hi everyone new to forums and rodbuilding. so far i have built 2 rods, both fly and 9' 7wt's. one on a lamiglass blank , with snake guides , not sure which model as i got it from a local rodbuilder. and the second on a batson rx7 if907-m with sf ceramic guides.both turned out good i think especially the batson rx7. i had dan craft set me up with the sf ceramic guides , and before i wrapped the rod i thought that the 1st stripping guide looked too big. but i have heard nothing but good things about dan and he seemed to be very knowledgeable so i went ahead and finished the rod anyways. today i went out in my yard to cast it for the first time and noticed as i was shooting line that if i went to shoot a bunch , the last few feet that were going to go thru the first stripping guide would wrap around the rod blank, instead of cleanly shooting thru causing the line to stop. if that makes any sense at all. could this be caused by the 1st stripping guide being too large? i am very new to fly fishing and casting in general(roughly 8 months) but have never had this problem before. also i was casting in the dark,lol as it was the first chance i got to cast it and only roughly 30ft plus the extra line i was shooting. sorry to ramble on and thanks for any responses.

the best i could measure the first stripping guide was with a take measure on the o.d of the ring at roughly 9/16 or 14.28mm. thanks again

It's not the guide - you're letting go of the line too much. You have to lightly feather it as it shoots. If you just let it go, it can easily flip itself around the blank in front of the grip.

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try making a circle with your thumb and finger, and guide the line flow through this as it shoots.

Greg
Aptos, CA

Michael,
Happens to me whenever I get lazy and don't guide the line with my free hand as Greg mentioned above.
Happens less if I cut back the power and don't shoot long lengths.

Gene

thanks everyone for the suggestions, i took ur guys advice and tried it at the river tonight and had no problems. just the worry of an inexperienced builder & caster. the rod seemed to be very smooth with a moderate / slow action. i couldnt get very tight loops with it casting a heavy streamer, but that probably comes from my lack of casting heavy streamers. i had another off topic question for everyone , i was thinking about when i get enough cash building myself a spey rod for kicks, but really have no idea what would be a good blank for a beginning caster , the batson blanks seem to get good reviews and wouldnt break the blank , any other decently priced blanks that are good?
thanks again

But of course - CTS.
Seriously though - arguably the best.
I can send you some demos. I don't know about the bank though.
Herb
Distrib. CTS Fly Blanks.

Other good 2-handed blanks besides Batson's that have received good reviews:
Pac Bay Quickline for Switch rod lengths. The spey blanks only come in heavier sizes
MHX has had some nice reviews for both spey and switch rod blanks.

I've built a number of Rainshadow spey and switch blanks for myself and for my customers and would recommend them highly for a value priced blank with good performance.

Terry

Other good 2-handed blanks besides Batson's that have received good reviews:
Pac Bay Quickline for Switch rod lengths. The spey blanks only come in heavier sizes
MHX has had some nice reviews for both spey and switch rod blanks.

I've built a number of Rainshadow spey and switch blanks for myself and for my customers and would recommend them highly for a value priced blank with good performance. Also, if you are just beginning with 2-handed casting, a 13' blank in a 7 weight would be a great rod to learn on. Not sure what your target would be for fish species but the 13' length seems to be a nice length to get the feel of 2-handed casting.

Terry

herb- thank you for the offer,from what i have read they seem to be one of the best blanks available. but with the blanks being in the $300-400 range, they are way out of my price range. unless you have really good deals on some. im hoping to get into spey fishing for less than $400 complete setup if thats even possible.

terry- i see that anglers habitat has a 13' 7wt kit for roughly $175 that i was thinking could be a good entry level setup at not a horrible price, but they list them as a scandi style , and the 8 wt as skagit. is there a huge difference in the learning curve between the two. i will mostly be using this on my local rivers ( Willamette , McKenzie ) for summer steelhead. and most ppl suggest a 7wt for that type of fishing.

You want some thing that will throw 7/16 or 8/16 oz lure weight
take a look a salmon steal head blanks
just don't tell them you will be using a fly line

it is all about weight
A line is Weight just not a lure - but weight once you get a certain amount of it out past the tip

[www.mudhole.com]

Bill - willierods.com

bill- ive always wondered if there was really much of a difference between fly & reg blanks besides the fact that the word "fly" is involved and it costs out the @$$ , but will a regular blank perform the same as a fly blank in normal single hand casting situations?

yes
just got to find the lure weight that matches the line weight A simple way is to put the line number over 16 Not perfect but fairly close You may have to play with the blank to see if it casts the line and how for
A lot of builders take a fly blank and make spinning rod - casting rod
They are all blanks and don't know how they will be fished or what reel is going to be used

Bill - willierods.com