i have built a couple of inshore rods on both blanks. [from same supplier] can anyone tell me the difference? both are same legenth and lure weight. both have 4.5 tips and near identical butt diameters. i can't tell any difference in actin etc. thanks for any help.

In most cases, although not all, the Hot Shot blanks are extremely fast action with very, very light tips and fairly powerful butt sections. Much more so than common popping blanks.

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

jane palmer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> i have built a couple of inshore rods on both
> blanks. can anyone tell me the difference? both
> are same legenth and lure weight. both have 4.5
> tips and near identical butt diameters. i can't
> tell any difference in actin etc. thanks for any
> help.


That doesn't sound right. I think you might just have identical blanks, not different. As Tom mentioned, they are different beasts altogether.

call the supplier and ask He may have sent you two the same

Bill - willierods.com

I agree 100% with Tom.
The hot shot blanks have a more robust blank that is designed for heavier loads. Also, the tip is normally a bit faster than a popping rod.

In my world of walleye fishing, I tend to use the hotshot blank for both heavy crank bait use, as well as heavier jig fishing.
In contrast, I tend to use the popping rod for live bait fishing due to its softer overall action.

Remember, the basic hotshot rod was designed to pull plugs or crank baits in the pacific northwest for salmon and steel head.
In contrast the basic popping rod was designed for blue water shore fishing with live shrimp. The soft tip and more gentle midrange of the popping blank does a wonderful job of lobbing out live shrimp for catching the big fish that roam the blue waters of the gulf.


Good luck
Roger



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/2012 12:29AM by roger wilson.

Most of the popping blanks I measure up tend to exhibit characteristics like a crankbait blank.

Hot Shot blanks look more like XF jig or feel presentation blanks...just much longer.




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

Better to have and not need than to need and not have.

Matt it puzzles me how some custom builders imply/state/suggest that blanks designed for moving bait (trebel hooks) rods and jig rods (single point hooks) are one and the same.

Huge difference in the two blanks -

Anglers who generalize and select less that optimum choices loose the battle to the fish!

Over and over and over!

The characteristics that provide a skilled angler with the correct tool should be know by those who build rods.

At least to the point of listening to the suggestions of the top manufacturers and highly skilled anglers.

I often fish with flies tied on double salmon irons - double hooks. Should I use a rod built on a single hook blank, a treble hook blank, or is there a double hook blank available?

Matt, Roger, and Tom are spot on for their assessments. I would further submit, that just because a manufacturer designs and builds a blank for a species specific purpose doesn't mean it can't cross over into another realm of fishing. A perfect example are the two rods discussed. The popping rod makes for an excellent crappie tool and no where on the manufacturer's sites does it say that this is what the rod is designed for. Same case for the drop shot rod when it comes to a vertical presentation with jigs. Bill I have to have misunderstood your post if you are saying that those two rods are only good for their marketing stated purpose because the manufacter or a highly skilled angler says so? I build mainly for the crappie and walleye crowd and if I couldn't suggest a blank such as these two that would suit the purpose they are looking for even though the words crappie,walleye,vertical,casting, or any other specific in nature words didn't appear in the marketing hype by skilled anglers I would lose the sale and have to send them to a big box store to find a rod that said "giant crappie killa" with a highly skilled anglers name on it. The CCS system or any system of measuring blanks has opened up a whole new world for Custom Builders to build on ANY blank that suits a customers prefered means of catching his prefered species. As Tom has stated many times before that the internet doesn't reach as many custom builders as print, I would also say that there are many highly skilled anglers who have never had their name in print that could attest that their are many blanks that can better suit their taste than one suggested in print no matter what species it was designed for. Many of those highly skilled anglers are also Custom Rod builders and one does not have to make his or her living at what they do to be highly skilled. There are also many higly skilled anglers in print that could catch fish with a broomstick and have never fished with a custom rod and are highly successfull generally with a line of their own manufactured rods and lots of marketing hype behind them. In the end it is simply marketing and meaningless to those in the know. It would be a good point of argument to know who drives the industry for innovation, The Custom Builders or the Highly Skilled Angler in marketing print.

Terry I agree - those who use actual on the water experience and blank test data for comparison support all you state.

Those who use ONLY what the see on the Internet Forums may be lead and the wrong direction.

Manufacturers recommendations include crossover information - popping and cranks are many times built on the same or blanks with similar action and power.

There is a huge difference between credible print media and what can be seen on Internet Fourms -

If a guy asks a question who does not know - he gets answers from all over the spectrum - who does he believe?

I can assure you one thing - if a top notch crank blank is chosen by the custom rodbuilder for a worm jig stick the fish population would explode.

Custom rodbuilders innovate and marketing and dollars drive the markets.

I built a fly rod on an 8'6" hot shot blank. It "likes" an 11wt. line and easily casts 90' of it. The rod has enough power in the butt to handle some serious fish. I agree with Terry. Don't let marketing hype or testimonials limit your choices or your imagination.

I use and have tested the following hot shot blank and it excels at flats fishing trout and redfish. From bouncing 1/4 once jigs, free lining mullet to popping corks. I'm sure there are better choices for those applications. I like the extra fast action with soft tip in 7'6". This hot shot blank however is the mag light and weights 2oz. Not the typical hot shot blank. I consider this blank a crossover.

Northfork Composites HS 7600-1 (IM)