I have told Dan of this, but I though I would share it for anyone thinking about blanks for big fish, especially salmon and steelhead.

Several weeks back, I contacted Bob Meiser about his two handed and "switch rod" blanks. I bought a spey blank from Bob (which I have not finished wrapping yet, but will review in future), and he suggested for Great Lakes steelhead that I try a switch rod as well. I though it strange that he would send me elsewhere to get a blank, but he recommended the Dan Craft FT blanks, and I know he reviewed them in this forum as well. He warned that lesser blanks would explode under the stresses of spey casting in such a short rod.

I picked up an 8 weight 4 piece 10 footer from Dan Craft shortly after. It has a mice matte finish, and was marked with the model and maker. This was really the only thing I was disappointed with as I usually keep the rod simple with my logo only. Maybe this is a topic for another threa about crediting blank makers.

I made the blank with a 7" full wells and a 2.75" permanently attached lower handle to allow for some two handed casts. I used a Pac Bay channel lock seat as it seems the best locking seat for a big reel that gets a lot of work. I used H&H strippers and snake guides, although in the future I will use single foot ceramics to compare.

This blank will cast a country mile, and the extra foot in length gives you a tremendous ability to keep the backcast up high. The rod is perfect for high sticking, and for mending when fishing a swung fly. It will perform switch and double spey casts very well up to about 50-60 feet in my limited double handed casting ability. Overhead, it will cast a 105' steelhead taper line with ease. Honestly, two of us did it yesterday on the stream.

I cannot speak highly enough about this blank if you are interested in a good steelhead rod. I will try to set up to get CC numbers if they are not already posted. The medium fast action of the 10 footer is well suited to streamers and sink tips. I wish I would have taken the weight before fitting the components on it. It is very light, lighter by far than my partner's T&T HS 107, considered the best steelhead rod by m,any around here. I think that in the Dan Craft FT, there may soon be a new favorite rod in Western New York.

Thanks Dan (and Bob). You will get more business from me very soon,

Bob Maulucci

Hi Bob,

Great review, and thanks for sharing that.

I could not agree more about Dan's 10' FTs.

They do make superb multi-purpose fly rods....For both single and two handed applications. "Switch Rods"

None better for that application......And that's a lot of applications !!!

Just to elaborate a bit more.

We built up one of Dan's 10 ft. FTs for 10 wt. as a switcher.

We were using it two hands on the overhead to deliver full sink Scandinavian style shooting heads: 40 ft. head length, with an extreme grain weight forward taper (typical of these line systems) in the 500 grain range.

Using 8 to 10 foot of Maxima 15# leader material, and small Shrimp patterns.

The running line was 50# Slickshooter.

We were casting from an estuarian beach at the mouth of a small Southern Oregon Coastal river for Fall Chinook.

With this line system and two handed delivery technique, we were able to easily and consistently reach 90 to 100 ft plus distances.

No double hauling required....... So there was zero burden on the arms and shoulders after a long day of slinging all this shooting head grainage.

....But most importantly, we were fishing right.

We were search casting for pods of fish breaking over the bar at the mouth of this small river, so lot's of hours were spent on the delivery and strip.

But with this line system, our flies were in the water at the depth of the fish for the maximum amount of time.....With a minimum of wasted "Air Time": Time spent false casting the single hand delivery.

Plus we were able to drive these line systems with authority into the wind.

We did beach a couple Bright Kings in the 30# plus range, and again the Dan's 10 ' ~10 wt. FT was superb.

Plain and simple: The FTs are sweet sticks....

I have no vested interest in Dan's blanks, or his company.

...Just a strong supporter of them as they suite my specialized targeted applications so very well, and do use them as part of the switch rod series.

Kudo's to Dan on these great blanks.

Bob Meiser

Bob, thanks for an informative review. It is particularly timely for me, because I purchased the 10' 8 weight four piece FT blank several weeks ago after reading Bob Meiser's post. The project is stalled, because I cannot decide whether to build it as one-hander that is only an occasional two-hander, or vice versa. The difference would be in the length and shape of the front and rear grips. I would appreciate your thoughts, and Bob's as well, of course. Thanks again.

Hi Dan:
Well, you bring up a good question. I questioned this myself.

