I am looking for the fastest rod blank on the market. I also like to know what rods are used in distance compitition and if they are any good for fishing.

What kind of rod, fly, spinning, casting, surf, etc?? The type of rod you want will make a difference since not every company makes all kinds.

Fastest action? Quickest recovery? What type competition - fly, surf, etc.?

Generally, rods that are set up purely for distance casting competitions will leave a lot to be desired as all-around fishing rods.

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the fastest fly rod blank on the market distance competiton for fly rods

John--"fastest" can refer to a couple different aspects of a fly rod. The general term "fast action" refers to where the rod primarily flexes under normal (i.e. casting) load. That criteria is pretty easy to use to come up with an answer as it's an objectively measureable thing: the Common Cents System allows for the "action angle" of a rod to be measured while under load, and any rod/blank that has been tested can be compared to the list of other rods/blanks (see link at the top left of this site for "CCS Data Site"). The higher the number (technically angle in degrees while deflected), the "faster" the action--or more descriptively, the more "tip action" the rod/blank is. To answer THAT question, the Sage TCR (mid- to high-70's AA) was the king of the hill until Dan Craft's Fast Taper (FT) Series came out (high 70's to low 80's AA), and they are fairly comparable in terms of being distinctly tip-action...and incidentally fairly comparable in terms of being able to cast a honkin' lot of line! :) Most find the FT noticeably more forgiving for less than perfect casters--and they are certainly far more affordable. The TCR is a little lighter in actual weight, however.

The term "fast" can also refer to how quickly a blank or rod "recovers" upon unloading the cast...its "speed of recovery" or "damping speed". That question is also answerable, but it's a little more challenging to do so. Dr. Hanneman (the developer of the Common Cents System) has recently released his attempts to measure the FREQUENCY of a rod or blank, which points plainly to its damping speed, in his "CCF" but there's nowhere near the data to compare on this end at this point. I can tell you that the Dan Craft Signature V series is probably the fastest recovering blanks I've personally cast, and are certainly in the top percentile of all available blanks. They are much "faster" in recovery/damping than the FT's, but the FT's have a staggering amount of reserve power for tremendous distance casts. That being said, the Sig V's are capable of incredibly high line speeds because of their fast recovery, and of course higher line speeds equate to longer casts... ;) Both are pretty impressive, to say the least.

In my personal opinion, which is subjective of course, Dan's blanks offer the best value in a truly high-performance stick, whether for casting or fishing. They are as good as or some feel better than the very best (i.e. flagship models) from the big brands, irrespective of price. Speaking of the major brands, probably the most common models for distance casting are Sage's TCR and XP and G. Loomis' GLX...now GLX Max Line Speed. Many tournament casters use fly rods that are designed more for distance/tournament casting than fishing, and generally speaking do not fish all that well as a result...that's one of the reasons we're such big fans of Dan's sticks as they excel across the board.

Most tournaments are "class specific" so you are competing against casters with similar lengths and line weight rating of fly rods, for obvious reasons. So, keeping that in mind, the models that have really grabbed our attention are the FT905-4, FRSV9053 and FT907-4 in 9' lengths and frankly the entire 10' lineup for longer lengths--though the FT1004-4, FT1005-4, and FT1007-4 probably stand out as "extra special". Some extreme-distance casters use single-hand rods up to 15' in length which are obviously specific to their application, and I am sure there are builders here more capable than I to address these specialty sticks.

Whew! Hope that helps! And if you are interested in trying out a Dan Craft blank or two, feel free to drop us a line or contact us at 1-866-FLY-RODS.

All the best,

CTS makes a competition casting fly rod blank. It was used by someone to win a world championship in Europe.