMB, SMB, crappie, panfish, shad and low, gin clear, summer steelhead and trout on #1 & 2 spinners and super small drift gear, an accidental 12 lb coho salmon, and 15 lb spring chinook on a #1 Dick Nite spoon sporting a #8 siwash hook while shad fishing. Your son will love that rod, I have no doubt.

I use a 20 mm NPS seat most of the time and I have short fingered hands, rod power makes no dfference, comfortable non cramping hands during a long day fishing is the thing. The 16 mm seats they all want to sell me are uncomfortable except on a fly rod. Would you use a hammer, or ax that has a grip that size and shape. Have used the Aero reel seat a bit, but I only like the 17 mm version. Two reasons, first it's 1/10 of and inch larger, lastly it fits all the standard grips I would build casting rods with so I have a bigger variety to pick from and I don't have to carry, or buy smaller sized grips.

Have you thought of using John Timberlake's hybrid Sticks & Bones style seat, might give you the best of both worlds with no tape mess.

This isn't about custom rods really, the blanks you and I mentioned are all built into factory rods that will work similarly to rods you and I build. Will the factory rods built on your blank selections work with your lure selection? It's that simple, saltwater blanks are not rated by the factory the same as a freshwater blank, the saltwater blanks are usually heavier with more glass scrim and low modulus graphite added to thicker walls for increased durability, and more lifting power, nothing new there. It will cost you more to ship those blanks than the cost of the blanks, anything over 7 ft 10 in leaps in price to ship exponentially, the longer the worse it is, they have to be hand carried around the sorting machines for one thing. Lastly, just how far can you throw that plug and than catch a fish on it reliably, there is a limit to all presentations, just a fact, a well documented one. Throwing past that is a waste of energy and time, the time to cast and the longer time to retrieve.

Why would you want to use saltwater blanks that weigh 50% to almost double to do the same job as an Ultra swimbait blank that will reportedly throw to 8 oz? The Black Diamonds may not have the tip needed for those trebles either. My swimbait rods wear Kigan ZD tangle free guides, the heavy ones all double foot guides.

The design of the NFC 7600 has been around from the late 70's/early 80's in the G Loomis line up, than as now as the modulus went up the tip stiffened also, the GL3 version is worlds better overall for it's intended purpose of having a soft tip that gives to the action of the plug as it swings side to side maximizing it's sway, I've never met a plug puller who disagrees you catch more fish with the softer tip. I also own a GLX version and a NFC HM, neither are the light lure rod the GL3 is.

A NFC 7600 wouldn't be my choice for light lures, I use mine for steelhead, coho salmon, bonefish, shad, etc. The lower the modulus the better for your needs though if you choose to go on be advised it's tip is far stiffer than the MHX 9600 blanks mentioned earlier, or the St. Croix. It was designed to back troll/drift crankbaits downriver. Tip closer to the MLF St. Croix mentioned in other post.

dv616, You need to look at the load chart again, the tip load section of the graph's first value is 2 oz for the 76 MLXF and 4 oz for the 70 MLF, the tip is far lighter on the 76MLXF, it is light enough to throw lighter lures well, is more sensitive because of the decreased tip mass in the blank, an also light enough to give you a visual bite indication that the fish doesn't feel as resistance because it is only their gill flaring to suck in the bait that you see. It is a completely different blank from anything you have used, or seen before. I love mine.

The same guides you use on your spinnerbait and Carolina rig rod will work here, the guides are much stronger than you realize.

Old guys use short rods a lot, use the smallest, least and lightest with minimum wraps and old school thread coating like Permagloss, you could get awful close. What isn't there doesn't weigh nothing and neither does a hole. No leaders, or knots cuts guide size way down, 6ea. 3mm guides weigh the same as one 6mm and I have used 2mm guides. If Gary Loomis can make a 4.4 oz. 9 1/2 ft steelhead spinning rod out of his HM material 10 years ago, I see no reason why it can't be done. Rod was weighed, fished and stress tested by Salmon & Steelhead Journal.