I have decided to build a rod for my grandfather's retirement gift.  He is moving from Ohio to SC and plans on doing a good bit of fishing down there.  I would say he will mostly be fishing smaller ponds (with bass up to 10lb) in the development he will be living in, but there are a few bass tourney anglers he has met who want to take him out on Santee Cooper and the rivers in the area.  He has never learned baitcasters, so I am thinking a good Medium action Spinning rod will be a good all around Rod for him.  He used to do a lot of smallmouth and walleye fishing on Erie when he lived on the water up there so he knows his stuff even though he has been out of fishing for a few years now.  I want a rod he will enjoy enough to have a lot of fun fishing.  I'm liking the St. Croix SCIII blank in 6'8" Med., but I'm looking for some good suggestions on blanks and what reel to pair them with. 

If you have never built a fishing rod, then I would suggest a read of this little article from "Best Of" BassResource.com......

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1242835952

I will say this up front, you don't build the rod and then try to match a reel to it.

All custom rods are built to the reel that is intended for use with the rod....

I have built on every St. Croix blank that has come down the pike for the last 14 years. The SC3 series blanks (Avid) are by far the best of the line up and I always recommend them to my tourney rod clients...

Many will say the upper end of the seiries SC4 SC5 are better and lighter, but that is only because they carry thinner blank walls which make them more brittle. They actually have to be babied more....

Just a old builder's .02¢

Good Luck!..

reel mech - thanks for the info.  This will be my first build.  Since I'm in the market for a med spinning rod as well, I may build 2 and I will keep the trial run rod for myself.  Grandpa has a Sahara 2500 still in the box in his garage, so I may match the rod to that reel if possible.  I have about 3 months of Army "schools" coming up, so I plan to do a lot of reading before beginning the build.  Thanks again for the advice, very valued coming from you!

Mudhole tackle supply has some good tutorials on their site to get you started. Also check out the Rod Builders forum especially the 27x guide placement system. Good luck!

I would suggest Tom Kirkman's book"Rod Building Guide"

Head to rodbuilding.org, tons of info.  I'll also echo, not that its needed, Reel Mech.  If you go St. Croix, go for the SC3. It's a fantastic blank, even better if you scale down that gawd aweful handle they like to put on the avids   ;D