Is anyone familiar with this blank?

Many years ago when All Star was purchased, Andy Dear had a lot of Austin blanks at the ICRBE when it was still in High Point. Ken Preston (I miss him) told me "buy this blank!". So, I did. I built it out and have not had a lot of time to fish it but wanted to hear what some think it is best used for. I heard it was a great Tarpon rod, but I intend to use it for throwing large flies to Northern Pike or Muskies.

Is it one of those rods that is best for throwing a floating or intermediate line with tight loops and high line speed? Would it be good for throwing sinking lines? Is the tip to soft for doing a figure 8 for Muskies?

These are the kinds of things I am curious to hear from people that have actually used the blank/rod. Thanks.

The rod will never know if the line is floating, intermediate, sinking, etc. - it responds to the weight of the line and the caster's input.

Having said that, I can tell you that these were not extremely fast action rods. I'd have to put on on the CCS board to get you an actual number for comparison and I no longer have any here. They did cast nicely and no, the tip isn't soft so you should be able to do a figure 8 at the boat.

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Hi, Tom. Thanks very much for your reply. This does help. I am going to try some different types of lines and see what works well, but am going to start with what I would most likely use for my application - compact head intermediates and sinking lines. Cheers.