spoonplugger1

Use a metal ferrule system, use an aluminum tube to fit the female ferrule into the tube end and ferrule at the foregrip's end. All the blank's male ferrules will all be the same size so you'll need to make the male end and the blank's end the same diameter with arbors to glue up right and dependably. Sounds like starting with 5 1/2, or 6 ft blanks are the way to go. I have some Lamiglas 5 1/2 ft IM700, MH bass blanks rated 10 to 20 lb line, 1/4 - 1 oz. lure weights. Lamiglas' equivalent to IMX graphite.. There is a pretty good variety of MHX Shooter blanks also, all 6 footets.

It's a fallacy that a ERS reel seat is more sensitive, rods aren't a combination of individual parts, as you build and bond it up each piece becomes a part of the whole structure incorporating the same features as if you rolled it on the mandrel as a completed rod. That little exposed part doesn't transmit vibrations to your hand better than any other reelseat of like mass.

I wouldn't go far afield on my first rod, if you have a rod you like and they sell blanks, by all means select from there. If not let us know what you are looking for and we'll help as best we can.

Actually if you go to their Blog site it says MOST Rodgeeks blanks are identical to the St. Croix blanks in all respects.

Since UC was bought some years ago by the gentleman that ran Seeker before it was sold, people using the rods, or blanks have been pretty happy about their delivery schedules and the quality of the original company is back, I don't think I've had a rod blank that wasn't at the door 3 weeks after ordering. That's pretty normal no matter who you get it from. By the way if you've liked the Seeker Alabama Rig rods as much I have and noticed the blank isn't listed with the other ReactPro blanks, it's the CSW808 Blue Lightning blank cut, or uncut depending on what length you prefer.

Go to the Lamiglas site and check out the Paco kayak rods, the graphite tube gives you a nice slick butt when coming out of a rod holder or vertical rod tube behind you and you can adjust your rear grip length to whatever you want, use what's left of your split or full grips as arbors to just slide the tube over and glue in place, install a butt cap and go fishing. By the way the tube won't be slick in your hand any more than that hickory handle in you hammer, axe, etc is.

Angler's Workshop I believe still sells United Composites blanks. The Pioneer series are a little less money, I myself prefer the lighter and more durable dual helix, DHX series.

Have you thought of an XF blank? United Composites makes a dandy 100% graphite, very durable, no scrim blank rated 1/32 to 5/16 oz, 2 - 10 lb line. UC65LXF, dual helix construction, I've used one for close to 20 years, trout to bass, even caught an 8 lb. steelhead on it once on the Umpgua River fishing for smallies, the rod did great. They also make a 7 ft. version. Have used spinners, night crawlers, finesse worms, up to AC Shiner cranks on it with no problems. Get Bit among others have them.

Aluminum isn't particularly strong or tough, but it is tough enough. Chemically when steel, or iron oxidizes you get rust, it's soft and can be rubbed of with your hand. When aluminum oxidizes you get a very hard, tough material used to make sandpaper, it also protects the aluminum underneath.

Rod action isn't as important as you've been led to believe. Take any rod you have, doesn't make a difference what kind, for what, just a rod. Now bend it under a load equivalent to you have during fish fighting. What is the tip and the first two foot doing? Is the tip pointing toward the load? Is it more in a straight path vs a big bend under load? If so the part out there in the more straight position is no longer really doing anything, it's certainly not protecting the trebles, minimizing holes in the fish's face, etc. Sooner, or later you end up fighting the fish with the butt of the rod, how the tip bends goes away the more you load the rod. Gary Loomis developed an XF rod close to 40 years ago for crankbaits, they were so popular companies like Lamiglas, St. Croix, All Star, Rainshadow, Rogue, Pacific Bay, G Loomis, Fenwick, etc. all build them , or have in the past. They make them in all materials, and all price points.

Haven't really found anything better than my custom SBS706 Seeker. Lots of good stuff out there, but as of yet, not better. St. Croix's MH crankbait sticks are nice and still available at Rod Geeks. Popping rod blanks can make a dandy stick, the action of your blank is not as important as the final power of thr blank. A MH bass rod hasn't the same power as a crank stick even though they carry the same rating in the catalog.

