Anyone aware of some 7' to 7'6" long 6 wt. fly blanks - not picky on number of pcs. Looking to make a small stream smallie rod for really short casting. Would consider over-lining a 5 wt. too if needed.

Thanks - Marc

Keep it simple - that's all I can handle!

I have never seen a 6wt that short. Finding a 8' 5wt is pretty easy but I have not seen any shorter than 8' in a 5wt. I have a couple of 8' 6wts that get used bass fishing but even those took me a while to find. My suggestion would be to go with a 8' 5wt and line it with a Wolf Ambush 6wt line and learn some basic single hand spey casts or just roll cast. You don't need any back cast room. I use this technique all the time. With the Ambush line and a little practice you and reach out to 40' or so with little trouble.

Quinn

A UL spin blank will work

Bill - willierods.com

Mark, couple of options from personal experience:
Batson RX-6 7'-6" 5wt can be over lined with a 6wt line if your casting is going to be close and you are using patterns that are not to heavy, say lightweight bugger's and poppers.

I have also built on the Pac Bay IGF806-4, its a little longer than the 7-6 your looking for, but it is a 6wt. Versitex shows them on their website, but better to give them a call to see if they still have any in stock.

I have built a 7' 6wt on a St. Croix 3S70MLF2 (SCIII) spinning rod blank. It is a 2 piece blank. It works great for short casts in tight quarters and has good backbone for fighting fish. I find short rods in the 6wt and up class, a little hard to cast, particularly if you do a lot of roll casting.

perhaps you need a more Med-fast or mod-fast Softer tip

Bill - willierods.com

I have a St Croix SCII 7'6 6wt I just picked up. It's listed in an older Mudhole catalogue as a youth panfish rod, but I don't see it in the latest one. Probably worth looking around to see if anyone has one left in stock. This article might be helpful too: [] .

Marc, see my post on fly rods from spinning blanks, just completed one for a customer that wanted a short rod to throw a 6 wt line and to load fast. I settled on a blank that was rated for 1/8 to 3/8 oz lure wts. You might have to try several blanks to get one that is suitable as these ratings vary as much as fly line ratings, that is one company's 1/8 is another company's 1/2 oz. I ended up using an America Tackle matrix blank.