All,
I'm looking to build a Plunking rod for Columbia River Chinook...Fall and Spring. I keep trying to get a hold of Lami, looking at Carolina Castpro and Rodgeeks. What are my other options and are blanks rated to 20 ounces really necessary?

Some Ideas:

[www.oregonfishingforum.com]

I'm looking for blanks. I don't want to fish Uguly Sticks and can build my own rods. Plus I already have hand me downs that can handle Willy plunking and a 1 piece Fenwick for Bonne......but don't want to haul around a 1 piece 13 ft rod.

The 16 - 20 oz rating are for soaking plugs and bait aren't they? I've never needed to throw that much even for sturgeon that I can remember.

Spencer, I doubt they are necessary at all. But it seems plunking blanks are falling out of favor on the West Coast and the East Coasters are into power casting, thus think only broomstick can do the job.

Derick Jahnke Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All,
> I'm looking to build a Plunking rod for Columbia
> River Chinook...Fall and Spring. I keep trying to
> get a hold of Lami, looking at Carolina Castpro
> and Rodgeeks. What are my other options and are
> blanks rated to 20 ounces really necessary?


Derick,

This is the blank that you want:

[northforkcomposites.com]

We are based in Woodland, WA - and sell hundreds of these per year for plunking.

Will it handle 12 ounces?

Depends where you are, doesn't do any good to be throwing past the fish, many times they are in only 12 to 16 ft of water. What are they throwing to, URB's?

I would assume that they are URBs....would be targeting fish going over Bonneville. Would hitting Oak Tree, Warren Dale and the likes in the lower Gorge area.

Rainshadow BP series....

Not sure there is a blank in that line thst will handle the casting weight. Anyone have info on Talon? Looks like a few of their blanks can handle it or are at least rated for it.

I am familiar with Talon, they are also in Woodland Washington. A great blank maker that supplies many of the higher-end private label blanks, like many of the Anglers Workshop blanks. It started out as Loomis Composites, Inc., established by Gary Loomis and one of his cousins. Gary went on to start G Loomis (and subsequently Edge Rods and NFC) and his cousin took LCI on through several changes to the Talon of today.

For such a small town, Woodland Washington is a hotbed of blank manufacturers, including G. Loomis, North Fork Composites, Talon, and Lamiglas. Washington State is also home to Batson Enterprises (Sequim), Pacific Bay (Sequim), Sage (Bainbridge Island) and Berkheimer (Camas) There may be others, but those are the ones I know about.

Thrasher also, another Loomis.

I've tried to contact Talon....directed to Anglers West. It was good to handle the built rods, but I wish I could get an answer from Talon directly. Thrasher doesn't have a blank that fits the bill (at least off their specs). I received the Rod Geeks blank. It is heavy duty, would like something lighter powered, but can make this one work.