A good friend of mine wants me to build him a 7 ft. 1 piece spinning flipping stick. Wants it stiff for working heavy cover in florida lakes. He is not concerned about tip action wants to be able to pull fish out of heavy cover. Mostly flipping with some pitching under 10 feet. Will be using 50 lb braid. Needs some recommendations on blank along with guides. I was thinking micros since he will not be using any leader.

The most powerful 7 foot blank I have seen is one of the closeout blanks that Swampland had it was called either MB845 or MB705. I don’t know if they have any left, but they sold a bunch at the show last year. I built 2 rods on those blanks and they are real broomsticks, you don’t find too many 7 foot blanks that powerful.

Thanks, I will check with them at the show.

Hi Mike,

I like that 705 idea myself. Some mag bass blanks are offered up to 6 pwr but your friend might not want the fast action so maybe a heavy crankbait might work better. (we have one up to 5 pwr but it's a heavy 5)

For the guides you can probably guess I would strongly favor our new introduction, the Ringlock A-Frames. If you are going to use a single foot design then come by the booth and check them out. Their frames are very strong and they offer ideal for ring protection on this type of project. The 50# braid is no match for the nanolite ring. here's their highlights:

- Frames comprised of SS316 material
- High frame ring location
- Lateral strut preventing frame twist
- Vector Angle crease at base to prevent frame collapse
- Recessed ring design protecting ceramic from impact
- Ringlock press-fit ring system with larger glue reservoir preventing ring loss
- Shorter foot print on blank
- Available in our thin Nanolite ring, an SiC equivalent

For a single foot design, they are awesome. hope you come by to take a look.

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim

Darrin is right on the blank - I have built on the 5 power crankbait blank they have, and actually as a light musky rod. Great power, but nice and light. I think it would be a really good choice for what you are looking at.

Good luck,
Marc