Hi Folks,

Need some help thrashing through the thicket of possibilities for a casting blank, 7' 2" or 7' 3",MH weight, fast taper (enough mojo in the butt to move a bass out of the branches), 12-20 lb. mono or braid, used for worms and soft baits starting at about 1/4 oz.. Customer likes the lower and mid grade St. Croix rods, and is currently using a Carrot Stick. He also has a tendency, to put it politely, to employ a STRONG hookset, sometimes veering over the line into high sticking (I've repaired several of his earlier, cheaper rods for this), so I have suggested something in the IM6-IM7 range, in the hope that this will give him some increased durability as opposed to the real high end stuff. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Pete Appel

RX7 IMB 844 with a 2-4" handle extension. i made some frog rods on these (no extension) and my friends really like them... action is not overly heavy, but lots of backbone. If he wants the same strength, but a softer tip, cut down a IFS904.

Regards,
-Justin

Pete,

I like the St.Croix blanks, but you may want to look into the Castaway blanks, I purchased 4-of the Big Show blanks from Lance at Swampland. I havn't built off of any of them yet, but my 1st impression is, for the money, it's a darn nice blank. I'm sure many others on this forum have used this blank and could offer up more evidence.

Best of Luck,
Steve

Steve Bro
(BroCo Custom Rods)

Starting at 1/4 oz and going up to what? A 1/8th oz jig head or weight with a 4" finesse worm is close to 1/4 oz total. Might want to ask for a little more info if you are trying to get specific to the technique.

You may want to look closely at the multimodulus line up offered by Swampland with the XP3 series.

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Thanks for the replies. High end weight would be about 5/8 oz.

Pete Appel

Peter -

Check out the HG40s on swamplands site. Under specials I think. They have some 7', 1/4 - 5/8oz rods at a great price. I've built 3 of them and had happy customers with all. Finshed up they came in at about 3.2oz if I remember right.

It's not 7'2" or 7'3", but to get that you are probably going to have to extend it or get a 7'6" and cut.

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