I’m thinking about having a rod builder (does anyone know of a good builder within a few hours of Fresno?) make an 8’6” - 9’ custom swimbait rod on a phenix blank. I’m currently looking at the black diamond series and within that specifically the 869 or 909 blank with fast actions. I’m looking for a slightly faster leaning mod fast although it doesn’t really seem like they have the exact one in the size range I want so I’ll settle with what’s listed above. Additionally for guides I’d like to do a spiral wrap and use as small of guides, and as few guides, as I can get away with, I run a very small fg knot on 20 lb diameter Fluoro to a 50 lb braid mainline. The last part of my long ramble is that I’d like to throw deps 250s on this rod so if anyone can weigh in on how these blanks do with them that would be great. 
 

Thanks

Check with Doc Ski and see if he's up to that.

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Your plan sounds fine to me.   I think it will work just fine.

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.

48 minutes ago, spoonplugger1 said:

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.

I hardly know anything about custom rods so I’m all ears. If you think there’s a better blank with the specs I want then tell me. 

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.

On 11/19/2021 at 10:53 AM, spoonplugger1 said:

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.

That makes a lot of sense, I definitely can see the reasoning there. Also yes the shipping is insane. 

Phenix offers a few blanks in their ultra swimbait and classic lineups that'll handle the Deps, that I've heard great things about. They top out at 8', so idk how bad you need that extra length. 

Couple guys you might want to look up in your neck of the woods: 

 

Jon Vadney

Nick Lam

 

 

Do you know about Stubborn Rods in Sacramento?