I’m building fly rod (again my first).
Using;
Shikari SHX PP7000 popping blank. 7ft 6-12 line, 1/4-1/2 oz. lures, extra –Fast.

I may (or may not) extend it to 7’11-3/4” both for the length and to slow it down a bit.
My questions;
How would that equate specs in fly line weight?

Not building any thing fancy just a functional setup. So is there any reason not to use EVA type grip for comfort?

I will be using it to throw at schooling bass using small weightless worms with small hooks or ½” long glass type minnows. What line size and type would you suggest for this?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2008 02:08PM by Steve Gardner.

Do a CCS test on it and determine the ERN. That will give you a good starting place for matching a line to it. There are other variables involved but that is where I would start as it gives you a objective set of measurements to work from.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

Wouldn't extending it make it a faster action by moving the flex point out faarther to thr tip???

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

I'm with Mike, if you keep the butt stiffer than the blank, like you should, the tip action will become faster due to a smaller ratio of the rod tip bending for it's length. The tip itself won't change.

With a fly rod, you're holding the grip and imparting often subtle motion there. Don't use EVA - try cork or urethane foam. Wood even. You need something rigid that won't give much under your fingers.

An extra fast action allows you to use a wider range of weight (line) and still be effective. I don't have the ERN number for that blank, but I'm going to guess it will work decently at average distances with a 5-weight line, or so. Fishing in close or very far out will change that somewhat.

Extending it will make it faster, not slower.

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

You are all right about making it faster. My brain's working backwards today Thanks.

Another question then. I don't want to make it shorter and was thinking about making it longer. By doing so and making it faster. Am I shooting myself in the foot?

I don’t have a CCS board set up and will most likely never build another fly rod again so I don’t really want to go through the trouble of setting one up.
Thank for the tip on the handle I thought it might be a problem and wanted some input,.
Thanks again.
I thought about making a carbon grip but as often as I would be swinging the rod back and forth I am afraid it will make my hand sore.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2008 05:20PM by Steve Gardner.

It won't, just as swinging a hammer back and forth doesn't make your hand sore (unless you miss the nail and hit your thumb).

It is the softer grip that will make your hand sore and/or fatigued.


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

You can do a one time CCS measurement without any special tools other than a tape measure, a level and some pennies. It is a fairly simple task.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

I have one of those blanks in the SHX and SH III at the house, don't have time now, but tomorrow I could tape the PP up with some fly reels/lines and play with it. I also think the 702s would make a nice shorter fly rod.

I
Thank you spenccer
I have several different SHX popping blanks 7000, 702,703.5, 804 then seveal shorter verisons as well.

Steve,
Just put the PP 7000 through a few lines, because of the tip it will throw down to 4 wt, but if you don't watch your technique it opens up the loop much faster than a good 4 wt blank would, still it will reach out to 60 ft easily.At 6 wt the loops smooth out, but really doesn't get going till you have at least 30 ft out of the tip, with both lines is will pick 40 ft off the grass for the back cast, though the 4 wt was a pretty good sized loop, not enough weight/resistance to really spring the line off the grass. Both lines used for the test were Wulff triangle tapers so I'd also have a feel of how they would do with a DT line, if throwing short.
Last I put a Scientific Angler 8 wt XD floating line and a Teeny TT 300. With this set up it feels like a mini Sage TCR 8 wt almost, but recovery times are quite a bit slower. Line hanging up in the grass/clover, line memory as I didn't stetch the lines, and backcasting restrictions were the only thing slowing up the floating line, still lots of power in the butt. With the Teeny sink tip, once you had the color out of the tip it just boomed it out there, it too was only restricted by the the grass, etc. Couldn't get it all out, but with all the weight in the tip, it just shot out of the rod.
Now that Shikari doesn't make this blank anymore, I guess we're stuck with the G Loomis P 8400 GLX though it may have a stiffer tip like the GLX HR 9000 does over the GL3 models.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/27/2008 01:31PM by Spencer Phipps.

Spencer;
Thank you greatly for the info, and al the work you have put into it!
Although some of it's over my head. I know absolutely nothing about fishing fly rods.
I would not even know how to cast one if Mr. Kirkman had not been good enough to give me a lesson. I can pretty much tweak a bass rod to perfection, but am really ignorant when it comes to fly rod and fly lines.

Based on the info below which is what I would be using this rod for;
What would you suggest for a fly line? Is a large loop a problem? And would a weight foreword line be of an advantage? I will be exclusively fishing for them on the surface.

THE ROD:
(The reason for this fly rod may be the most task specific rod I ever build.
It will most likely be used on one lake, in one place, for one specific
reason, during a very short 2 month window and most likely will never see my
boat except when I'm on this lake.

On this lake there is an under water hump actually and submerged island.

That the bass school on every year by the thousands to chase young of the
year shad ranging from ¼ to ½ inch in length. Unless you can match the hatch
size exactly you can almost never get them to bite. Now I have won many
tournaments off this spot but at times
I've spent hours throwing to these schooling fish with out results because they are so size specific in their eating choices, and some times they are up and down so
quickly that you just can't cast to them in time.

What I am hoping to accomplish with this rod is to be able to throw small
enough offerings far enough and quick enough to catch more of these fish.

Based on what Tom shared with me
The cool thing about the fly rod is that I won't have to waste time reeling
back in for another cast only to have them go back down before I can cast
out again, but rather just snatch the line up and back out to another
location in one action. I fish about 8 tournaments on this lake every year
and if I can get this to work I will win a lot more of them).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/2008 09:50AM by Steve Gardner.

Steve,
A big loop causes more wind resistance and allows the wind to carry your offering off the mark or with a large amount of slack in the line when it does set down on the water that you have to pick up before fishing.
The line I uses were weight forward lines, they just have a long tapered front end that lets them perform more closely like both type of line depending on how much you throw out.
I still have the rod set up and so I can go out on the water and test it some more for you if you like, how far off you going to be casting to your spot?

Spencer when fishing for these fish they will come up in little pods say 5 to 50 fish at a time. For as little as 10 to 30 seconds at a time. When this happens and they are out of reach I use my trolling motor to get as close a s possible before the come up again. Many times there will be pods coming up in several different locations so I will head toward the pods that seem to have the largest fish. Which means any were from 20 ft to 80 yards from the boat. So as I learn to cast the fly rod I will also have to learn my limitations as far as casting distances.
Pretty much my boat is in motion all chasing them.

Chris;
Yes it works great, but I am by no means an expert on fly rods. It was built it on a Shikari popping blank. Afterwards went to Visit Mr. Kirkman to find out exactly what I had and which line weight would be best for using the bait I built it to throw.
I am also not passing
a knot through it that much because I’m using a shorter leader. I few people suggested using a 5-6wt all the way up to a 12wt. line based on input about the rod and what would be normal.

But after throwing it some and seeing what I was attempting to do Mr. Kirkman put me on an 8wt line forward line which works fine. I also have to give him credit for teaching me how to though the thing to start with.

I was going to include a link to the original questions and responses to this project when started, but after seeing that most of my questions and comments had been hacked out of them, it would be of little use.