Does anyone know where i can get a rod blank that is 5ft or shorter?
thanks

Do you want a 1 piece blank and in what weight? If you want a 3 or above, a short spinning blank can be trimmed at the butt to the desired length. Or buy a multipiece rod and drop the butt section.

I think i want 3wt. Do you think i could buy a two piece 9 ft and only use the top section? Also does anyone where i can get a reel seat and grip for a small rod like this

Because of the tapers, I would think you should cut or drop a section. The upper half of a 9 foot blank would be pretty slow. Check out Cabela's stowaway blanks. Jann's has a cork grip/seat combo with slip rings that will work very well.

I would think to get a 7'6" 4pc, 4 or 5wt and drop the butt section. That would give you a 3pc blank in a length you desire.
I donk know if my thinking is correct, but you'd have to ask around with those with CC Data expertise to see if those 3 sections would throw a 3wt line.....I think it might work well

Janns Netcraft has an all cork seat/grip with sliding bands that would be really light and if needed, you could turn down the foregrip.
RB

Careful there Robert. Dropping the butt section doesn't necessarily lighten the blank up. You would think it would, but in my experience it doesn't. In fact, the rod often feels heavier. Also Josh, short fly rods feel a lot different from the 8 and 9 footers. The swing weight of the tip is one explanation. After playing around with a lot of light rods, I am thinking that 6' 10" is really as short as I care to go to perserve the "feel" of the cast. I have several 5 foot, 3 weights that are looking for new homes.

I have built UL blanks that were set up to also serve as fly rods, that are 5' long. The slowest and lightest of these CC's out to a two weight, while the faster blanks test out to a four weight. In my experience such a short rod won't be used for long casts anyway, and for short casting these little rods will cast about any light weight fly line fairly well. On the other hand there is a pretty good reason why very few fly rods are made shorter than 6"6". Too tough to keep much line aerialized with everything happening so close to the ground. Good luck!

Global Dorber (www.dorber.com) has fly and spinning rod blanks 5' and under listed on their website. I've ordered a couple fly rod blanks but haven't received them yet so can't comment on performance. Friends who have purchased their finished rods however say they are among their favourites.

Rainshadow RX7 fly blanks can be had in 5ft 2,3 or 4 wt. IF 502,3 or 4. A fine line of blanks at a reasonable price.

Spencer

I built two 6' rods on Global Dorber blanks, they have some fly rods in the 5' range even a very short 8wt. I have never built any of the 5 footers but the quality and performance of their 6' rods are very good. Bob.

I love short fly rods. Most of my rods are under 7ft and I have 1 in 5ft that throws a mean DT4 or WF5 line. The 5ft is built on a Forecast spg601 glass Ul spinning blank and it is a high quality blank that retails for about $7.00. I am waiting for the arrival of the Forecast 720 Glass spinning blank which is a 1pc 6ft UL. I am hoping this builds into a sweet 3/4 wt, but will also try out a 5 line on it. I love fishing the short blanks out of the kayak and the heavier 5wt line throws small or larger flies well and the short light rods are a blast with bass and panfish.

HTH,

Lou

Hi Josh! We can provide the Rainshadow RX7 options for you along with some very nice light-rod reel seat options (i.e. Struble U-25, REC PLRN Cork seat, etc.). You can view these and other seats on our site, but unfortunately we don't have the complete RX7 line listed on our store yet (sorry!)...drop me a quick line and I'd be happy to prepare a quote for you.

Warmly,