I've now built several rods but have been using blanks that I was able to previous cast at my local flyshops (sage, thomas & thomas, st. croix). Reading through the postings it sounds like there is a lot more out there and I was hoping someone may be able to recommend other manufacturers or blanks they've used and had success with.

I'm also curious about guide sizing. I seem to have good guide spacing but was wondering about size. I know larger guides help reduce drag but what are the extremes or limits for a typical 9ft 5wt.?

I can't recommend Dan Craft blanks high enough. Dan is a great person to work with and provides an extremely well made fly blank.

the blanks you've built upon are time tested brands but you're right, there are interesting options available that are off many's radar i realize. i'm going to follow keith here again (search under sig V ;-) and recommend the dan craft five rivers signature V 8'-4" 3/4 weight fly blank. it's a three piece, not that there's really anything wrong with that. dan's blanks are something any fly person wanting to build should seriously try out. my next crafty rod will be a sig III 8 foot, 3 weight in the five piece version. someday soon i hope.

pacific bay makes nice blanks. the rep i correspond with (perhaps only regionally) has been friendly and helpful and their rainforest and tradition blanks have been nice to build upon. i've wrapped a 9 foot 4 piece 4 weight in the rainforest as well as their 7'-9" 3 weight 2 pc. i've also wrapped the tradition in the 8 foot 5 weight 4 pc.

right now i'm embroiled in a slate of inexpensive batson forecast light fly blanks for friends and family, a 7'-9" 3 weight 2pc, 8 ft 4 weight 3 piece and a 7'-6" 4 weight 4 pc. i really ought to check out their RX7 series someday. and their RX7+ brown blank sounds interesting too.

CTS has recently caught my eye. not that i've heard anything about them but their color palette sounds intriguing to me.

on a bit of a tangent, i've only wrapped one rod that i'm really happy with, the sig V. seems there's always something wrong with the others: i've use a standard stripper style guide on the first 2 and not my new favorite, the early rods don't have decal conn's alignment dots which i just started using recently, i've used thread instead of a metal winding check, once tried a black rubber check instead of a metal, i only discovered a favorite cork grip shape on rod number 5, etc, etc.

there are a heck of a lot of choice in blanks out there, the experimentation of combinations will never end! :-)

as for the guides, i'll shutup now and let knowledgeable people chime in.

eric
fresno, ca.

Larger guides don't reduce drag - the line only touches a very small portion of the guide surface/ring. Going any larget than necessary increases weight and ultimately reduces rod performance and casting distance. We have a really good article with the proof of this in the upcoming issue of RodMaker.

Be careful with regard to guide size - what's there should be needed and what's needed should be there, but go no larger than absolutely necessary.

...........

Hi Aaron,

Eric is right. The Dan Craft Sig. V blanks are simple awesome in the 3-5 wt variety. With a little search you will find that the Sig. V 8'4 3/4 wt (It's a perfect 4 wt) makes all who touch it fall in love! I think it is the finest blank I've ever thrown. The 8/9 4 wt gets lots of love, too.

Dan's FT blanks are unique and seem to be knocking the socks off all who build them. I have a 7 wt waiting to be built....may start next week.

And Dan is one of the best guys around.

Keith

Aaron,

Lots of blanks out there. Most are great.

I wanted to chime in on the guide thing, however.

For fly rods especially, SMALLER guides are always better for casting efficiency. As Tom stated, use the smallest guides you can get away with. It's not just a weight thing. Think about the barrel of a firearm. The closer it is to the diameter of the projectile, the better 'guide' it will be. A bit of an oversimplification, but basically hits the principle.

There's been a lot of hype about 'bigger' guides lately. Don't buy into it. Use the smallest diameter guides you can and still pass the required connections.

Good Luck!

Buddy

also, the bigger guides you use, the harder it is to store in a tube. and the more chance of "damage" from inserting and retrieving over years. i've been wrapping 7'-6" through 8'-4" fly rods and the biggest guide, the stripper, is a 10. a nine foot 4 weight i built used a 12.

eric
fresno, ca.

The thing about small guides is you want to use the smallest guide possible. What I am concerned with is how the line travels smoothly threw the guides and the knots do not get hung up on a guide because it was to small. For you this may be a try and error thing. I would recommend using different sizes to find which one would give you the best performance
Good Wraps Bob

I'll echo the comments about guide size. I've been downsizing the guides on my fly rods for a couple years now, and I'm now to the point of using the smallest guides I can get my hands on (usually 6mm) for all but the stripper guide(s). I thought that I would eventually reach a point where I would decrease my casting distance with the small guides. Oddly, it went the other way--my distance has increased. A fringe benefit is that 6mm guides are cheaper than their larger counterparts.

Regarding the brands of fly blanks, I've been fairly happy with every fly blank I've tried. My favorites have been the SCIVs and Lamiglass Perigrees, but I've also been very happy with Rainshadow RX7s and Pac Bay Tradition blanks. I'm not a terribly picky fly fisherman--I don't "need" a specific action to be happy--I can adjust to each rod's slightly different characteristics. So, take what I say with a grain of salt.