Been looking at some mid-strolling rods, like the Shimano expride link below. These rods have a solid tip (reminds me of an ugly stick lol), but apparently this helps with the hover/mid strolling techniques, as well as quick hook sets on soft rods. Anyone ever seen a blank manufacturer offer something like this?

[www.omniafishing.com]

Brent,
If you have your heart set on a solid tipped rod, purchase an Ugly Stick rod in your choice of speed and power.
Strip the rod down to the bare blank, put a nice polish on the bare blank and then rebuild it with the grip, reel seat, guides and tip top of your choice.

In spite of being $20 rods, Ugly Stick rods have caught thousands and thousands of fish over the years.

Solid tips give you durability, but more weight for the least power, I don't see how that could result in quicker hook sets. On rods the outer fibers, the ones furthest from the center line of the blank carry the most load because they experience the most elongation and compression as a straight rod bends creating two arcs, the inner and outer. As the fibers get closer to the centerline, they have less load for the same reason till you get to the centerline with no difference and little or no load. One of the reasons even some of the bamboo rods were hollow, for less weight, better reaction times, and no loss of power.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/03/2024 05:41PM by Spencer Phipps.

Do back to Brent’s question. Is anyone making blanks with a solid tip for this strolling technique? An ugly stick is nothing like what’s being put out there for strolling. I have a dobyns ultralight with a solid tip and it’s a great crappie rod.

Justace (JDM brand) makes some solid tip blanks. Voodoorods.com is a US distributor for Justace in general and in the past Casey with Voodoo has said he can special order Justace products that he did not carry on his website. If something Justace offers looks interesting, I would touch base with Casey and LaDonna and see what they can do.

In particular, the SFT631M looks promising for mid-strolling.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2024 02:35AM by Patrick Coco.

And, while not a solid carbon tip, NFC developed their own line of Mid Strolling specific rod blanks that are worth lookong into:

[northforkcomposites.com]

Thanks Patrick,

I just made an order last night to Voodoo, so I guess I’ll make another! I have already built the 763 NFC mid-strolling blank, and it’s not a bad blank for the technique. I would prefer a bit more power (764) for what I like to throw (free loader/sakamata shad), but it’ll do great with the 3-4” baits.

Spencer,

I think your analysis makes sense regarding the solid tip, but what’s coming out of Japan indicates that these solid tip rods allow one to impart more action on minnow style baits when trying to keep them at a constant depth while “rolling” the bait. Who knows, and because I don’t, I’ll build one and try it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all of this rod building….when in doubt, build and find out lol