I need help on the following.

I've heard some really great things regarding the Graphite USA blanks, a.k.a. G-USA blanks, here on the west coast regarding Saltwater and some freshwater.

Just wondering if any of you have experience building on G-USA blanks and if you could help me out on some suggestions of blanks on the following applications?

What G-USA blanks would you suggest for the following?

Dropshot
Crankbait
Topwater
Frog
Pitchin'
Flippin'
Wormin'
Shakey Head
Darter Head
Spinnerbait
Swimbait (small)
Swimbait (medium)
Swimbait (large)
Jerkbait
Senko


Thanks for the help. I'm just experimenting with different blanks to see which blanks and manufacturer that I'm going to stick with.

Tony

711H is designed for large swimbaits.
C70MHXFDHX I think is a great topwater rod - I dont' FW fish enough to know for sure, but I know for me I like XF for topwater.
SOme of the United blanks, like teh UR703, are a good crankbait rod since it has more of a bend than teh GUSA 703DHX - again, this is from somone who has ordered a bunch of them from me

Spinnerbaits/jerks/topwater/carolina rig/spoons : C663DHX or 703DHX.

Tubes/sliders/senko/long distance finesse/small cranks : C65M or C70M. Close in dock tubes : C60M.

Cranks : UR703 or UR704 for deep cranks.

Heavy swims : C711H, 85 Mag, 80 Monster Mag.

Jigs/Worms : C664DHX or C704DHX. I like a lighter powered blank for carolinas, but some like the C704DHX.

Not a fan of their flipping blanks.

Spencer, I'm in no way disagreeing with you, I just have a question. For HEavy swims you put in the 80 Monster, but skipped the Mega Mag. Do you really use the 80 Monster for FW Swimbaits? That's one heck of a blank, legit 50# SW, that's why I ask.

These are just blanks I've seen or heard of others using in CA when I get down there. I've only used the 711H. And frankly like my Rainshadow better, but I haven' t fished the big monster, expensive swims. Don't have the depth of water with bass in it here in the Pacific Northwest, at least where I've fished. My favorite lake is only about 12 ft deep in one spot. I only fish bass between salmon/steelhead runs. Fish walleye/smallmouth bass more in the Columbia River as it's right there when the others aren't on the bite.

Off topic a little, how do they GUSA blanks compare to say a Loomis or St Croix. I have experience with those. I haven't ordered a GUSA blank yet because I really didn't know much about them. Truthfully, where I am, you pretty much only see Bass Pro brand rods and other off the rack from the sporting goods stores rods. You see very few hand made rods. Mainly freshwater and relatively rural area.

Rating for rating, the GUSA blanks weigh more. They will withstand abuse to high sticking, feet stomping, and etc's better as well. They sacrificed weight for durability. They have a new series called the Advantage, which is more along the lines of St. Croix & Loomis, an I've heard they were coming out with a Professional Series as well. I have one ADvantage which is comaprable to the 703DHX, and it is a nice blank. I honestly have not dealt with nearly as many Loomis & SC blanks as I have GUSA, but for the Inshore SW fishing I do, I much prefer the GUSa's not only for their durability, but also that tehy have more of a bend with a fish on. The Loomis & SC blanks I've used, have a stiffer bend, whereas the GUSA's will hae more of a parabolic bend further down teh blank. This is ideal for braided line & graphite, at least for me.

As Billy said they are a bit heavier, not greatly so,but very hardy. Don't know how to discribe it, but because of the small diameter and the way they are built they seem very dense compared to other blanks. Not weight dense so much, but structurally dense. Have seen pictures of them running full size Broncos over them without collapsing the blank.
I tried them after Rich Forhan suggested them some years ago, along with Shikari blanks. I still use a few rods built on C703 DHX and C663DHX blanks and enjoy them the others have been sold to people I've fished with. Another blank I wouldn't mind having more of was the C65M, makes a nice rod that I found many uses for while I owned it.
Have a few fly blanks built by GUSA also, they are nice also..

Tony,
I have never used one of the Graphite USA blanks so I cannot comment on how they perform but
I just looked up several of the Graphite USA blanks and comparable Rainshadow blanks for comparison. The graphite USA blanks weigh about TWICE as much and are also about twice as expensive as a comparable Rainshadow blank They may be fine for boat rods and I suspect that they do have very high hoop strength as their add suggests but they will not make good rods for casting due to the weight.

The GUSA blanks are beautiful, but somewhat heavy for the same power as many other makes. They have long used a small diameter, heavy wall design which makes them reasonably durable as far as most high end graphite rod blanks go. But that also means they have to use a bit more material which makes them a little heavier. But they are very nice blanks.

.....................

The GUSA blanks make some really nice bass rods, noway are they twice as heavy as other blanks. GUSA DHX703 is 2oz. if the comparable rainshadow weighs 1oz I would like to see it.

