Would like your impression, particularly if you use it for river fishing. I fish a variety of baits, flukes, jigs, inline spinners, senkos, etc. I use 1 rod as an all-purpose since I wade fish rivers and can't carry multiple rods. Thanks in advance for your responses.

Have you looked at the SB724 Xray?

I just finished an SB724 yesterday and plan to fish it later this week - I liked the SB722 so much that I got the 724 to handle lures on the heavier end of what I use. The SB722 is very sensitive and light weight (although that is the only "good" spinning rod I've ever used, have only had cheap BPS rods and Lightning rods before). I'm wondering if the "extra fast action" of the SJ732 will help with hooksets using senkos, flukes, and hellgrammites fished dead drift.

The SB722 fishes lighter lures, lets say up to 1/4 -3/8 oz, very well but with some of my heavier lures, approaching 1/2 oz and especially worms senkos flukes, I am looking for something to help set the hook better especially with a bit of line out. Also I have put braid on 1 reel with a fluoro leader to help get better hooksets - am trying that out today.
Thanks,

Please post how that SB 724 X ray fishes, as I have one on order that I should be receiving in a week or so. Based on the CCS numbers of 463 grams IP and 74.5 AA, my guess is you'll find you won't need to consider the SJ732

X Fast helps throw lighter offerings off the tip than a like powered moderate or fast blank would effectively, I don't see how that lighter tip would increase hooksets, the illustrations we have all seen I don't believe display rod bend under like powers and load.

Gotta agree with Spencer concerning extra fast action blanks in the power range being talked about. It's going to help with casting lighter baits, but it's going to hurt on a hook set. If you're fishing Texas rigged baits, unless they're slender bodied and a softer plastic, I don't see the SJ 732 blank working all that well. At least not for the kind of power I like to see out of a rod used for Texas rigged soft plastics.

If you're on a desk top or lap top with a larger screen, you can do what I currently have up, and that is opening separate windows and pull up the deflection pictures that NFC has on their web site. The SJ 732, SB 722, and SB 724 are all shown using 12 oz to deflect the blank.

When looking at the deflection of each blank, don't just focus on tip deflection. Look at and compare the deflection in other areas of the blank as well. This will give you a better Idea of where the power transition between tip and back bone occur.

I mentioned having an SB 724 X ray blank on order. If it is as I hope it will be, I will be using it for shaky head jigs, and as a Ned rig rod. Either with open hooks, or in the case of a shaky head jig, slender bodied very soft plastic baits like those from Roboworm.

Thanks for the info fellas - much appreciated. I am a fly rod guy and just getting into making nice spinning rods - glad to have your expertise available. Will stick with the sb724 for now.
Today was slow fishing but first time using the braid was good and although I only got 4 fish I don't think I missed any strikes/hook sets.

Will certainly give my impression of the SB724 after using it a couple times - the water in the local river has dropped from 68-72 to 60 - 62 degrees with this latest cooler weather so no promises.

I got a SJ732 blank that I never built because I felt it was a little stiff in the middle section and the other extreme on the soft, extra fast tip. Biggest deal breaker (for me) was the overall weight. NFC doesn't post the weight for this particular blank so I just got one. It ended up being a little over 2 oz., a lot heavier than what i wanted my spinning rods for smallmouth to be. I'm going to question whether it can indeed cast light weights well (I personally don't think that an extra fast tip will come anywhere close to helping with that). I think the extra fast tip will help with sensitivity, but not casting distance.

I have made plenty of of SB724's and they are good, "all around" spinning rods. Maybe a little too stiff for dropshotting or ned rigs, but better for shakey heads and texas rigged plastics (as opposed to nose hooked plastics). The SB722 (or the SJ703) will do better for dropshotting or ned rigs (actually excels at it).

Thanks John - glad to hear your good experience with the sb 722 and 724 - gives me confidence that I can cover my fishing needs with those 2 rods.

I like the synopsis for the SB 724 X ray. Thanks for sharing John.

Some follow up:
I used the rod yesterday for about 5 hours. The creek/river is about 60' - 80'' wide and depth varies with shallow riffles and pools up to about 5 -6' deep but most area are 2'-3' deep. Water was cold and fishing was slow but I managed to land 5 trout from 8 - 14", 2 smallmouth, under a foot each, and 2 fall fish each about 13-14". As you can imagine the SB724 made short work of landing those small fish. I used a Shimano Sahara 2500 reel with 8 lb P-line fluoroclear. The rod cast all lures used well, obviously the heavier lures listed below cast farther but all lures were cast accurately. setting the hook was no issue and only 1 fish was missed, don't know why cause it seemed to hit hard.
Lures used:
Rebel crawdad: the 1.5 and 2" versions, the little one cast about 40' and the bigger one about 60'.
Vibrax spinner, weight listed as 3/16 oz
1/16 and 1/8 oz ball head jig hooks with 3" hellgrammite (plastic), 3" twister tail grub, 3.25" and 3.75" paddle tail minnow, 4" and 5" flukes.
unweighted 5" fluke with 3/0 EWG hook
unweighted 3" hellgrammite with 1/0 finesse hook.
4" and 5" unweighted yum dingers with 1/0 finesse hook.

