Hi,
I am looking for 61/2 to 8 ft 2 piece 1 wt. fly rod blanks priced under $60, but am having trouble finding any. Can anyone make some suggestions I have already looked at the board sponsors. Any help would be appreciated. They will be used for extreme ultralite spinning rods. I built one on a 2 wt. but would really like to try a 1 wt.

Thanks
Mikes Custom Fly Rods

At what distance are you going to be fishing it?

Pick a spinning rod blank rated for 1/16th ounce casting lure weight. That will put you in the ballpark.

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

Hi, Tom

I,m casting 1/80 of an ounce 20 - 30 ft. with a palsa float also.

Mike

If you are following up on the In Fisherman article like I was, I couldn't find 1 weight rod blanks either. I finally built a 7 1/2 foot spinning rod on a AMF Matrix 763 3 wt fly blank, designed around a Shimano 500 Sedona, and it is the most spectacular performing ultra light I've ever seen. I have 8# braid, no leader, and it works great. I used a skeleton reel seat with a turned cork insert, Batson reel seat shims for ramps on both ends of the reel seat. I used the new concept guide system ending up with 3.5 Batson micros, and cannot be more please with the rod. Check out the grip area of the rod on the photos section of the forum, if you're interested.

I don't know if it will cast 1/80 oz jigs well or not, but it really loads well and casts 1/16 oz cranks beautifully.

I think that most or all spinning blanks will probably be too fast for what you want, so I would recommend you keep looking for fly blanks. There are some that are slower than the 763 from both American Tackle and Batson. But I really like the 763.

What final length are you looking for in the spinning rod? The 763 mentioned makes me think about the 793 that some manufacturers offer, which would give you a bit more room for trimming, etc. to get just what you're looking for.

Hey, Michael
I built a rod for a customer that saw the In Fisherman article. I ended up using a forecast RX6 6'6" 2 wt. fly blank and added 12" to the length. I used amtak concept guide set. The rod can cast very well but after landing a 8 pound catfish in testing with customer permission, I would really would like to try a 1 wt. on his next rod,oh well, not to be. Can castup to 20 - 25 ft. with a palsa float and a size 6 or 8 split shot and a small egg pattern.

Mike
Mikes Custom Fly Rods

The cheapest 1 weight I've found is a TFO finesse 4 piece at $90.
Ultra light spinning rods aren't even light enough but they are in your price range.
A 6'6" IM7 blank will require a butt dia approx .215 with a tip at 3.5/64
A 7" IM7 will require a butt dia approx .230 with the same tip
A 7'6" IM7 will require a butt dia approx .245 with the same tip
You may find an ultra light in this range but it's pretty small.
Use these diameters as a guide and find the smallest butt dia you can.

Good luck