I'm considering building a rod from a fly rod blank & using it for spin fishing (for crappie). Any feedback on this? Has any one tried this? Pro's & con's. What type of blank (length/wt) would be acceptable? What type of guides would be recommended? Thanks, Jim

Jim,

It's been done hundreds ot thousands of times. I know I've built a bunch of them.

Works fine, probably better than the rods designed speciffically for 'crappie' that are available.

Fly rod blanks typically come in lengths from 7 to 11 feet, in weights from 2 to 15. A 3 to 5 wt. blank in the length of your choice would be about right for a crappie rod. Gowith the lighter end if you fish a lot with really light jigs, say 1/64 up to 1/16 ounce. If you fish a lot of float rigs or 1/4 ounce baits, use a heavier weight rod. Also, the longer rod will handle the float type rigs better. For pure jig tossing without a float, then a shorter rod may be more suitable.

Really up to you, based on how you fish.

Set the rod up as a spinning rod if you plan to use a spinning reel on it. See the article on concept guide placement in the library here to help you decide what kind of, and where to put, the guides.

You could build several HUNDRED different spinning rods from fly rod blanks currently available, and each one would be an outstanding crappie rod under the right circumstances......

Good Luck!

Buddy Sanders

Thank's for the response Buddy. Think I'm going to try a 7'6" 3wt & a 8'6" 4wt. Got about 2 months to pass before the water temps here in Pa start looking good, so why not do some wrapping. Thanks again, Jim.