My only problem is being able to get them. I know some people have been able to buy them, but I was trying last winter and none of the sponsers were able to get a blank in a timely manner or at all.

Good luck.

Tom,
As you well know, a smaller diameter, thicker walled design results in a blank with high hoop strength but at the expense of higher weight. The higher hoop strength primarily just makes the blank stronger in terms of crush, torque and shear but has little affect on the strength of the blank under tension and compression. I would suggest that for any blank that will be used to cast with the weight is more important than the hoop strength.
Plus most graphite rods break as a result of either impact or being over-stressed and the higher hoop strength will not improve this significantly.
Again, I think that they may make good boat rods where the weight is not as important but at twice the weight I do not think that will make decent rods if the rods are being used to cast.

Stan,
I just took the weight numbers out of the catalogs for GUSA and Rainshadow. But they have to be significantly heavier as a result of the design that they employ.
In my judgment the only Bass fishing application where they could be used is in applications where very heavy weights were being cast. When heavy weights are being cast then the extra weight in the rod would have a smaller detrimental affect on the rods casting performance.

Emory- I respect your opinion, but not everything lies in the numbers. I have several of the Hastings/Graphite USA blanks, and they work fine for bass and lighter applications. Their ultralight blanks are noticably heavier than comparablt manufacturers, but the B70M 8-17lb is one of my favorite blanks to use for light saltwater. Wrapped with Titan guides, it doesn't seem any noticably heavier to me than other blanks. It would cast light jigs, or a light weight and a shrimp, just fine.

You may be able to get a bit more performance out of a lighter blank, but I wouldn't limit what the blanks are used for without ever having tried one.

Phil

Emory, which specific blanks are you comparing that are twice as heavy? Is it the "low end" GUSA B series (B70M)...the DHX series (703DHX)...the United Advantage series (ADV 7MH)? There's a big difference between those 3. Adn whic RAinshadows?

Heavier, thicker walls do make a blank less likely to break from impact and this is what the folks at GUSA were after when they adopted that design. It seems to work, and I know many bass rod builders who use them for the sole reason that they're a little more resistant to that kind of breakage than other high modulus blanks.

For me, they're a little too heavy for that application so we do agree on that. But others feel differently. They're generally straight, beautifully finished and hold up reasonably well, compared.

It's easy to make a blank nearly unbreakable and it's easy to make a blank extremely light. It's almost impossible to do both at the same time, however.

.............

I just went to their catalog and to the Rainshadow catalog and compared a number of the blanks that are intended for Bass fishing applications with comparable length, power etc. I found the Graphite USA to be roughly twice as heavy and twice as expensive. I did not question the difference in weight because the design approach that they take has to result in heavier blanks. But I am not a bass fisherman nor have I used any of the Graphite USA blanks so I will defer to the judgment of those of you who have.

Tom,
Thicker walls will increase the hoop strength but will not have a major affect on a blanks ability to withstand impact. The reason is that the load on the layers of fiber drops off at roughly the 4th power of the distance from the center of the blank to the surface of the blank. So the majority of the load is on the surface layers of material. If the surface layers are damaged with an impact the blank is weakened in a major way and the inner layers that are carrying very little of the load will help a little but not much. I know that this is somewhat counter intuitive but another way of looking at this is, when a blank is under load there is zero stress or strain at the center of the blank, almost all of the stress and strain is on the outer few layers of material.

Ok, I happen to have wrapped a ADV 7MH and the weight of the blank was 1.73oz. The regular 703 is listed at 2oz, which is accurate +/- .1. Both are rated the same, 1/4 - 3/4oz.

I went onto the St. Croix site, and looked at the following blanks which have teh same 1/4 - 3/4oz rating.
5C70MF weight = 2oz
4C70MF (only rated 1/4 - 5/8) 2.2oz
3C70MF - 2.3oz
2C70MF 2.2oz

OK, so the one model GUSA which I'm most familiar with is actually as light or lighter than ALL the St. Croixs fom SC2 thru SC5.

So now I went onto the Rainshadow site, adn looked at more blanks with teh 1/4 - 3/4oz rating, here's what I found
RX8+C843 2.46oz
ISB843 2.57oz
SB843 2.5oz

So now I scratch my head and wonder even more, becasue the GUSA in for this rating is much lighter than teh top of the line Rainshadow, which is also the most expensive blank I saw at $197.20. So Emory, I ask you again, what SPECIFIC blanks are you looking at. Because as far as I can see, you are not posting accurate information. I'd hope that if I could spend the 10 minutes researching & disproving your allegations, you could do teh same to prove them.

One other note, my guess as to why tehir is so much of a weight difference between teh 703DHX and the ADV which I weighed (I one weighed one), was that teh DHX blanks are gloss coated, adn the ADV are MAtte. Anyone who has used a GUSA knows that the coating they put on their blanks is substantial, so leliminating that + using a different graphite accounted for the weight difference, imo.