I am looking for a 2 or 3 weight blank from 7-8 feet that is fairly inexpensive (less than $60). This rod will be used for small, narrow streams where casting distance generally isn't an issue. So far I am thinking of a dan craft III or a Hook and Hackle IM7;I also looked at a dan craft III 1 weight that looked very nice, but I am hesitant about a 1 weight, I can't remember the number of this blank but if anyone has any input on it i'd like to hear. Any and all suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Mike Marrone

i have a pac bay rainforest 7'-9" 3 weight, 2 piece, which i just completed a few weeks ago. it is still untested on water. green color, very nice. i used medium green thread, without CP, and did small trim wraps on the downside with the single foot ceramics, using NCP white.

feels very light and "whippy." i think i paid about $25 on @#$%& for it.

eric
fresno, ca.

Mike--spend the extra $5 bucks and go with the Dan Craft. The FRSIII61013 is one SWEET little blank...very much a presentation feel to it. The FRSIII7012 is also VERY nice...a little "crisper". Both CC out as true 1wts in my experience. The FRSIII8022 is actually my favorite of the whole series. Just a seriously sweet small stream rod. I think I may have one of the discontinued Rainshadow RX8 793-2's left as well that should come in the same price range because of the clearance pricing on them, but they have generally CC'd out to solid 4's...I think you'd be a lot happier with any of the DC's.

AND we just happen to have our Dan Craft Sig III's and FT's on sale this month! Drop by our site and snoop around...you might want to click on "Compare our blanks" to see the full lineup (excluding CF Burkheimer, which is a bit pricier than your budget anyway)...you can sort the list by any heading such as # of sections, line weight, etc.

All the best on your quest! :)

Presently I am finishing my FRSIII61013....and I cant wait to fish it.
I would second any recommendation of this blank.

Another option, at about a third of the cost, would be a 7' Tigereye 3/4. It fishes well with a WF3F. It has been one of my favorite creek rods for the past few years. I have a feeling it will spend a little more time in the trunk this year.
Good luck!
RB

One other option that I haven't seen mentioned yet is the St. Croix SC3 7'6" 2pc 2 weight. H&H has them for $50. This is one superbly sweet rod. I can't wait 'till mine is finished.

Mark

I have the Tiger Eye 3/4 Wt 4 Pc Travel rod that I purchase over a year ago from Dan. Great little rod. Only bad part about it was, it happened to be the first rod I every constructed and you know how you nit pick when you get better at things. I am currently finishing up a 2WT 4PC Forecast that I got through H&H. It looks superb and feels great...I can't wait to fish it. After that is complete, I will start on the RS 2Wt 2PC. You can't go wrong with any of the blanks mentioned above. My experience has been (coming from centerpinning and enjoying the feel of the fight of a steelhead on a true noodle rod) that it is always a better time fishing for trout when you give them the "upper fin" by matching rod weight to their fighting strength. The Tiger eye 3/4 is a little on the heavy side for the 8"-10" (some 12-14") fish that I was targetting in the mountain stream of WVA. Thus the decision to make up a 2 wt.

my $0.02

Domenic Federico

Mike. You know about the ONE club don't you? We are trying to persuade Dan to come up with a T-shirt. I fished a 3 weight for years in Colorado and in retrospect would have preferred the ONE. I also have several 0 weights from Dan and the ONE is substantially more rod. Not at all delicate. I have the 802-2 to build, and it is even more rod. In my book, looks to be a cannon. IMO folks tend to kill the fun with rods built for bigger water and bigger fish. Try to get a RIO pocket water 1 weight line to go with the ONE.

Mike--if you can't find a Rio PocketWater (they've been discontinued), Cortland Clear Creek is pretty much the same thing and is still in production. VERY nice line...my fav for small streams and...well, pocket water. :)

I picked up a Rio Pocket water from Dan Craft. The PocketWater has much shorter front level section than the Clear Creek (1'3" vs 4') and seems to cast better on my DC 1wt blank, but YMMV.

Bill

i had a 4 wt pocketwater.. it broke twice in two different places over a couple of months last season. i think this can be attributed to the granite i scramble over with a lot of pocketwater, my stepping on it a few times, and the pocketwater's unusually thin diameter.

still, i liked it enough to buy another at a good price.

eric
fresno, ca.

I just finished the Tiger Eye 7" 4 piece. I have a Rio Classic 4 weight on it. Love it!! Caught a couple nice little browns when I had it out for the first time this weekend (John, it has guides from your store). Still, I think it's more rod than I need on the streams I built it for. I'm gonna build me one of those DC Sig III's. Of course that blank will cost me more than what the whole Tiger Eye did.

Shanon

Thanks for all the responses. It looks like I am going to go with the Dan Craft 1 Weight, any suggestions on guides and a reel seat? I like the struble small diameter seats on the rocky mountain site, for guides I am thinking single foot snakes.

Mike--the Struble U-25 in particular is a sweet seat for either of the DC 1wt's. For guides, the most common we see ordered are the REC RSF's, though some actually use the RSFX's to get down to #1's (the RSF is not available smaller than #2). Then you gotta decide if you like the "bent keychain" look of the Recoil stripping guides or want to go with the Forecast dbl ft ceramics.

Tell you what, though, if I were building it, I'd put Hopkins & Holloway DLC standoff sf guides on it. No, they're not on our site YET, but we do actually have them. TECHNICALLY the Recoils may weigh a fraction of a fraction of an ounce less ;) but even on a 1wt I don't think it's possible to discern the dif., and getting the line off the blank is such a huge advantage, IMHO. I like the DLC (Diamond-Like Carbide) partially because it's almost-black and looks very cool on these blanks, but mainly because it's the lowest coefficient of friction available on a wire guide (or so H&H claim, along with most other guide companies...not that I'm cynical!). ;) Seriously, though, I'm a big fan of these guides...we use them on our North Raven Series rods on the G&L FlyCraft end. We also have black-framed Forecast stripping guides with TiCh or TiN rings...very dramatic once it's all said and done!

Better get to bed...just wanted to add my $.02.

All the best,