Hi guys
I am looking for some suggestions for a 15 foot " 3 " piece blank. Light in blank weight and able to though 4 plus Oz's.
Thanks

I wasnt' aware there was a 3-piece Surf rod.

2 piece ?? I have not really looked yet. Thought I would start here first.

I'd think you'd've looked in a catalouge already. There are many 2-piecer's available. Zzziplex is probably a good choice.

Bill,

Shikari makes some 14-15' blanks. I have built several of their 11' rods 4-10 oz they are really nice, light easy to load and cast great. Purglas makes 3 piece blanks but 1- I don't know if they make them over 13' and 2- problems getting blanks from them. Why such a long blank with the stuff available in the 11-12'6" range that throws a mile I can't see the need for that length other than tournament casting if that is the case then Century blanks or like Billy said the Zipplex.


Ed Kindervater
Classic Custom Rods

Who carries the Zipplex and Century blanks?

I know of one Australian manufacturer making 3 piece surf blanks (I am currently building one myself), except they are just over 12 feet in length, not the 15' that you require, but I thought I'd let you know in case you can't find anything else.

The company is Pacific Composites and the blank mode is the Braid Buster BSU 365-7W-3 (I'm using the 4 wrap version as I don't need anything that heavy). The cost is extremely cheap (around the $100 AUD mark plus shipping of course).

See here [www.anglerpacific.com] for more info.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2006 05:05PM by Michael Shea.

I forgot to add, you can get it from one of the sponsors on the left - The Rod Works (Australian company) - [www.therodworks.com.au]

Thanks guys. I keep hereing that 11, 12 ft rods cast long. I have to do more research and try to find if he really wants a 15 ft rod. He has a 15 ft ugly stick that weights a ton. Says it is not strong enough to cast as far as he wants ? That's why I was looking for some thing lighter and with more power.

Merrick carries the Zipplex blanks. The Century try Hatteras Jacks.

Ed

Bill , talk him into the Rainshadow SU1569 . We sell a lot of them and have heard nothing but good reports . 13', 5-12oz , light weight blank . We have them in stock at Fishsticks4U , and they are on sale .

Bill, for what it's worth, I think that any surfcaster who wants a 15-foot blank is either the Incredible Hulk or is severely misguided. Most of my fishing is done in the New Jersey surf, and I know that when I started plying the suds I suffered from the same mentality, that a longer blank equals a longer cast equals better fishing.

After getting into building my own custom rods, however, and playing around with different length rods and blanks, I now firmly believe that in most instances, longer rods actually reduce casting distance. It is true that a world-class caster can throw farther with a 12 foot rod than a 10 foot rod. It is also true that most of us are not world-class casters, and the added weight and more cumbersome physics of a longer rod can result in less efficient technique, and can actually cause us to produce shorter casts. In addition, the added weight is going to result in tiring faster, a trade-off that is definitely not in the surfcaster's favor.

In my experience, most surfcasters dislike shorter rods because the shorter rods that they've tried do not have enough backbone to confortably toss, say, a 6 oz. sinker and a big piece of cut bait. But when you show them a rod around 10 feet that can handle it, they much prefer the shorter length. This is just my opionion, but I feel it is much easier to handle a 10 foot rod, especially when casting heavier stuff, than something a couple of feet longer.

When surfcasting, I use spinning reels only for throwing lures, but I recently built a medium-heavy surf spinning rod for friends to use (it's too much to ask a newbie to learn to use a conventional reel the first couple of times fishing). I was standing on the sand with my brother, who was using the rod, when a guy I know, a guy who chucks bait into the suds quite a bit, walked by. He asked my brother about his rig, and my brother told him that I built it. He asked me about building custom rods, and about why I designed this one the way I did (it's 10 feet long). He tried it out and made a few casts - and this is a guy who normally uses an 11 foot rod - and later asked me if I could build one for him. He said he didn't know you could get a rod that short with that much backbone (3-8 oz.), and he much preferred the shorter distance.

I'm sorry that I've diverted too far off topic, but my point remains the same: I believe that the vast majority of surfcasters would be better served by shorter rods around 10 feet or so. If you can get this guy to try out a shorter rod, I think you'll be able to win him over. Good luck.

Chris
I have to save your post. This would tell him if he wants the 15 footer that he should change his thinking.
Thanks for the info.

Good luck, Bill. He may still want a 15-footer, and if he does, God bless him -- it's a free country, after all. And even though I don't sell my custom rods - I just build them for myself -- I nevertheless think that one of the great benefits of getting a rod from a good custom rod builder is that he may be able to show you something that you otherwise might have missed. This guy, for example, came in with an unwillingness to try a shorter rod, but if you can get him to try one, he might really like it, and end up with a better piece of equipment than he would have if he had not gone to a custom rod builder (and what does he have to lose by trying something different?). Whatever he ends up with, I firmly believe that he will feel better served by you than if he had just gone into a tackle shop and picked a rod from a rack.

As a surf guy, this is a subject that's near and dear to my heart; I firmly believe that shorter rods will greatly benefit most surfcasters. I know that Tom has a lot of experience building surf rods, though - certainly a lot more than me - and I know that in the surf rod issue of RMM, he did say that longer rods = longer casts. I wonder, if he reads this, what his thoughts on this issue are.