Curious as to how the Gator Blanks truly are.

Looking to test out a Catfish Rod for Ohio river Boat Catfishing.

Here is the blank I am looking at

SP-PC701SWH-92 7'8" Med Fast 30-80 Live Bait 10 .84 Gloss Black

I am wanting to do a Spiral wrap on this one as well.

He wants stainless steel guides but not so sure about that

They are fine. Build on!!

Vince,
For a catfish rod, I think that stainless steel guides are a great choice. Tough enough for the use, no rings to break, often cat fish rods can get kicked around so the guides are pretty imune to damange and the best part is that the guides are very inexpensive, plus they are very light.

Roger

Vince,
I built a catfish rod for myself on a 30 lb class Gator Glass rod. I did the spiral wrap just as you are wanting to do, and it turned out wonderfully. Something that I did that I wasn't sure if I would like was to use one of the Fuji reel seats that has the rearward-pointing trigger. I think they are reel-seats geared toward vertical jigging rods. At any rate, I like that particular reel seat for the catfish rods as well. Don't remember the specific brand of guide, but they were double-footed metal guides with solid metal rings. No ring inserts. With all that said, you're on the right track to a good catfishing rod.

Matt Seymore