When I was casting single handed, I felt the butt I made was a tad too long when double hauling, etc.... When I was performing spey casts, I felt somewhat that I could do them with one hand rather well. Furthermore, you really don't need much more than two fingers to snap the butt when casting two handed with this thing.

Most likely, I am getting another that I will make with a small fighting butt and a shorter seat. I used a CL-9 because it was what I had, but that is a seat too big for this rod. I will probably use the Struble U-9 for the next one.

This takes nothing away from the great blank of course.

Bob Maulucci

About building as a double handed vs. single handed - have you thought of using a reel seat with a retractable fighting but - REC used to make one and Struble still has one ?
Not very comfortable but for the occasional double handed cast maybe.........?

Peter

Dan,

Build the lower grip/fighting butt to best suite your angling needs.

The rod will single hand double haul, or single hand spey just as well as it will two hand spey or overhead.

If the rod is to be built as a switcher to do all of the above, I will build my lower grip about 3.5 to 3.75 inches.

I find that this length of lower grip will not only allow all two handed delivery, but will also aide (and ease) my double haul single hand delivery, as well.

The extended lower grip length will assit by bracing to the upper forearm on the delivery, and add more power and authority to the shot.

Using two hands on the lower grip will also add authority to your high stick and indy mending, and add great power in water hauling a brace of weighted nymphs.

.... And the longer lower grip will allow an under arm tuck for two hand fast retreive striping so common to salt water retreives.

Dan.....You can not learn how to use the rod if the blank is still sitting on your work bench .....};^)....!!!!

Bob Meiser

Bob, you are correct. The more immediate problem is that my kitchen table is my work bench. I need to get this project finished! I intend to fish this rod on the Copper River next September, and I can't wait until August. I could build TWO of them, I suppose.

Peter, I did look into a removeable butt seat, but the load would exceed the limits of most of them.

I am going to gear up and build an 8 wt. What a perfect new project rod. Can anyone respond to the idea of constructing the switcher with a removable butt or would your preference be a permanent installation? I know this butt would have to be strong unit, but still like the idea of a removable butt. Thanks in advance.

Bob D:
My preference would be to make it non-removeable if you truly intend to use the butt for double handed casting. Meiz is the expert here, not I.

I continue to be impressed with this blank. I was on the lawn this afternoon with my 8 wt. 105' Orvis Salmon/ Steelhead line. I had the knot to the backing in my hand and the whole line plus straightened 10' leader in front of me with almost no effort, small double haul but nothing that made me almost fall off balance.

I also had made a grass catcher and was casting with that. This rod really works nicely as a two hander. I realzied yesterday that I had fished it with the 7 wt line Saturday by mistake. So, the review above was even having used the wrong line! It is even better with a true 8 weight line. Yikes.

I have no finsnacial interest in Dan's blanks, but I wish I did. He has something great going on here.

Bob Maulucci

Bob,

Thanks for all of the info. When I read this thread, I knew that I would be building one and have an 8wt blank on the way from Dan Craft. I am very intrigued with the DC blanks and am anxious to try them. I am thinking of using single foot REC's on the rod and an A8 seat. If you have any thoughts, preferences, or recommendations, I would certainly appreciate.

BOB

Hi BOB:
Well, I use snake guides because I make mostly bamboo rods, and since this rod will cast 100+ feet, I see no reason not to use them. I have heard good things about these new single foot guides and especially the ceramic ones, but I have used very few sets of them. I noticed little difference, but I am sure they are theoretically superior. I won't argue that point because to me it doesn't matter. If Sage uses snakes on their TCR, I can use up my snakes on graphite rods if I want to!

I digress....I think the Pac Bay stuff is very nice. I am really sold on the Channel Lock seats. I love the CL9s I have used on spey blanks and on my FT even though I know the 9 was too big. I think a CL8 or A8 would be great. (I am assuming they are the same size?)

Good luck, you will love that blank!

Bob Maulucci

Add another Bob to the list. I am picking up 2 FT Blanks tomorrow from Dan. A FT905 and a FT1008.

Will be using single foot ceramic guides on both rods and plan to use an A7 on the 5wt and a A8 on the 8wt. Both reel seats will have a striped ebony or myrtle wood insert. Also plan to put a non-removeable butt of matching wood on each rod. Will go with a full wells grip on the 8wt and a half wells on the 5wt.

Hope everyone who is building one of these will keep the board updated as well as Bob Maulucci has, his reports have been great.

Bob Crook