I was surprised it cast the lightweight lures as well as it did. Overall the rod cast well/best with lures in the 1/4 -1/2 oz range - I did not use anything heavier on this creek. I still need to get into some bigger fish for a full appraisal because the fish yesterday did not challenge this rod at all. I will take it to a Great Lakes trib soon and try it on steelhead. Bottom line, for my uses this rod will be for bigger water with the heavier of the lures listed above. For the lighter lures and smaller creeks the SB722 will work better. Hope this helps, will post more after getting some bigger fish (hopefully).
I likely will not be looking at the SJ732 but for my creeks/rivers these 2 SB rods, and rods similar to the SB722, will cover everything I need.

I've used my G Loomis SJR 700 IM6 for most of what you were doing for close to 40 years, NFC 5100-1 (IM) is the same thing, others have extended the blank to 6 1/2 ft. for kayak fishing and other purposes, but I have made your casts all day as is, it has a bunch more backbone than people realize. It also makes a nice deep water crappie rod. I haven't built any of the longer 0 power SB blanks to see how they relate, but maybe others have. I think you're making good choices.

Ed, thank you for posting your evaluation of the SB 724 blank, as well as the baits you were using with it. I'll be using mine pretty much exclusively for smallmouth bass on inland lakes in northeast Ohio, with an occasional trip to Lake Erie scattered in here or there. I mentioned earlier that I'll be using it for shaky head jigs and Ned rigs. I realize it may be over powered versus what is considered to be a Ned rig rod, but I've fished Ned rigs on a rod I built on an RX 10 ETEC72M blank, and it works extremely well for the size jig heads and baits that I use.

Anyhow, again, thanks for sharing your evaluation. It is much appreciated. And I have to think it's a very sensitive rod as well.

Thanks Spencer - the SB724 was clearly more rod than needed on that particular water but it was new and I wanted to try it. I will use that rod for much bigger water like the Susquehanna and Allegheny rivers and Presque Isle in Lake Erie. Also on local bigger rivers where I cast farther and use the heavier lures. On that creek (they call it a river) yesterday the SB722 or other light/med lt rod would have worked fine.

David - you're welcome. If you've ever been over to PA fishing for smallmouth - Clarion, Allegheny, etc then you know the bigger waters I plan to use this SB724 on. It was sensitive in that I could feel rocks,etc and the takes were very easy to feel. Again I'm relatively new at this spinning rod stuff, and there may have been takes I didn't feel, but after tight line nymphing for trout for years I think the takes on these SB rods are much easier to detect and more obvious.
If you don't mind please PM or contact me regarding OH fishing. Thank you.

Ed, this site doesn't have a personal message feature, so I'd have to contact you via e mail. If that's ok by you just let me know and I'll send you an e mail.

I have an SB 724 X-Ray and it is my all time favorite spinning rod for bass fishing. I have it paired with a Diawa Tatula 2500 spinning reel and use 20 pound braid with 10 to 15 pound flurocarbon leaders (depending on what technique I'm fishing). I use it for drop shotting, tube baits, ned rigs, etc.... I recently order 2 more SB 724 blanks to build as spares. It's an all around great spinning rod blank for bass fishing. I also have a SB 683 but it is a little lite action for me so I picked up a SB 684 to build this winter and am hoping it will be a good dock skipping spinning rod for bass.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2023 08:57AM by Leonard Bourdage.

The more I read the responses concerning the SB 724 blank, the more I am thinking it is going to be exactly what I am hoping it will be. I'm building it to take the place of a rod I built on an SJ 704 IM blank. With an IP of 629 grams, the SJ 704 is wayyyyy more powerful than what I'd expect a blank rated for 6 - 12# line, and 1/8 - 3/6 oz weights to be.

I'll be mounting a Shimano 2500 Vanford with 8# Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line on the new rod.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2023 10:19AM by David Baylor.

Just throwing this out there - though I use all three of the SB724, SB722, and the SJ703, the one I keep grabbing for (and can’t seem to want to put down) is the SJ703. I mainly use it for for dropshotting Great Lakes smallmouth (so bigger weights and bigger fish), but recently discovered that it also excels at Ned rigging (1/10 oz head). Though I feel it might be a little light for Texas rigged shakey head worms, I prefer to use it for that, than the opposite SB724 for lighter stuff like Ned rigging. I don’t know why it has a heavier lure weight rating than the other two (especially the SB724) but I successfully use it with a 5/8oz drop shot weight. It’ll actually cast that weight, by itself, 80+yards (I’ve measured). The biggest advantage to me it it’s weight, and I believe that helps make it the most sensitive. I’ve made finished spinning rods that came out to 2.68 oz. Very similar to the SB722, but you feel the weight difference more than the length difference.

I've used my SB724 a few times and like it.

My friend tried mine and also likes it. But he prefers rods at 7'0" or 6'10" to make them easier to transport in his truck.

Has anyone cut 2 inches or 4 inches off the butt end of the SB724? Did cutting it significantly change the feel of the way it casts and fishes?