I have built lot's and lot's of freshwater rods, Light Salt Water Rods and quite a few Heavier Salt Rods now I'm gonna get a chance on a Surf Rod, Since I've never fished with a Surf Rod I claim a little ignorance. I'm really leaning toward the American Tackle Atrex blanks because I love all of the American Tackle components since I've really never had any issues with the quality. I'm believing I've made the right choice, what do you all think

Sharon,
Are you looking for a blank used to fish for Carp?
Or - do you think that a Carp blank will make an all-around surf rod?
carp are not found in the surf.

Herb

Sharon, what type of surf fishing will you be doing? Casting bait and heavy weights? Or casting lures that weigh 2 to 4 oz, or some other weight. Very different types of blanks are used for these different types of fishing.

The fish will never know what the blank was made for good luck

William Sidney
AK



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/08/2021 11:37AM by Bill Sidney.

I have been building surf rods since 1977.. I built 3 11' 9" 2 to 6 oz Rainshadow this week. This is a great all around blank. It is alot like Breakaway 1418 blanks of years ago. St.Croix, Tommy Farmer, CTS, Rod Geeks, MHX, Batson-Rainshadow , etc. There are alot of great blanks out there. It depends on the reel and what you are targeting. "Gen 2" rods are around so you can throw casting or spinning. There's nothing like catching fish on a rod you built.

"Wishing you tight lines and fresh bait"

Gary

Sharon I would get as much information from your customer as possible to make the right decision in the blank. I agree with Bill. Just because a blank was designed for a certain application does not mean it will not be perfect for other styles and techniques. Perfect example are sea trout rods. I happen to use a drop shot blank for my trout fishing inshore. Not designed to catch big inshore species but work perfect for it.

If your customer had long distance casting in mind, that is what the ATREX were designed for.

Herb Ladenheim Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Sharon,
> Are you looking for a blank used to fish for
> Carp?
> Or - do you think that a Carp blank will make an
> all-around surf rod?
> carp are not found in the surf.
>
> Herb

Just off the top of my head I can think of a a couple of "carp" derived blanks that make superb surf lure rods:
CTS Vapour Trail, Century Stealth, Slingtshot and C2D and the Surfmachines it spawned
Surf fish dont know this of course.

CTS will build a surf rod to your exact specs if you really know what you want . That's what I did , I requested a surf rod that offered higher performance than the Vapor Trail & S7 models and I specified the MSI rating , length , butt diameter , overall weight , butt, middle and top characteristics, tip diameter and construction meaning you have a wide range of choices from glass to 33 MSI carbon , 33/44 MSI carbon blend , 44 MSI carbon , 44/57 MSI carbon blend and even 57 MSI carbon . It's an option for those that know what they want and know that there is nothing on the market like it .

A design fee is standard and the higher the MSI the more costly it gets. If you demand the absolute pinnacle of surf rod performance having one built from the ground up is the way to go imo .



The ATREX are quite new and it will be awhile before a variety of reviews come in . They certainly look nice . A 12'6 " blank in a heavy power rating rated to throw 1- 4 ounces and only coming in at around 8 ounces overall weight is impressive.


Forgot to add that if anyone is interested in having CTS build a rod to their exact specs contact Herb L . HNL rod blanks (Above CTS ) on sponsors board . A stand up guy who always comes through.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2021 02:46PM by chris c nash.

I am actually building a surf rod for a customer

The 2 to 4 oz and I believe he uses live bait, that's definitely something I have to check into

He definitely has long casting in mind, I will have to get more info from him