Does anyone sell Carrot Stix blanks to the general public?? I doubt it but certainly hope so...
TIA
Ken Blevins

Not that I am aware of, but as I understand it Carrot Stix blanks are just graphite blanks with a little bit of biofiber and orange paint. I am sure they are pretty nice rods, but they are not the true future of fishing rods, that will take someone with very deep pockets to fully commercialize.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2008 12:27PM by mike harris.

i've heard those blanks are garbage

The concept and make up is indeed the future of fishing rods. I don't think the blanks are available, yet.

The Carrot Stix are made from Curran, a biofiber derived from carrots. It is then molded around a thin carbon core. The color you see is the natural color of the Curran fiber.

The question many of us have had is just how much of the power comes from the Curran and how much from the underlying carbon core. I do own 2 fly rods built by the company that pioneered this process for fishing rods and they're quite nice. Nothing head and shoulders above the good graphite rods that are out there, but as good and supposedly much more durable.

It will take a little time for the technology to become improved and adopted, but if you were around back in the early 1970's, you no doubt heard about those crazy carbon/graphite rods and how they'd never catch on. Too expensive, too "brittle," just a gimmick to hook the fishermen and many were just mated with glass fibers anyway. We know how that turned out.


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Just did a repair on one and also saw the guy's spare rod, was underwhelmed by the construction details, but they feel like nice rods. Lots of orange paint missing, too.
Tom White

Whilst I understand where Tom is coming from in terms of the potential in the future of nanofibres in rodbuilding.
The current level of technology available with nanofibres leaves a lot to be desired.
nanofibre technology has a few more hurdles to overcome before it can become a core rod blank manufacturing technique.
At its current level of development I equate the use of nanofibres in rod blank construction to that of a high tech, small fibre, chopped strand fibreglass matt.
It appears to have advantages in enhancing hoop strength / weight , but lacks directional orientation to maximise longitudinal strength as a core rod blank construction medium in its current application form.
New technology has to start somewhere.
A start has been made........................whether it can replace current construction mediums like carbon fibre as a primary rod blank component is something only time will tell and further technical developments in fields beyond just the development of the fibre itself are required.

Just my 2C
DenisB

It won't be used as a mat, or sheet or prepeg type of material - no rolling around a mandrel. It will be poltruded or molded to shape, similar to how plastics are used. Bio-fibers are already in use in other fields. Two gentlemen from Scotland have pioneered its use in fishing rod construction. For the time being, they are molding the material around a core. They were already working on a method to replace/eliminate the core some time ago. I have not followed up lately and thus don't really know where they are, but as the process continues to spread into other industries it will continue to be refined.

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