I’m finishing up my first rod ready to order my second and thinking about my third seeing as I really like light action for small trout I was thinking of a fiberglass rod I have handled the new Scott fiberglass and it feels wonderful I was wondering if anybody had experience with glass blanks what would be a good choice and are they built with the same reel seats as graphite blanks I think I am asking this because I have noticed a fiberglass rod is larger in the butt section than most graphite.

Small trout I use ( myself ) a 4 - 5 ft UL , graphite blank , short butt grip, no fore grip, graphite seat , titanium guides, 4lbs. line

Dave von Doehren
PRRODS......If man built it , man can fix it.and if man built it man can break it !

sorry I sould have specified that this is going to be a fly rod. I keep forgeting that.....

Rob,
Try a search of "glass fly rod blanks". There's quite a bit of info there I think. The new Lamiglas Brush Creek and the Diamondglass would be on my list also. The good folks at Angler's Workshop carries all of them I think, they may be able to give you some additional info. The Lami is glass tipped with a graphite butt in a travel rod length. Something I haven't seen tried before.

i think that fiberglass does very well in the 2,3,4 wt and no longer than 7'6". once you go above 8' they get a little heavy i think. i have several glass rods built on the lamiglass E glass honey colored blanks which i believe have been discontinued. there may be some sponsors who still have some. call custom tackle as that is where i bought mine. let me recommend some: 1. 6'6" 3 piece 3wt. 2. 7' 2 piece 3wt.
3. 7'6" 4wt 2piece. all of these make nice small stream rods with the two shorter ones being my preference. on any of these blanks you can find lots of great reel seats. i used strubel nickel silver
downlocks on mine with nice wood inserts. on the 6'6" version i converted that to a six piece and it actually improved the performance. lami made a six piece and there may be some left somewhere. great pack rod for small brushy streams. i fish it with a cortland sylk three wt dual taper.

lami has a new blank that sounds interesting. the but is graphite, the mid is a graphite/glass composite and the tip is glass. i want one! the blanks are around 110.00. they are said to have a very slim diameter butt and very light. gloss black.

on the high end of the scale and with very good feedback from people who have them (i have no personal experience) are the steffen brothers glass blanks. very high quality but as i said at the high end at around
240.00

Rob,
You are now seriously "infected" & I deeply mourn the passing of your "free time" and you deserve a warning. Since you are going smaller, lighter, and more parabolic - you are now teetering on the brink of obsession and your next foray will may take you where Art and others (sometimes I play) - the realm of split bamboo. If that happens all is lost. You will have to restock all your threads, look with disdane if not scorn at graphite reel seats, wonder why you ever bought that really pitted cork that should have been chopped into burl rings, invest in a whole different set of coatings, new curing and flaming techniques, sharper tools, funny looking grooved boards or steel devices that look like midieval torture devices, oddly honed planes.... BEWARE of the edgeeeeeeee

funny ken. i can forsee that too! it's happening to me... ;-)

the lamiglas brush creek is not new and i THINK has been discontinued. check with lamiglas on that though. the composite blue ridge which larry spoke of sounds interesting to me as well as lami's new "spring creek" all fiberglass blank/rod, a bit cheaper than the blue ridge.

fiberglass , and some graphites, do have somewhat large butt diameters. you may have to ream out a wood inserted reel seat a bit to make one fit. it helps to speak to the vendor or consult charts with measurements and then mic the reel seat(s) you may already have on hand to see if it's possible without creating too thin of a wall with the insert. some manufacturers like struble offer reel seats in two versions, one standard, one for slightly larger reels and hence, more a nd an inner wood diameter to play with.

i think... ;-)

eric
fresno, ca.

