GLoomis doesn't make the GL3 ST1363 blank anymore and I don't want to attempt to repair the broken rod tip I that I recently stepped on. They have an Xpeditor service that for $50, they'll send me the closest replacement blank and I can strip the guides off my broken blank and mail it back to them.

My ST1363 was an 11'4" 6-12 line, 3/8 - 3/4 oz blank. A suitable GL3 replacement with the same line and lure rating is their ST1143 but it is only 9'6" long. This blank is designated for a casting rod but as Tom has pointed out in the past, the blank won't know the difference.

I intend to build it as a spinning rod for Salmon and if the lure ratings for each blank are correct, I assume it should handle and feel the same way as my broken rod but just 22" shorter. I believe it would be "easier" to fight Salmon since it is a shorter rod anyway, just won't be able to cast as far. Any comments would be appreciated about this blank. Thanks.

It will handle the same lures and have about the same power, but it won't handle or feel anything like what you have now. The shorter rod will almost certainly balance differently and it will be a little less sensitive (longer rods are by default more sensitive because you've given the fish a longer lever to use against you - the fish will move further and faster simply because he can. And... you have to apply more effort in order to arrest his movements because you're on the "short end of the stick" so to speak.) But I wouldn't worry about this too much.


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Well, it will be 22 fewer inches for you to step on :-)

Frankly, why not something more durable. Loomis has a name, but for a lot of folks that name equals 'fragile'. To each their own I guess. Certainly one guy building rods local to me has cutomers who love Loomis rods,,, and so does he,,, as he is always having to build new ones for them that break.

Dave - if I could get a Rainshadow through the GLoomis Xpeditor exchange program I would - they certainly more to offer in their Salmon/Steelhead series.

Why not just extend the butt end ? With that long of a blank I don't think it would effect the action that much. Jesse

Thanks Jesse, I was thinking I could cut off the handle section before I returned the rest of the blank pieces and use that to extend the 9'6" GL3 blank. I don't think they would mind.

The action would become faster if you extend the rod. That could be a plus or a minus depending on what you're after.

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Sure looks like it seeing the blanks online. Lami has some too I think.
It you thought a little shorter and higher in the line ratings, I'd be all over Seekers. Picked up some S-glass tip, graph bottom, Seeker 2 pieces when in SoCal last month for mooching rod fodder. At a tad under 9' and est. 15-30# test, they are not quite what you are aiming at tho.