What is the purpose of making a spinning rod from a fly rod blank? I've always wondered. Do you use the light weight fly rod blanks, 1 thru 5 wt.? Just curious.

Bruce,
I suspect that the main reason is to get a very soft moderate action that is frequently available in a fly rod, but not in a spinning rod.

In my part of the country - the upper midwest - we build a lot of long spinning rods out of fly blanks to use for a lindy rigging rod. A lindy rig rod is a rod that has a spinning reel on it, light line and a sliding weight with a short leader and a live bait hook to catch fish. IN this type fishing, it is a visual type fishing as opposed to a feel type fishing. i.e. one watches the soft rod tip and mid section of the rod for a bend or tap that would signal the bite of a fish. At that time, the line is released to allow the fish to get a better bite on the bait. When solid tension is felt, the hook is set.

The problem in using a fast or extra fast tipped rod, is that a person can feel the fish, but then the fish can also feel the resistance of the fishing pole. So, the fish drops the bait before the hook can be set.

But, with the soft moderate action of a rod built on the correct fly rod blank, the fisherman gets an excellent visual confirmation of a bite, before the fish ever feels resistance. Then, the fisherman drops the line so that the fish can run with the bait and line and still not feel resistance.
When the fisherman feels that the fish is ready, the bail is closed and the hook is set - hopefully on a fish.

Be safe

The purpose of using a fly blank for a spinning/casting rod is sometimes that fly blanks nowadays are more often than not 4-piece. Travelling by plane may involve paying extra for "sports gear". But then, why waste money on it if you can stuff the rod in your main luggage. Not a problem with fly rods usually, but things are different with spinning/casting tackle. Now, there not too many 8'-9' four piece spinning/casting blanks around. The solution basically is either to buy a CTS blank, or get a fly blank. Granted, fly blanks usually have moderate or mod-fast action, when built as spinning rods. There are however exceptions. Batson XF9010-4 is one.

Anglers Workshop has some, so does D Blue to the left. The Anglers blanks are US made by Talon, or at least they have been before, the models used to also be in the Talon catalog. They were IM6 blanks last I used one.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/02/2016 09:25AM by Spencer Phipps.

I had a light weight fly rod that I never used and had no interest in using it, so I stripped it down and made it into a spinning rod for pan fish. It turned out to be as good or better than most ultra lights.

Instead of spending most of its time whipping the air, it now spends most of its time being flexed by pan fish. A little humor no offense.

What I do question...is one of cost. I admit my ignorance in this are. It seems to me that fly rod blanks sell at a premium compared to other types of blanks. Maybe I am wrong?

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Russ - No you are not wrong, I was told many years ago by a famous builder that one of the reasons for the high cost of fly fishing equipment is that fly fisherman have deep pockets.
Norm

I was building some 4-5 spinning rods on fly blanks (ALL STAR AUSTIN (TITANIUM) 9' W5+extension, special for fishing from the bank for white bass on TRINITY RIVER ,TEXAS(below the LIVINGSTON DAM) with FIRELINE ORIGINAL SMOKE 4 lb.+4lb. SEAGUAR CARBON PRO fluorocarbon leader and 1/32 oz. EAGLE CLAW jigs.
The rods are over 11'-12 ' with SIC MATCH guides.I was very happy with this rods catching on jigs a lot of white bass,crappie and 15 lb.buffalo carp,15 lb.,longnose gar fish and big paddlefish(fault hooked).
The same for fishing from the bank in salt water at ROLLOVER PASS,BOLIVAR PENINSULA ,TEXAS i was building some spinning rod using fly blank ALL STAR AUSTIN(TITANIUM 9',W10)+extension.