What is everyone's recommendation for a god punching blank? I think one of my next builds is going to be a punching rod but haven't really narrowed it down to anything. The Rod Geeks Carbon 3 7' 11" H MF is about the only one I have my eye on right now.

The Carbon 3 blanks are the St. Croix Victory series, as you may know.. I think they are very good rods for the money. The thing with punching is that it actually varies a lot across the country. In some locations, the minimum rig is one ounce. Where I live, the maximum is usually 1/2 of an ounce with 3/8 ounce being pretty common. Some anglers use really heavy four-strand braid and others straight fluorocarbon. What are the parameters you wish to match?

I recently built some on the NFC X-ray MB7108.

Kendall Cikanek Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The Carbon 3 blanks are the St. Croix Victory
> series, as you may know.. I think they are very
> good rods for the money. The thing with punching
> is that it actually varies a lot across the
> country. In some locations, the minimum rig is one
> ounce. Where I live, the maximum is usually 1/2 of
> an ounce with 3/8 ounce being pretty common. Some
> anglers use really heavy four-strand braid and
> others straight fluorocarbon. What are the
> parameters you wish to match?

I regularly punch with anywhere from a 1oz-1 1/2oz weight and 65lb braid so I'm looking for a lure rating around 2- 2 1/2oz and something with a MF tip



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2024 07:18PM by Jacob Clark.

Hey Jacob,

I have found in Florida we also use a 1 1/2oz-2 1/2oz for punching threw thicker mats. My experience is to go with the Moderate-Fast actions as well. I have had negative experiences with blanks that are too fast in action like MB (Mag Bass) even in the heavier powers. My recommendation would be to take a look at the FP937 (MHX) and the LS8/20-40(American Tackle). They are both incredibly strong but have moderate enough action to flip a fish and not need to worry about material recovery.

I use a Rainshadow XB 944.5-TC for that, it would be an IMMC blank now, Schneider's has some at a real good price in their Hot Specials section. They punch well above the rating shown.

Has anyone built on the XRAY MB7109? The specs seem to match what I'm looking for and the sale on them is ending soon.

I thought about going to the MB7109, but the MB7108 I already had was way stiffer than the stated lure range. I was using that rod for heavy weight Carolina rigging (throwing 1 oz weight + leader and bait), and thought it could be a little softer to be better (hence how I came up with trying another one for punching). The power of the MB7108 seems fine for 1 1/4 & 1 1/2 oz punch weights, but would have loved to been able to find the same power blank at the same length, but maybe 1/2 oz. lighter in overall weight.

Well I ended up ordering the Rod Geeks C3 7'11" H MF that I initially had thought of. NFC doesn't list the weights of the blanks for the two that I had thought of so I figured the 2.7oz for the C3 was a pretty good weight for a rod of that size.

Sounds like you got a good blank. The weight of the recent NFC 7108 X-Ray I got weighed 3 oz. I would have liked to have found a lighter blank, but the 7108 is definitely more powerful than what the listed lure rating would insinuate.