Regular price or on sale, what do folks think is the best bang for the buck fly rod blank for around $125. Thinking 9 ft. 6 wt.

Rod Geeks. Very nice blanks, custom colors, good performance.

Very similar (if not identical) to St Croix SCIV blanks.

[rodgeeks.com]

$106 plus a $15 custom color and you're still under budget. I'm normally not a "custom color" guy, but being able to order it for $15 and it's perfect means all my builds have a custom color. Their darker metallics are beautiful.

Drew

It depends on your definition of "best". Best tri-hex bamboo blank goes out the door north of $500 if you can find someone in this country to make it for you. $125 is not doing to buy you a lot if anything for the better (best?) s-glass blanks by well regarded makers. The same is true for tradition, hex bamboo.

For carbon fiber (graphite), and again with the caveat your definition of "best bang" might well vary from mine or the rest of the world, my top of mind names in no special order of value at about $125 per copy are TFO, Blue Halo, Xi, and Batson.

Did I mention it depends on how you define best? How do you value aesthetics vs warranty vs action & power vs materials, etc.?

Thanks for responses. I should have clarified more. Material: Carbon fibre for sure. Aesthetics/color: Important but not critical. Function: Trout in medium size rivers in the Rocky Mountain West. Dry flies and nymphs, some smaller streamers. Mostly 4 and 5 x tippets. Action: Medium Fast to Fast. Don't want a 2x4 stiff. Needs to be able to cast to 60 feet with accuracy. Recently made H&H Xi 9ft 5 wt. Decent rod. Would want a little faster action than Xi. Have an old TFO TiCrX in 9 ft 5 wt. Too stiff overall.

$125 will buy you a very good fly rod blank from a number of different manufacturers.

...........

Have you looked at the MHX line?

9' 6wt. 4 pc. at $133
[www.mudhole.com]
9' 6wt. 2 pc. at $107.25
[www.mudhole.com]

For a jump to the Native series:
Color-Clearwater - 9' 6wt. 4 pc. at $225
[www.mudhole.com]
Color-Satin Black - 9' 6wt. 4 pc. at $225
[www.mudhole.com]

Keep in mind - FREE SHIPPING ON ORDERS OVER $99!

Regards.
Team Mud Hole Custom Tackle
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2019 04:24PM by Mud Hole Custom Tackle.

You can add $19 to that Rod Geeks blank for shipping. Not sure what others charge.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2019 02:56PM by Lynn Behler.

You could try the Pac Bay Arctos. I built a 10' 7wt for great lakes steelhead and it's plenty fast. Unfortunately I haven't built a 9' rod with that blank for comparison (yet) but probably will eventually. H&H usually has them on sale for 25% off once a month.

I have built on a number of the American Tackle Matrix fly rod blanks. They are surprisingly nice blanks for the money.
Norm

From your description of what your use will be I think you would do better with a more traditional action rather than going with the current trend of "faster is better?" But you seem to prefer fast. Regardless, I think your first decision needs to be what kind of action you want. Then you can narrow it down. Good recommendations above, check if their actions sound right.

Batson has a good fly blank for around 90$ i just usrd one of there rods on a build