Winston discontinued the LTX series, and some dealers have their remaining blanks available for less than half the original price. I've never built on a Winston blank, and since I "needed" an 8' trout rod for the Uppper Sacramento River, I purchased an LTX 8' 4 WT. It is a three piece blank with tip-over-butt ferrules, a beautifully finished blank in Winston green. The tip is size 4.5, and the butt measures .305". The assembled blank, without tip guide, measured 94 3/4" in length.

Here's my preliminary CC measurements for those who might be interested. I spined each section individually, then assembled the rod and verfied the spine. I then measured the ERN four times, starting with the spine up, then rotating the blank by 90 degrees each measurement. Highest ERN 5.20, lowest ERN 5.05. AA 65.

A difference of less than .2 between differing spine orientations is very normal and about average. I would suspect that rod will handle a 5-weight line with ease in close and out to maybe 40 feet, or perform very well from 35 feet on out with a 4-weight line. Sounds like you got a good deal.

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My experience matches up with what Tom says. Based on the numerous blanks I've tested I have found that the spine orientation usually makes "a penny or less" difference in the ERN. A penny is about 0.15 ERN. I would post the data in the database if you get a chance since there are very few Winstons in the database. Sounds like a great all-around trout rod to me and a sweet deal. Those specs match up very closely with my St. Croix 2005 4F804.4 (5.05/67).

The difference was one cent, as you predicted. I will definitely add the results to the CC site as soon as I verify the AA. I placed this post on the board mostly because there is so little data on Winston blanks. I don't know if that is because few people build on them, or because those that do don't use the CC system.