Hi All,

I have been building fly rods for a long time and as such have significant experience with various fly rod components and products, but I have no experience with spinning rod components and products. I recently received orders to build up two mid level/moderately priced spinning rods for larger bass and similar sized freshwater fish. I was looking around and was quite interested in the St Croix SC111. In particular the SC111 6'6 4-10LB 2 piece blanks. Anyone have any experience with these blanks or can you refer me to other blanks (in that price range which may be better).

Many thanks for your views, Gavin

I have built a couple and, IMO, they are excellant blanks. The St Croiz Avid series is built on the SCIII

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!!

Gavin, I have built a few crankbait rods on SCIII blanks. Both 7', one medium heavy, the other heavy. Both perform well. The med hvy is used by a tournament angler. The moderate action makes it a good rod for throwing crankbaits, and it's so much lighter than a glass rod that you can throw it all day.
I think you'll find that the SCIII is a great blank for that moderate priced rod.

The SCIII blanks are excellent. If you want one of the best all around Bass blanks available look at the3C68MXF, it is listed as a casting blank, but it makes an excellent spinning rod. The Batson RX7 ISB802.75 is very similar to the StCroix for less money.

Gavin,
St. Croix blanks are very, very good blanks. I build a bunch of rods every year on the Avid (SCIII) blanks. Keep in mind when selecting lure ratings that the St. Croix's
"feel a bit stiffer" than other brand of blanks with a similar lure rating. Pick the right SCIII blank and you/your customer will love it.
Buzz

There is probably not a better value on the market than St Croix SC3 blanks. As previously mentioned, they are underrated just a touch.

St Croix SC111 is a great blank, and I really like the med lites they have. Depending on the application they work great, I have made more than a couple for Walleye fishing for myself and others.

Thanks everyone - st croix it is!

I'll join the chorus on the SCIII. Great blank. I build for a tournament guy on these blanks.

I think there is one thing to consider - where the customer going to fish most often and when you say Bass is it LM or SM. Here in the SE a ML is considered too light for most LM Bass fishing. It's not just that we have larger Bass :), it's also because we do a lot of structure fishing and have to "horse" the fish way from and out of cover. A lot of Bass fishing requires big baits, heavy baits, fished deep in structure and cover and therefor heavy line (some of my customers spool 50lb Power Pro). The Bass rods I build are MH and up unless it is specifically for river fishing and then it may be M. It's also a good idea to use every durability building trick in the book.

btw, I know there are differences between manufacturers' power ratings. I've used them here in a general sense.

Hi Steve thanks for the advise. The fishing will be for large mouth bass mainly (and at times probably some pretty big ones). I guess something like the 3S66MF2 should do the job.