Hi Guys,

Been away for a while, too busy to enjoy being part of the forum. I have a quick question which I hope you can help me with.
I have been asked to build a casting rod, not something we use very often in the UK so my knowledge of the blank makers and the accuracy of their catalogues in describing their blanks is zip.
The rough spec is an 8 feet two piece blank spigot or over fit joint. Casting up to 30grams thats around a tad over 1 ounce. The reel will of course be a small conventional. My customer has requested a blank with a stififsh butt section. Budget I guess is up to $100 the blank.
Anyone who regulary builds these things care to have a stab I would apprciate the input. Sorry the intended use is casting plugs up to 30 grams in salt water for European Sea Bass. Our Bass average 2lbs max out at 10lbs if you can live long enough to catch one. Customer is talking lines around 10lb which I feel is too light for 1 ounce plugs. Rod will be fitted with trigger reel seat.

Thanks

Mike Oliver

Hey Mike,
A bass plugging rod for your side of the pond would match pretty much any light plugging rod Stateside. Having not delved much into building one from scratch (only messed with cut down pike and carp rods), a search here led me to believe that popping rods and hotshot rods would be very close to what you need. Narrow your search to these, then with your budget in mind select a graphite blend to match. There are a lot of manufacturers to choose from.

I have a Lamiglas 8 ft 3 in blank here at the house that might work. I have the Certified Pro blank, but they also made it in a higher modulus XMG 50 material. I could mock up a rod and test it with a 1 oz weight on it late afternoon tomorrow if you like. It is a natural 10 - 12 lb line blank. Fast action blanks (MT = Mag Taper)
XSH992MT in Certified Pro, ESH992MT in XMG50 graphite. Angler's had a few of the XMG50 blanks at under $100 (last inventory I have showed 2 of them). Their part number for the blank was BLS1131.

Hi Ted,

If only it was that simple. Normally I wil not build outside of my area of knowledge. By this I mean If I don't personally have experince of a blank that I am offerring as a solution to my customer I won't use it. Now I have never ever gotten into casting rods as over in the uk 99% of the Anglers use spinning reels. The action of spinning blanks is as you know very different. Ok in the heavy end 3 ounce and up for Pike jerk bait rods they use conventionals but only a tiny portion of the Guys use light casting rods. Hotshot and Popping are terms that I am completaly unfamiliar with.

I am going into uncharted territory with this rod, My personal view is that one of the key reasons that a Angler comes to a custom builder is for the knowledge of the blanks through experince rather than looking up from a list. The descriptions of many blanks fail to live up to the details given by the makers catalogues. I have a duty of care to build a rod that meets the exact customer spec. ( providing such a blank exists)

I have communicated with my customer since posting and explained the situation so all cards are open and on the table. I may have to decline the job. I suspect it will exceed his total budget in any case, now that we would in all probability have to source from outside of the UK

Thanks for you help and time. That is always appreciated.

Mike o.