Peter and David, Thank you for the feedback on the popping and crankbait blanks. I'm ignorant when it comes to popping blanks and honestly thought they'd be more powerful than similarly rated bass blanks, so I'll have to give that some more thought. Spencer, I was hoping you'd have a thought since I think you do some similar fishing on the west coast. If I was building this for myself, I'd def
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All, I'm looking for suggestions on a blank for bottom bouncing while drifting the Niagara River. These will be built for my dad and his cousin, and they can't be any longer than 7' to fit in the rod locker. The rig they use is typically a 3 way rig with 1-2 oz pencil weight and a trailing kwikfish or egg sac. Typically they'll be catching brown trout, steelhead, or smallmouth bass, but there
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Dan, I've been checking daily for the metallic aurora purple for months now, so I'll piggy back to ask if anyone has a spool of the purple they'd be willing to sell me. I hope you find a spool of the black.
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Mike, The only commercial euro rod I've ever fished is a T&T contact II with a guide on one occasion, and it was my first time tight-line nymphing so I honestly didn't have a great appreciation for the feel. The CTS is light in hand, sensitive, and has a ton of backbone. It's very good for throwing heavier nymphs and jigged streamers, and remarkable at being able to control big fish in cur
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I know this topic is somewhat old, but when I built my nymphing rod (11' 3wt CTS Affinity MX) I did what Ron mentioned above. I used a lemke up locking reel seat and had Ron make me a fighting butt that accepted the recessed hood, and then added a down locking seat finish ring to put behind the cork grip. It has a 6.5 inch cigar grip on it and balances about an inch from the top of it when paired
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I reached out to Andy from the company, and he said that they were having supply chain issues getting the resin in. He did let me know that they just received a shipment and that they are shipping stock out to distributors this week and next week, so it should hopefully be back in stock soon.
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Does anyone know if there's a shortage of gen 4 finish right now? It's my go to, and I need new bottles, but it seems to be out of stock in all but the largest sizes from basically every distributor. I'm hoping it's only temporary.
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Paul, be warned in advanced you will get a lot of opinions on this. I haven't personally built any of these blanks, but here are some thoughts based on specs, if I were to build them: FAF 1005-4 and FAF 1004-4: I see these as serving the same purpose as an "all around" type of rod. They're a little longer than the usual 9 footer recommendation, but that's not necessarily a bad thing
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If you're looking for moderate fast actions, I'd recommend looking into graphite crankbait/popping blanks. I've built on the American Tackle Bushido crankbait blanks and like them a lot (The CB72/8-15 is rated for 3/8 to 3/4 oz, and is listed as medium power). I'm sure NFC has some crankbait blanks (maybe in the delta line) that others will recommend, I just haven't built a crankbait rod on an NF
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I have to give NFC credit for helping me rectify my own mistake with a recent order. The week of Thanksgiving I placed an order for two X-Ray blanks, a rear grip, and a butt end. On Tuesday (12/13) I got a notification that my order had shipped (shipping label created), and noticed that instead of the SJ736-1 X-Ray I meant to order, I had accidentally ordered an MB736-1 X-Ray. I called customer s
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Ed, Check VooDoo rods (site sponsor). They have syringes (and the bottle stops Mark mentioned) for 2-3 dollars. In addition their shipping is reasonably priced, and they almost always ship my orders the same day they're placed.
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I have a "5 wt" eternity2 which behaves better for me with a 6 wt line, that can throw smaller streamers with no issues, but it's a fast rod. I'm with Tim in that I prefer a little more moderate action than most of the super fast rods on the market today. When I went down the path of a streamer rod, I wanted something I could also use on lake erie tributaries to fish for the lake run fi
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I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Smith yet. I wear the guide's choice with techlite copper lenses. They're a great all around lens color, and the glass is amazingly clear. The only area they could be better is in super low light, but they still get the job done. I was lucky enough to be able to try a bunch of different lenses and brands on the water from my local fly shop before buying, and the
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I'm going to reply here in case anyone else goes looking for this info. I finished my 8'6" 4 wt MX (built with single foot recoils for anyone who cares), and I'm using SA amplitude trout (120 grain first 30', so true to weight). I took it out for a little test casting to see how it felt, but haven't put any fish on it yet. I found that it loaded with no problem with relatively little line ou
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David, I'm with you 100% on the drop shot rod. I grew up on the great lakes and most of my drop shot fishing these days is for smallmouth in Erie, Ontario, and the St. Lawrence, and as you know there are some absolute bruisers in those lakes, hence why I'm looking for a little more power too. Keep us all posted on how that jerkbait rod works out. I'm in the same boat as you as I'm not super ta
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Yes, this forum and the search option are a wealth of info! On my most recent build (a 8'6" 4wt. CTS Affinity MX... Thanks Herb!) I decided to try my hand at using epoxy to create a ramp to the cork instead of using a winding check. Found all sorts of good pointers using the search function, and after practicing once on a scrap piece of blank, I felt confident I could do it. Creating the ram
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Yes, this forum and the search option are a wealth of info! On my most recent build (a 8'6" 4wt. CTS Affinity MX... Thanks Herb!) I decided to try my hand at using epoxy to create a ramp to the cork instead of using a winding check. Found all sorts of good pointers using the search function, and after practicing once on a scrap piece of blank, I felt confident I could do it. Creating the ram
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Aaron and David, It sounds like I do a lot of fishing similar to you and would be interested in hearing some more on your drop shot and jerkbait rod experiences. I built a drop shot rod on an NFC 6107, and while it's a very good drop-shot rod, it's a little less powerful than I'd like. I've landed some 3-4 lb smallmouth on it, but I think I'd get bullied by anything much larger than that. My
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Sorry to revive this old thread, but I wanted to check and see if you built this MX and have any line recommendations. I'm working on an 8'6" 4wt. MX right now that I'm planning on using for my dry fly fishing and I'm thinking of pairing it with the rio technical trout or SA trout taper, but would be interested to hear your experiences with it.
