I'm looking for a 7' or 7.5' blank that will handle a 6 or 7 wt. flyline, and throw lead-eyed dishrag streamers (i.e. clousers, crazy dads, sculpins, etc.) in deep, relatively fast water. The blank needs to be short, as the river is very narrow. And, while the rod needs to be a 6 or 7 wt. to handle the sinking line and the big flies, anything heavier would be overkill, as the fish are generally 10-15".

I can't find many fly blanks that cater to this type of fishing. Plus, I don't want to spend a bunch of cash, either. So, I'm thinking that maybe I should go with a spinning blank. . . .?

So, which spinning (or casting?) blank should I try? I'm open to any ideas/suggestions.

Call Bob at Custom Tackle, he is pretty good at converting various blanks to unintended use. My first thought would be a 3 power popping blank. There are a few inexpensive options available, even 2-piece models.

For the 7 foot 2 piece IM7 look for a butt dia approx .311 with 4 to 4.5 tip dia
For a 7-1/2 foot 2-piece IM7 look for a butt dia approx .331 with 4 to 4.5 tip dia

Andrew, you say the river is very narrow and so am I correct that you don't need to cast far, but still need a heavy line to turn over heavy flies? If that's the case, consider the St. Croix 3S70ULM2 2pc. spinning blank. It will do what you want it to do very nicely. I have one and built it with a TN handle and I fish it alternately as either a spin or fly rod.

Andrew, I believe St. Croix has a 7.5' 6 wt. in their graphite II series of blanks. I have a factory rod in that configuration and it casts quite well.

Andrew, I looked up the blank I mentioned above. The number is 2F766 and CustomTackle on the left lists it in their catalogue.

Do you think that 2F766 will turn over a 6 wt. sink tip and a heavy lead-eyed streamer? I saw that rod and was wondering if it had the butt power for a sink tip line and big heavy flies.