Potential customer looking for custom noodle rod for steelheading, he is thinking a 6wt fly blank as a starter. Not being a noodle rod style fisherman nor steel header, would appreciate any recommendations from our more experienced bretheren. Customer is also budget concious.

Thanks in advance.

St. Croix Wild River blanks are designed for just this application, and they don't cost all that much as an added bonus.

I recently build the 10'6" wild river series Scott mentioned above, the blank cost around $65 and is a true noodle rod blank. If your customer plans on using the blank just for steelhead he will be fine with the St. Croix, but if he also plans on using it for NY Salmon I would suggest a slightly haevier blank(just my opnion).

I just built 2 10' steelhead rods from the 1201F Cascade (formerly Rainshadow) blanks from Mudhole. They are currently listed at 41.65 apiece. The rods work very nice for the Erie tribs. Landed a 12lb. steelhead a couple weeks ago with mine.

Ray,

Get some more info on how he plans to fish it. If he wants a true noodle rod, then the lamiglas 10'6" 2-6 lb 2 pc is an awesome rod. It weighs under 2 oz for the blank and builds very light with Ti guides. Awesome noodle rod. Forget the price, but it wasn't very much.

If he wants a little more power than a true noodle then the Rainshadow 9'6" 4-8 lb RX7 is a good one. A little more power than a true noodle. Blank runs $50 or so I think.

Thanks,
Rick

I agree that you need some more information about what he is looking for. Specifically length of rod and pound test of line would help. As far as a blank goes I would also recoment looking at Rainshadow they make quality blanks that are affordable.

Thanks for the input guys, we now have a starting point.