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Paul, One thing to keep in mind is that the butt section of euro blanks are typically more powerful than their line rating indicates. For example, I'd say the butt section on my 11' 3wt affinity MX is more like the butt section on a standard 9' 5wt in power. I haven't tried to catch anything like steelhead on mine (I use a 9'6" 7 wt for that), but I can say that I've never had any issues
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Jeff, when I got introduced to euro nymphing by a guide, I used his T&T contact II (3 wt). The next day I started planning a build of my own, and ordered an 11', 3wt Affinity MX from Herb (same tip as Affinity X, but more moderate action which is my personal preference). While I only got to fish it for a day, I'd say the affinity MX I built is of similar quality to the contact II. They are de
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Thanks Tom. I'll check on it this afternoon and plan to test it as mentioned after warming it up. I expect I'll have to order new CP which is not a big deal (It was getting old and I probably need a new bottle anyway).
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I moved recently, and due to the sequencing of the move, my rod building supplies sat in a U-haul for two days in single digit temperatures. Does anyone here happen to know if those temps will have an adverse effect on finish and handle epoxies (I'm specifically using U-40 rod bond and gen 4). Right now my plan is to mix up a batch of both and see how they look/feel when cured, but I was curious
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Before I built my first rod I spent weeks going through this forum trying to figure out guide sizing, reel seat sizing, blank manufacturers, and techniques. In the end I'm happy I did because it made my subsequent builds significantly less stressful, but I knew I was going to be building a bunch of rods. If I had been unsure of if it was for me, I can see the appeal of using a kit and alleviating
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I used a CTS Affinity MX that I ordered through Herb Ladenheim who you can find on this message board. It's a "moderate-fast" blank (where I know most people recommend fast or x-fast for streamers) , but I've had zero problem throwing a double streamer rig on a sink tip with it.
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I had this same dilemma a few months back. I was building a 7wt. for the same purposes as you (streamers and occasional steelhead fishing). I ended up splitting the difference and building a 9' 6", and I'm happy I didn't go 10'. Even at 9.5' it's taxing on the shoulder to throw streamers all day (I'm throwing them on a sink tip). Ultimately I'd build for your main use case, 9 ft. if it's mai
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The advice above is great. I built a 7.5' 3wt fiberglass rod recently and did the size 10 agate, followed by a 2 litewire snake, and then 1/0 lightwire snakes the rest of the way. As Brian mentioned, single foot snakes can help reduce the weight, but I would recommend stepping the size up to 1s on the runners if you're going to use single foots.
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As promised, following up on performance of my new nymphing build after finally getting on the water with it. The rod is built on an 11' 3wt CTS Affinity MX, with 12 guides (not including tip top). For guides I used one size 8 Fuji KW (titanium SiC), one size 2 lite wire REC recoil single foot, and 10 size 1 REC recoil single foots. While I haven't hooked any huge trout on it yet, I had no troubl
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Some of it comes down to personal preference, but for anything I might have to really work a bait (walking baits, jerkbaits, etc.) I prefer the shorter handle (say mid fore-arm). Anytime I might need to pull a fish out of heavy cover, I go for the longer handle (punching jigs, T-rigs, etc.)
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One benefit of shorter grips is that it tangles less in clothing in cold weather. It's also dependent on the type of fishing you're going to be doing. For example, I prefer a shorter handle on a jerkbait rod for ease of working the bait.
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