I am planning on building a 10'- 8 weight fly rod for steelhead and salmon fishing. There are so many blanks to choose from. XP, Sig V, Rainshadow rx8, ect. I've heard good things about all these rods, but based on performance while casting heavy sink tips and heavy flies on big rivers in the pacific northwest, what rod is the best? And Why?

Dan,

Our FT1008-4 really proved itself this year for those who took them to Alaska! The FT blanks are excelllent for throwing lots of line, big flies, split shot and heavy grain weights with no trouble.
The 10' models have a great feel for "chuck and duck" and are great in the distance department.
The price is right too!

Dan Craft
Dan Craft Enterprises

I've built both the XP 8100-4 and Dan's FT1008-4. The XP was built with TiCh snakes and I feel it is more suited for Steelhead. I built Dan's FT for my step-son with Forecast gold Zirconia ring single foot guides and it casts like a canyon. He fought a few Salmon with it this fall and said it was awesome. The FT just seems to have that little extra bit of muscle and it CC'd somewhere about 9.20 or so if I remember - perfect for Salmon.

I had built the Sage XP first and had to put a little lead weight inside the butt end to balance it properly. I got smarter with the FT, I had REC make a 7 1/2" full wells grip (solid end) and I glued another 1/2" hooded ring on the end to get a full 8" grip. That balanced an Ovris Large Arbor V perfectly with no additional weight added . The XP blank runs close to $300, the FT is around $100 - kind of a no brainer to me. Good luck.

I second that.