I am going to start building my second rod this Winter.

I want to build a 10-ft 7-wt rod for steelhead.

I would like this blank to be either a 3 or 4-piece with a medium-fast action.

All I can find on the internet is the Dan Craft Signature V blank that meets my criteria.

Any other suggestions ?

Thanks.

Iwan Jones Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am going to start building my second rod this
> Winter.
>
> I want to build a 10-ft 7-wt rod for steelhead.
>
> I would like this blank to be either a 3 or
> 4-piece with a medium-fast action.
>
> All I can find on the internet is the Dan Craft
> Signature V blank that meets my criteria.
>
> Any other suggestions ?
>
> Thanks.

I'm assuming that this is for either summer run northwest steel, or perhaps great lakes steel?

If it's for those purposes, and you want to swing flies and such, I'd go with the Sig V....

If you plan on hitting winter steelhead in the PNW, I'd move up to an 8wt or 9wt and look at the FT line from Dan Craft...

The other option would be to look at 9'6" blanks. I believe that Lamiglas carries some of those as well as GLoomis. Spendy, but the companies have good reputations.

-- Cheers
-- James

Thanks.

I will be primarily using on on the Great Lakes Tribs for high stick nymphing.

I built a 10ft 3 piece from Pac Bay for smallmouth fishing on the Susquehanna & for my float tube. Sweet rod that didn't break the bank.

Tight Lines,
Tim

Iwan Jones Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks.
>
> I will be primarily using on on the Great Lakes
> Tribs for high stick nymphing.

Ahhh... Sig V is a bad choice for this. The advice from Dan himself is to use the Sig V for swinging flies, and not high stick nymphing. With that, isn't there a 10' 7wt in the FT series? I'd give Dan a call and see if he doesn't have one of those.

-- Cheers
-- James

Dan's FT series is a good choice. I have 3 FT's, 10ft 10wt, 9ft 5wt and a 10ft 3wt, all are great rods with plenty of power. All are 4 peice. You can download the Dan Craft catalog on his web site.

Bob



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2005 02:04PM by Bob Crook.

Iwan,

I've had both the 10 ft 7 wt Sig. V (3 pc) and the 9 ft 7 wt (4 pc) FT. Both for steelhead.

I prefer the FT.

But then I don't do any high sticking....

Both are delicious.

Give Dan a call......He's the best.

And the blanks are too...

Keith

The Rainshadow RX7 blank would work for high stick nymphing. Hook & Hackle and others have them.

St. Croix SCIV 9'9" 7wt pre-IPC was a great blank for that...so are the Rainshadow 10'6" models... I am a huge Dan Craft fan but would not recommend either the FT or the V for that type of fishing....V is a little too delicate and the FT's tip is too heavy IMHO.



Scott Kinney
The Longest Cast Fly Rods
[www.thelongestcast.com]

Iwan,

I used my new 10' 7 wt FT that I built as a switch rod for steelies on the Trinity this past fall. We had to go to 4x tippets, and the rod was soft enough in the tip to handle that light a leader and still land fish up to 7-8 pounds. I was looking forward to the opener on the American here in Sacto tomorrow to test it on larger fish with heavier leaders, but it's currently flowing at 20X it's normal Jan 1 flows, the wind is howling, and rain is pouring...

Good luck - I doubt you'll be unhappy with the FT.

Wayne