I've built a lot of rods on Calstar blanks, both West Coast series and the Grafighters. They were my go to blanks for salt water. A few years ago either the owner died or sold the business, can't remember which. I still have a few blanks from before they had the turnover. One of the big tackle shops on the west coast used to promote them heavily, and after the change of ownership they stopped and took a "wait and see" position as they were questioning if the quality was still going to be there. Just for kicks I pulled up that tackle shop's website the other day and no Calstar rods or blanks were offered. The blanks can still be bought from Mudhole and others; I'm wondering that there may be a quality issue now, or if it was just one store's opinion. I'd appreciate any information someone may have. Thanks!

Dave Sytsma

Their owner and founder passed away in 2019, and COVID disrupted their ability to meet orders since 2020. I had limited experiences with a new factory built one this year. It looked right and the last I heard it hadn’t broken. There aren’t many rod or blank companies that don’t have some question marks about their quality in 2022. It’s been a few years of upheaval and manufacturing transitions. By their very nature, high performance rods are a fine balance between sensitivity and being fragile. The companies that have really plummeted in quality have bad reviews everywhere. The others, like Calstar, are probably about even bets relative to each other. Calstar manufactures their own rods and blanks in California using very tested materials and designs. They aren’t bringing in commodity blanks with silly advertising hype. If you like them, it seems as reasonable to try them as anything else. I’m more into United Composites in this spectrum and have way over-fished some of their rods without failure. Plenty of other people prefer Calstar, though. A non-defective rod of either brand will never break if fished with proper drag settings and fighting/lifting angles. Test load properly before you build and then don’t worry is my two cents.

I, too, am a Calstar fan, at least for saltwater. They have always had a great reputation, some claiming them to be the best. Before building my own rods, I had 2 Calstars custom made for me in the early 1990s and still fish them on occasion. The last Calstar I built, an 80lb spiral wrapped roller tuna stick, was in 2019. Since then, I have built on Seeker and United Composites blanks as well and find them to be very good also. Heck, I still fish, trust and enjoy my old Sabre although I had to rewrap the guides due to age (the thread, not me lol). It is safe to say that SoCal was, if not still is, the mecca for FG offshore fishing blank / rod manufacturers. All 3 of them are within a 1-hour drive of my house, possibly adding to my biased opinion. Whether or not any of them suffered quality issues can be only pure speculation if not outright hearsay; remember that they all have a reputation to uphold and bad news travels fast. While they may have experienced production or delivery issues during Covid, I doubt their quality suffered = too much at risk in a highly competitive market.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Calstar has made some really good stuff over the years. Seeker did too but I don't think they build their own stuff anymore. If Calstar is still building their own blanks in-house I'd be willing to take a risk on them as they have been doing this for a long, long time. Always had a good reputation and I have not heard anything different even in these COVID years.

Thanks for your thoughts, guys. I always buy blanks made here if at all possible. For saltwater I've been considering trying United Composites over the last year and I'm going to continue to use Calstar (old habits die hard) . Seeing a lot more of of the United Composites along with Phenix on the boats for the last couple of years. Apparently when Randy Penny took control of UC there was a lot of excitement, and the blanks are really good. I have built a few rods on Phenix blanks that have performed well, but they are made in Korea if it's important.

I think United Composites was originally Graphite USA? I know they were sold and moved a couple times but they always had a great reputation for durability. If Randy Penny is the guy from the old Seeker I would think that United Composite is in good hands and worth a try.

Yes, Randy is the guy from Seeker and I heard he really streamlined and modernized the plant. I don't fully know the relationship between Graphite USA and United Composites, but from what I heard they are either integrated or like sister companies. I wouldn't hesitate to use their blanks.

GUSA was sold to a train wreck of an owner, after Mr. Kanter retired, Australians who were the distributors for GUSA and Calstar bought the failing company, they loved the blanks and had Kanter make some for their particular needs years before. The Australians changed the name had a problem with trying to run the business from down under, quality fluctuated depending on whether they were in the US, or home. Challenger Elite and others are a composite, DHX construction under linear laid up glass, keeping it simple, the composite blanks were originally designed for the down under market and differ in how many layers they have, accepted willingly here especially after braid became popular. Much more lifting power over an all DHX blank and built with up to 9 layers of material. Randy Penny of Seeker fame bought the company and brought his production team from Seeker and gave us the GUSA of old and some new designed blanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/14/2022 12:14AM by Spencer Phipps.

I know that Kantner had set up or designed blanks for an Australian firm that went by a similar name but he did not own them like he did Graphite USA. A guy bought that after Kantner died and moved it to Arizona? After that failed I did not keep up with the firm much more until it became United Composites. I've used a bit of their stuff and found it similar in quality to the original blanks.

Kanter helped CTS.