OK, I made the mistake of letting my son borrow my new not even fished with fly rod that I built last fall(he is at a guard base for training and there is a trout stream running through it) and I don't believe he is going to part with it. I am a novice/beginner/have not fly fished yet guy and I had built that one on a no name brand blank that I got just to learn on. Well the people that I buy from are no longer selling those blanks so I have to choose something else. They do sell St. Croix, RainShadow/Forecast and Pac Bay.

I am thinking of a very general purpose rod in something like a 9' 5wt. All are with in like $8 of each other. Anyone have any distinct reasons for one or the other. I have built fly rods in the past, for Steelhead fishing on Lake Superior's North Shore, fly rod and reel, reel filled with Mono and using lead to propel and sink, not really fly fishing....but still fairly close.

Hi Scott,
I myself like Rainshadow blanks. Very good blank for the money try one you will like them. The olive green blank is awesome looking blank. hope this helps Marcel

The Rainshadow blanks are very underrated IMO. They seem to perform well and don't cost a lot. I haven't had any problems with them and I've built about 20 on them so far. Can't comment on the others.

i've used and fished pacific bay rainforest and tradition, as well as batson's RX6 (forecast). all are great although i'd put the forecast/RX6 in a lower category simply because they are on a cheaper price level than the others. not quality necessarily. tiger eyes are also nice but in the 9 fot length you might run into a problem fitting a standard reel seat insert. rainshadows might be the top of these models in price. all are fine for your general needs. the forecast, tradition and rainforest might be considered more of a "medium action" than rainshadow but that may not mean anything to you at your fly fishing level i'd venture to say they'd all work well. choose on color! :-)

eric
fresno, ca.

Not too long ago, I built a 9' #5 Pac Bay Tradition for my father. I fished with it at the San Juan this summer, and I was really, really impressed. It's definitely a medium action. However, it has a very powerful butt, so once you get the timing down, you can really launch your casts. The tradition I was using was one of the old model plum blanks. The new Pac Bay traditions are a gray or black. Those old plum blanks were one of my favorite colored blanks ever. They're sort of a burgundy color.

So, if I were you, I'd look around at the various suppliers on the left, and see if any of them still had a TRF905 in stock (in the plum color). If not, I'd likely go with the Rainshadow. I've never built a Rainshadow in a 9' #5, but they're really high quality across the board.

I sent off a request to my vendor for a price on the Rainshadow - IF905 Olv.Grn. 9'0" 2 5 0.365 4.5 Med-Fast. I am thinking I may as well build something that I will be happy with when I actually learn what I am doing too. Thanks for the input guys.

Scott,
I just built an IF905-2 last week and have been casting it for the first time this weekend and I really like it. I build on all three of the Rainshadow blanks as well as the Forecast RX6 blanks from Batson and the RX7 (IF) is my favorite blank action. They are labeled as a mod.-fast by Batson but I have found that the action varies a little bit with each rod, somtetimes a little bit faster or slower. This rod I just built was more on the faster side. I went to a local casting clinic with it this morning and had five different people cast it and they were all very impressed with it's smooth casting action and how well it transfered power to the line at the end of the casting stroke. I highly recommend it and all the other Batson blanks. Email me if you have any specific questions about the blanks or Batson components.
Andrew