batson xst 1143
Posted by:
Jay McKnight
(---.dhcp.aldl.mi.charter.com)
Date: December 04, 2012 06:34PM
hello all. my name is Jay and i've recently dove headlong into the rod building hobby after 25 years of picking at it. ayear ago i built myself an xst 1143 batson steelhead rod. fished the thing as oftenas possible over the last year and decided it is the perfect rod for my home water , heavy enough to beat up kings and soft enough to handle light leaders and rigs for steel. recently a friend asked me to build him one up, and i charged ahead full steam. when the new blank showed up, ifit a handle, spaced some guides, and began static testing and test casting. it didn't seem to cast right. flexed the tip a few times and it felt stiff. compared it to my old rod and yep, it's stiffer, feels heavier too with the guides only taped on. i marked the blank every six inches or so and measured it with a pair of mic's and compared it too my old blank. yep, it's thicker in the mid section of the tip. i called batson and karry (nice guy, thank you for your time) said yes, the've had to reinforce the tip. i'm sure a lot of you guys know about this, i'm concerned about how the new blank fishes. it feels noticeably stiffer to me, and i don't think it's going to protect lighter leaders very well. if anyone has been through this scenario, i,d love to here how your end result turned out. thanks, jay
