I commonly cast 8 to 12oz on blanks rated for 3/8-1oz, so I will tell you it can be done depending on the conditions. There is a certain risk, but it can be a reasonable risk in the right situation. My opinion is as long as the blank does what you want it to do, who cares what specs were printed on the label. I will add that it's completely worth it to see the look on the face of th
Forum: rodboard

I recently replaced guides on a Beef Stick for a similar use (except in freshwater to pull big catfish away from cover) and I used PacBay XBBs. The customer seemed pretty happy. I've put them on a lot of my rods with constant braid use and so far haven't had one groove. Fairly cost effective too.
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I personally wouldn't go without my heat gun. I'm going to share my technique even though it will probably make many people here cringe. For fulI disclosure I will say I typically build fairly large e-glass or s-glass blanks. This may be more likely to cause damage to a light rod. With the rod turning in a mechanical turner, glob on some finish with a small metal spatula or similar. I u
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I personally use PacBay XBB guides on almost all of my catfish builds. They're really hard to destroy, which I feel is needed because cat guys are usually stupidly tough on their gear. David, I'm also building a couple X-Comp blanks to try out this year. I have a #1 and a #2 power instead of the #3 like yours though. Very interesting blanks. I'm excited to see how they perform.
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In addition to the above suggestions (Which are good choices for what you're wanting. Ive used them before) you might also check out Rod Geeks SG711XHMF. They are a little longer than 7', but you can easily cut it down. And by adjusting the amount that gets cut off the tip vs the butt, you can really fine tune in that action to what you/the customer want. I've really been impressed with that bl
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I've taken a liking to Batson's fiberglass SPG series rods. Being glass, they are noticeably less sensitive then what most people are used to anymore, but for most live bait situations, moving lures, or anything fished under a float, I tend to love them. They can take a beating too. One piece only though, so may not work for you. I saw a 2 piece fiberglass series in Mudhole's lineup, but
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I also build for catfisherman and have seen the same tendency to go for white blanks. Rod geeks is a good source. Email me if you want and I wouldn't mind discussing what blanks you should try depending on what kind of catfisherman you build for.
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With those blanks and other comparable blanks, I actually tend to use 20,18,16, 12, 10, 10, 10,10. Just seems to work out and look better to me compared to the straight to running guide style. Weight usually isn't much of a concern on my builds anyway. So I think your original layout is quite feasible. Although either way works.
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I've found that glue is required for my EVA/Shrink builds. My guys are quite hard on their rods and actually twisted / slid the tubing around on the grips before I started gluing them. I use an extremely thin coat of Rod Bond. It actually is slick enough to allow you to push slightly undersize tubing over the larger portion of tapered grips if required, which can help a lot in some situa
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Any of RodGeek's neon series colors are LOUD. I mean really loud. I particularly like the neon green. This weekend I literally had sometime tell me that my neon green boat rod almost hurt his eyes it's so bright. With bright purple wraps it really stands out as an oddity and I get asked about it everywhere I go. I'd love to see that color scheme on a fly rod.
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I'll add one note of mine on shrink tubing: On some tapered grips, I've had the trouble mentioned above with it not wanting to shrink enough at the narrow end of the grip. After a few trials, I've successfully overcome this in a lot of situations by buying a size or two smaller diameter then would be required to fit over the grip, lube up the grip with some rodbond, then force the tube over th
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I use braid on spiral wrapped rods all the time with no issue. Braid always makes a weird sound in the guides under tension. However, if the sound is excessively loud compared to the same line on a non spiral rod with the same guides, you may look into why that is. It usually sounds about the same for my setups.
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I would like to add that I once ordered Pac-Bay's Orange Metallic for a project requiring a very bright orange metallic. The picture looked bright orange, but in person it was more of a copper color in my opinion. If you hold a shiny new penny next to it, its a pretty close match. It's a nice color, just not what I would call orange. -CR
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