Is the Seeker S glass blank that Rich Forhan favored for fast moving baits still available? Has something better been developed?

Yes it is, the Seeker BS706S.

From whom can this blank be purchased? This is probably a very basic question; but, I'm new to this.

Angler's Workshop and The Rod Room to the left, I believe carry them. Mud Hole used to, but I no longer see them listed, but a call or email to them may be helpful.

That blank will not disappoint.

Has anyone built this rod, and, more importantly, fished it? How does it fish? It certainly has a large butt diameter, 0.78", relative to the graphite rods I have. Pros or cons of the rod?

I discussed building on these blanks a lot with the late Bill Stevens before I pulled the trigger, and I wasn't disappointed. Mine started its life as a Rich Forhan Legacy Elite 765 from Swampland. What that blank actually was is an untrimmed BS756 S-glass. The blank came in around 7'8" long. I trimmed the tip to get the tip stiffness where I wanted it. I trimmed from the butt to reach the 7' length. What I ended up with was a blank that matched the 706 specs across the board, down to the thousandth on butt diameter. The way I chose where to do the tip trim was laying my hand along the tip at different points and flexing until that initial flex matched my favorite rod at the time for throwing crankbaits (The rod I used for a tip strength reference was a 4 power moderate action rod from Falcon, FC-4-166, 1/4-1/2oz lure rating.). The 706 allowed me to throw everything I did on the Falcon just as well, and added to the upper end of the range quite a bit.

The tip is soft enough to cast smaller sized crankbaits, and with the taper designed the way it is, it handles a broad range of lures very well, and handles lures like the Rapala DT 14s and 16s on the heavier end of the spectrum just fine. It's really that aggressive taper in the butt section that allows the rod to have low end power to handle larger lures and heavier lines, but the upper half offers up a fairly soft tip for casting lighter lures and the shock absorption needed to keep fish hooked up.

Mine currently has a Shimano Citica 200 from the late 90s/early 2Ks spooled with 10lb mono. It will launch a Strike King series 3 further than I can set the hook. The only time I find it a little bulky is if I'm fishing walking lures for long periods of time. I'll swap them over to a fast or extra fast action graphite rod and deal with the hooks pulling out on occasion when I get a little fatigued.

There's a reason Forhan chose this blank, and that is its ability to get the job done as well as the versatility that it provides casting a large range of weights. Give the 706 a try, I think you'll like it a lot.

Greg,

I'll give you a few more details about my build. I built it before I started turning my own grips. The grips I put on are EVA in a split grip arrangement. The but grip is a typical EVA butt grip something along the lines of the SPG 165 EVA grip with a butt cap tenon from Mudhole. You can plan on cutting off the tendon, as you will need to ream all the way through it (I waited until I almost reamed all the way through so my hand wouldn't drag on the reamer with the short grip section.). A typical EVA mushroom style butt cap can then slip over the butt of the blank for a butt cap. The grip at the reel seat is a design similar to the 3 3/8" EVA rear grip from Mudhole. I find that I don't particular care for the design with the reduced diameter and flare at the end. My preferred grip at the reel seat is 3" long, 1.05" OD at the reel seat and a straight taper down to about 0.88", modeled after the Batson woven graphite fore grip pieces. That style grip just fits the geometry of my palm really well, and your mileage may vary. The reel seat is a 17mm standard casting seat. You will need to ream the seat a bit to fit. On a similar blank from Lamiglas (a 6702 from the late 60s or so, most similar to the MB 841 E in the current lineup. It's a tad more powerful than the 706 and a bit slower in action), I opted for a blank exposed trigger seat. What I find is that the non exposed seat feels better in the hand, and since there is no arbor, you aren't giving up much when it comes to feel.

It takes a lot of reaming to get those grips opened up enough to slide down the rod, and you need to ream them until they can pretty much dry fit into to place, trying to stretch the EVA after reaming that much will result in tearing. You won't have much thickness where the grips end to butt winding checks up against, so if you want something decorative, it will be thread wraps or winding checks shaped from rod bond or epoxy ramps.

As far as the large butt, it's doesn't take too much to get used to. I tend to size my grips so that my palm will fit on the grip when casting and fishing, so there is not much change in my interaction with the rod when casting and fishing.

About the only adjustment that I need to make with the glass cranking rods is that the casting stroke is a bit slower, and the lure really flies.

I have two rods built on that blank, simply fantastic rods. Liked them so much I started looking around for other great S glass blanks to see how they compare in use. I built some S glass rods on the different Lamiglas models that were readily available to me. The rod that Skeet Reese used in E glass, the SMB841F available in S glass and the series of SSP blanks that appear to maybe be similar to the SSP blanks in the MHX lineup. The SSP845 Lamiglas blank I felt was similar to the Seeker. I also built on the early St. Croix SC I S glass blanks and even on an old Fisher Kennedy blank, all have had their uses, but the Seeker is the only one other than the MHX blanks and the Rod Geeks blanks I haven't built that are still available..

What was used for reaming the handle and reel seat? In other words, what did you use as the mandrel? I've not seen any reamers offered for sale that would have a large enough diameter? I'm know to this; so, I apologize if this is an obvious question.

I use the Batson Dream Reamers. The biggest one in the standard kit will get you out to about 0.685. When working on those grips, I would use the largest sized reamer and make a few strokes on one part of the grip, rotate slightly, a few strokes on that part, and continue all of the way around. Take your time, check the fit often to make sure your aren't wandering too far off center, and you'll get the grip there. It's a bit of a slow labor intensive process, but it gets the job done. EVA on those grips is a little more forgiving as well because of the stretchiness, it will hide some minor imperfections in the reaming job. You just can't ask for too much stretch after reaming it that thin. I think standard cork grips can still work there as well, but if you hit a porous piece, it may crumble before getting placed. If you can get one to stay together until it's glued up, it will be just fine.

It also looks like they have a couple more sizes available that will take you all the way out 0.835. If I ever get around to building more cranking rods or other larger butt rods, I may have a couple more reamers in my future.

I don't recall needing to fuss too much with the reel seat to get it to fit. I think I had to take it all the way down on the largest reamer. I may have had to do that on both ends with a little fine tuning to remove a little more material in the center and butt area to get it there.

Reaming the butt grip was by far the most work on the build.

I bought the reamers after my first couple of builds, because I really struggled reaming things and getting the tapers right with rat tail files. Like I tell my wife when she wants a project done around the house, "I can do it if I can buy the right tools for the job. If you want me to build a piece of fine carpentry with a hand saw, jack plane, and brace and bit, it's not going to happen. There are guys that can do that, but it's not me."