Have you checked out tackleworks.org? It's a listing of builders by state.

Put your blank on the kitchen counter, table, floor, wherever you have a flat spot, and roll the blank. Any tip bend will be immediately visible to you. Up or down will be straight, any deviation will be swing to the right or left. Build it tip up and the weight of the components and the component feet and wraps will help straightening it a bit, however minor it may be.

Trs, You're putting to much importance on guides, unless you do something real far off the mark your rod will cast further than you can fish it, protect the blank, etc. The fine tuning will at most get you maybe 5%.

Lots of spine myths out there even though it was proven bull pucky 40 or more years ago, the simplest explanation I can think of is you build the rod on the spine and line the components right down the line on your bass casting rod. Now you pick up your finished rod and prepare to cast, what position is your hand when you cast? What position are the guides in now? What did you really accomplish now your casting with the guides off to the side? What about during a side cast, or wrist flip cast?

Looks like the front trigger is right under the level wind on the reel.

Length will be the problem with a thread forward seat, I don't have the biggest hands, but I cut off all exposed threads on my trigger reel seats and still don't get much finger on the bare blank while palming a reel, the Wright Mcgill seat is in essence built as backward as you can, threads in the back, so you can pull the trigger closer and the triggers turned 180 from normal seats because of it.

No, but it sounded more like an interference for his pinky than an anchor point, I could be wrong.

Been done before, Fiji IPS reel seat installed threads down and the trigger added up front backwards. St. Croix and many others have installed the spinning version thread down on their rods, makes a nice smooth grip.

Looks like a sweet stick to me, I'm glad for you. All my personal cranking sticks are Batson popping blanks, except my big crank stick which is a Batson graphite CB80H, and an old S-glass Lamiglas SMB841M rod, it's the same blank Skeeter Reese used in his early crank bait successes only in lighter S-glass. My first bass rod build.

The Winn grip is an EVA grip covered with a covering.

Don't over think it, use the specs as noted above and you'll be surprised by the results. You'll never buy another factory junk guide system rod.

Mudhole is pretty decent, but in the scheme of things they are there to sell products, just how much less stress does their micro system negate? One of the things I've never understood is why the same person who tells you something needs to be different for a casting rod to protect a blank, doesn't also have similar needs for that same blank as a spinning rod, or a spiral wrapped rod? I've been using micro guides on spinning rods for maybe 40 years, they have been around since the Second World War time period. None of those rods have been overstressed by the older systems we have used over the years, nor by the factory guides spacing which is usually heavier, more prone to stress, and incorrectly laid out. When your talking guide systems, stresses, etc. stress tests to failure can teach you a lot, especially just how resilient our blanks/rods really are and how they all will only fail in the same place near the foregrip and nowhere else unless highsticked, or damaged in some way. Lastly, St. Croix, MHX, and NFC among others still make the shorter blanks. I bought up quite a few shorter blanks from other blank manufacturers when they were being discontinued because I still see a value in the shorter, lighter, more sensitive short rods also, about twice a year at least get requests for the short rods.

With all due respect, you are mistaken, stiffer tip I agree with, but that doesn't equate to faster, it equates to slower. Been in the business 45 years, have done many tests over those years and read lots of articles from many rod building publications and books on the subject, and spent many hundreds of hours talking to others rod builders, all agree with Mick D and myself.

There is no such thing as concentrated stress in a rod tip from guide spacing unless your out in excess of 6 inches, Sage fly rods have spacing that far out, not one has blown up. Rod tips under load start to and finish pointing right at the load. How can that produce concentrated stress. Until recently the average first guide from the tip would have been 4.5 to 5 inches away, second guide a half inch longer. You've never mentioned your spacing. Second thing if you shortened the tip on that rod, you now have a slower, light powered rod. you can't change a blanks power by cutting it anyway, or anywhere. The lower limit you can cast will change on your cut tip rod, but the upper limit will be the same and so will be the intrinsic power originally built into the blank.