Just ordered some Bass Khang ice blanks to try out. Seeing as they all come as 36 inch blanks, and I want smaller finished rods, I know I'm going to have to trim them up.

My questions are, does anyone have experience with any of these blanks and trimming them? Should I be trimming from both the butt and tip to get the length down? How much can be trimmed off the butt end without significantly changing the power/action of the rod?

Mainly, I'm thinking that I want to take those 36 inch blanks down to 28-30 inches, and looking for the best approach to doing so, if it's even possible.

Thanks in advance!!

Levi,
Over the years, I have built hundreds of ice fishing rods.

With only a few exceptions, I have always trimmed from the butt of the rod.

Once in a while if the tip is really really soft - I might take a bit off the tip first to get the tip action that I want to have. Then, I will trim to final length all from the butt of the rod.

Don't overthink ice fishing rods. Ice rods are so short that a lot of the rules and thoughts about blank length and power tend to get washed away so to speak.

Remember, if you happen to be using an ultra ultra light action rod and catch a 20 lb musky, it is still possible to sometimes land the fish.

Basically, you simply point the rod straight down the ice hole and without bending the rod, just use your arm and elbow in a straight up and down fashion to effectively hand play the rod to the hole where you can gaff the fish with the gaff to pull it from the hole.

Best wishes.

Thanks for the info!

Based on that I’m thinking that the only one I might have to trim any off the tip are the noodle blanks, just to keep proportions somewhat similar to what it started as.

Levi,

Before you trim the blanks tape some guides on them and place a grip and reel where they would potentially be located on the shortened blanks. Run the line through the guides and see if the blank still has the characteristics that you want. If you trim the tip on a noodle rod you will lose a lot of the "noodle" visual bite indicator flex unless you sand the blank to restore that - which will also remove the paint on a glass blank if it's a colored blank...

I will definitely keep that in mind, Dan. Thanks!

My thought behind possibly needing to trim from the tip on a noodle blank is that if you have a 36 inch blank with, let’s say, an 6 inches of being “noodle-y” if you turn that into a 28 inch rod, you now have possibly more noodle tip than you wanted.

I wouldn’t necessarily expect that I’d do a 4 on each end to reduce it by 8, but could maybe see doing 7 and 1.

Get his power noodle and you will not have that problem with a 28" rod, vs the panfish noodle. Way more back bone out to the tip on the PN

Levi Bakker Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------
>
> My thought behind possibly needing to trim from
> the tip on a noodle blank is that if you have a 36
> inch blank with, let’s say, an 6 inches of being
> “noodle-y” if you turn that into a 28 inch
> rod, you now have possibly more noodle tip than
> you wanted.
>
> I wouldn’t necessarily expect that I’d do a 4
> on each end to reduce it by 8, but could maybe see
> doing 7 and 1.