I'm looking to build a fly rod in 8-10 wt. as a heavy cover rod for bass. I'm thinking I want this in the 7' to 8' range. I'll be fishing in and around a bunch of timber and hydrilla so I want it both shorter and stouter than "normal" sort of like the mag bass feel in a fly rod.

Any specific suggestions on blanks?

Thanks!

You might consider a 7 foot med light, fast action blank.
Check with Gary Henderson. He built a 6'6" 10 weight if memory serves me on a MHX blank.
The 290GR Sage smallmouth also comes to mind but I don't know if it's available as a blank.

Eugene Moore

A 7'6" or 8'0" popping blank in 3 or 4 power should prove to be just the ticket.

If you want to go shorter (7') the SJ842-MHX will work well with 9-10 wt. The SJ9000-MHX is 7 1/2' long and will also throw a 9-10 wt. This one is an extra fast taper, so you won't want to be doing lots of false casting with it.

I just got finished building a 7' 6/7 wt. on a 3S70MLF-2. Works great. It would throw an 8 wt. line, but wouldn't do much more than that. If you could find a 7' med. power, fast action spinning blank, I think you'd get close. Just understand that it'll work, but the length and taper of the blank means that you'll have no room for error on your fly casting.

Thanks for the info... I did think about popping or mod-fast cranking blanks as they would probably be a little easier to cast I think. I guess I need to grab a few of my casting rods and see how they load with different fly lines. I can tape a fly reel on them to try it out. I probably should have done that first!

Still welcome further input.

Best,

Keith