Ken have you been sneaking around in my brain again thats my goal SPLIT CANE OR BAMBOO BABY i got to work up to that though I gots lots to learn but someday.....hopefuly soon hee hee

Glass rods are a "habit" of mine. New blank choices are difficult to find. In my experience, Lami's honey colored blanks are very "wimpy" and I was disapointed with them, however the 5-6 piece ones were ok but are too pricy. Too bad they stopped making their s-glass models...now THOSE were sweet. Scott, Diamondglass& others are very nice but again way too$$$. For me, I go @#$%&. Search for old colonon rods and like Larry P. sez, the shorter the better, the lighter line weight, the better. 7-7.5 footers are nice & nothing over 5 weight.. Anything longer in length or bigger in line and they get heavy in weight and go wimpy in action. Don't hesitate to look at ultra light spinning models, they convert into nice, "fast" 4-5 weight rods. Again, no longer than 7.5 feet. You can pick them up for 10-20 $, so its hard to get burnt even on a falsely advertised one (if you do get burnt, they make good homemade reamers using epoxy & sandpaper belts). People think I'm nuts, but once they try one out, they quickly change their minds, especially on converted ultralight spinning rods.

Tight Lines,

Tim

Rob,
Here's and idea for you to meet separate (converging ) goals. Go over onto @#$%& and find an inexpensive 9 to 10 foot US made bamboo rod that has a good MID and TIP section - toss the existing butt section -- so don't worry over whether it's a "Collectable with a good label" - the mid becomes your butt section and the tip remains the tip. This will result in 6 to 6 and a half foot finished product. You'll get an inexpensive introduction to bamboo (cane) rods and have a very respectable small stream rod. Then you can decide how deep you want to get in the tailrace of bamboo

wow now thers an interestin idea than i will have my upper and lower lip ripped off.....

Listen to Ken, it is a good way to get a boo rod, and to work a little in it without the investments in forms, ovens,binders, bevelers, tanks etc.. And the end result is,,, a fine rod for fishin' !!

THEN and only then you can start buying the forms,oven,tank, mic, caliper,tube, lathes, etc...

Course, at that point you can give up your life.. all hobbies (cept fishin') sell the TV. Sent the wife and kids to the mall - - -7 days a week. Yeah, I think a $50.00 investment in a nice 9 footer would do ya good ~ but be SURE it has 2 tip sections..and all sections are of EQUAL LENGTH !!!

You don't want to be short changed there.... the second tip will be a selling point if you deside the boo is not for you !

Have fun with it ~ ~ ~ ~

Another option to reaming or boring out an insert,is to shorten the blank the length by the length of the finished seat assembly.Then use a piece of scrap blank mounted internally to the butt of the blank. The seat will then be mounted to the "scrap" section behind the blank itself. The downside to reaming or boring the insert to fit the butt,is that it may become too thin walled and split. FWIW just my 2 cent option...
Chuck

I just saw this forum and thought I would contribute my experience with the Lamiglas blanks. I built the 7 1/2' 4wt. As noted by someone else, it is very sloooww. But don't let that put you off. Because it's light it can still generate some line speed. After a little trimming of the overly long spigot ferruls and taking a bit off the tip and butt so that all the sections would match in length with the tip and reel seat in place, the blank weighed only 1.6 oz. I went with single foot wire guides and a cork reel seat and I even trimmed a little of the barrel from the tip top, all to reduce weight. The finished rod weighs only 2.29 oz. It is a pleasure to fish on small water. There are two unexpectedly amazing things about this rod. The first is how Lamiglas arranged the taper and nodal points on the blank so that it seems to "dampen" itself. It has very little kick back and wobble at the end of the stroke when compared to other fiberglass rods. Especially slow ones. The second is how much power it has for a slow rod. It aerializes about 35 feet of #4 double taper line easy enough, good for a 50' cast. A good caster could do better. Thats not remarkable, but I'm pointing out that it doesn't underperform on overhead casting. What is remarkable is that it will roll cast the same 50'. In fact, I was at large dammed pool and decided to throw a #8 wooly bugger WITH A BEAD HEAD. I had no room for a back cast and the rod was fully able to deliver a 50' roll cast and turn over that fly. Amazing. It excelles at roll casing and mending, it can throw bigger flies and nymphs, it delivers dries delicately, it has the power to push a little distance when you need it and it's very light. It's a little wierd that it won't throw a longer overhead cast than a roll cast. But this rod is truely great in every other way. If you fish small creeks, this is it.

Chuck