I have a customer who requested a 7' 2wt fly rod. The only blanks I have found so far are RL Winston (very nice but...over budget) and TFO has a nice 7'3" 2 wt which may be close enough. Does anybody know of another that would fit the bill? He wants moderate - slow action and has a bit of a low budget on this one.

Thanks

Matt Smith
Greensboro, NC

PS: There is alot of 6'6" and 7'6" ones, but he wants 7' even.

Matt Smith
Greensboro, NC

If he wants a slow action you could go with the Lamiglas 7' 3wt fiberglass blank. Its CCS number is below 2, so it would do well with a 2wt line.

These make great fly rods. Angler's Workshop on the left carries them.

Walt Natzke
Ripon, CA

The ERN would not denote action, that would be the AA figure. Not sure if Bob's database has that one listed or not, but you could try.

Few of the very light line blanks have very fast actions, however, so I doubt you'd wind up with one no matter what you bought.

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Another thought - find a spinning blank with an ERN of about 1.5 to 2.5 and you'd have a good 2-weight rod for close in distances, which I assume is where he'll be using it.

Failing an ERN figure, an ultra light spinning blank rated for about 1/16th up to 1/8th ounce would work fairly well.

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Check out the Batson blanks here []

Bill - willierods.com

Get a 6'6" and add a extension. Easy to do.
Mike

I have just ordered a 6'6 2 2wt RX 7 and have to see how it is.

Bill - willierods.com

Tom, You are, as always, correct about the rod action.

For the record, I didn't mean to infer that the ERN indicates that this blank is slow. It is my EXPERIENCE with these blanks that tells me that they are slow. As I recall, the action angle is in the mid-50s.

Walt Natzke
Ripon, CA

I have this rod and it comes out with an ERN of 2.08 amd an AA of 63. I did not take the frequency measurement but based on the feel of it it would be very low. This is an great small stream fly rod.

Paul would that be the 6'6" 2wt from Batson in RX7? That is what I was thinking I would go with and if he has to have 7' (I'm not going to argue with him) I can add an extension. I would rather do that than cut down a 7'3" or 7'6".

Thanks for the advice.

Matt Smith
Greensboro, NC

Hay Paul:

What kind of changes do you think that blank or rod would have with a added handle section of 12-13" on it
ERN and AA. Got it on the way but don't have a good CCS set up to measure.
Think it will handle a 3 wt f line.

Thanks

Bill - willierods.com

check out dan craft he has a 7ft 1wt 2pc mod fast for under a 100.00 i have a 8ft 2wt that is a very good rod

I have built both the dan craft 7' 1wt 2pc and the lamiglas fiberglass 7' 3wt 2pc. I would assume with a short, light rod like this most casts will be rather short (30ft or less).
To me, the Lamiglas casts better at this distance with a 3wt line than a 2wt line. I even sometimes use 4wt line with this rod if I know i wont be making any long casts and am using hoppers or other large dries. This rod has what I would consider a slow action.
With the DC, it casts much better with a 2wt line or even a 3wt line. I can't cast it very well at short distances with a 1wt line, I really need a lot of line out to load that rod with the 1wt it is rated for. This rod has what I would consider a mod-fast action.
Between those two for a 2wt line (if thats what you are set on) I would choose the DC.
One more suggestion which i think would be better than either of the previous blanks would be to get a DC sig III 6'10" 3pc 1wt. I That rod casts a 1wt line very well and I think at <30' would also handle a 2wt line. had one of these but I gave it away. It's a great rod, but I enjoy fishing large dry flies and it wasn't really good for my type of fishing. I would consider this rod a moderate action. (Somewhere between the 7' DC and the Lamiglas, with the action being closer to the DC). I believe the ERN and AA is listed for all three of these blanks on the superbob CCS data page.
All of the lines I have mentioned here have been peach Cortland 444 WF or DT. The 1wt line was Corland 444 WF spring creek taper i believe.

Cabela's PT 7 foot 3 weight should underline to a 2 weight nicely.

Eugene Moore