Herb should be able to order that for you, his link is too the left, CTS Rod Blanks, he might be take him a bit to get back to you, I think his area might get smacked with a hurricane (Florida East Coast).
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Phil, you forgot ceiling fans.
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Yes, mainly for the Fiberglass crowd, especially for the blanks that are made with Spigot style ferrules, example, Steffen Brothers, his 2 and 3 piece blanks have a very loyal following, along with Tom Morgan's Glass, which mainly come in 2 piece, although a couple are made in 4 piece too. I have also built out plenty of the CTS Quartz Glass in 2 piece, although I probably build just as many 3 an
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Dave, unhide your email. I have that #521 Navy Blue, size A regular nylon. I can spare a spool or two, I have it in 100 yard spools. Email me if you want it.
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Best option, buy a few different brands in the colors you want to use, do some test wraps on a piece of scrap blank in the same base color as your blank, pick the one that suits Your eye the best. You're probably going to several opinions of what is the "best" brand, they are all good. I rarely use NCP thread, but I get asked what brand of nylon or silk do I like the best pretty f
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You might try Penn State Industries or Arizona Silhouette, they both have dyed turning blanks, the only problem might be the size the square stock, they cater more to the pen blank market, so the inventory of 1" might be slim. Reel Seat Blanks also has dyed wood, but I don't think I have ever seen Box Elder Dyed on his site. Maybe Ron Weber might chime in, he might have something like
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Try Ricks Rods, he is in Denver CO.
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The older Lamiglas S glass (they are a sort of translucent honey brown color with brown/grey spigot ferrules) are real nice casting rods. You'll see blanks show up on the @#$%& sites now and then. The newer Lamiglas (Yellow blank) are not in my opinion as good as the old stuff. I have cast a few models of each and the older ones are better. The new stuff is just too soft for my taste, especially
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Yes, 2 that come to mind are CTS (any of their fly blanks can be ordered with an extra tip, just email Herb) and Anglers Workshop has a USA made IM-6 blank that comes with an extra tip. There might be others too.
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CTS Affinity MX 864-4 is a great dry fly stick in Graphite, if you want something with a softer action, look at the Affinity N or Vintage series, all 3 are very light in the hand and cast very well. I'd also go with an 8-6 length for a 4wt, they just seem to cast better in that line weight and length compared to 9ft blank in 4wt. Herb can hook you up with any of those blanks.
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Go with the CTS FX-1002-4 that Herb mentioned, I just delivered one to a guy on the Irish National Team this past spring. the guy loves it, he wanted it for small nymphs, smaller than #20 on gin clear streams in Europe. The CTS blanks will easily rival or exceed the stuff the USA market is making in my opinion.
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I know Orvis does still make their upper level blanks (both carbon and glass) in Manchester VT. Not sure about the entry level stuff. Add Burkhiemer and Mike McFarland too.
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I only have experience with their Fly Rod Blanks, both the E Glass and S Glass are great casting blanks. At times they will show up on some of the @#$%& sites, but they are getting kinda scarce these days. Their Glass Fly Rods blanks have a bit of cult following.
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Agree, Snake Brand products are top shelf. Yes, Joel Lemke does make the hardware for Mike, Joel used to work for Struble. Plenty of Pro and Hobby builders use his stuff. Ron Weber at Southwest Custom Rods also sells Lemke hardware, slightly different style from the Snake Brand product.
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No experience with the American Tackle guides, I use Snake Brand guides 90% of the time, REC Recoils now and then based on customer preference. Both are very high quality and light in weight.
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The quality on the MHX is very good, I just think they are a bit too stiff for my taste. I would steer you towards a CTS Affinity X blank. In the Carbon Fiber market, they have the best stuff today in my opinion. My primary indicator nymphing stick is an Affinity X 965-4. It also handles dries and dry/dropper rigs very well even though I prefer a much "slower" rod for that work. I have
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Try stuffing up the rest of the epoxy on that wrap and apply another coat of finish. It should cover it without any issue and you'll never know you had a bo bo there before. I have done the same to a couple of rods where a customer got "scratches" in the finish from a fall and I was able to sand them out without getting into the thread and just applied another light coat of finish.
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I have built and fished a CTS Quartz in the P2000 finish, that blank is "raw" no paint or clear top coat, I had another Quartz in the same configuration that was painted, (both 805-4's) and they cast alike, I could not tell a difference. Shipping from USA to UK is not that bad, I have sent several rods and blanks over to the UK, it cost me about $25 to $35 depending on the length an
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I have a lot of experience with CTS Glass, the 764 in either 2 or 3 piece is a great stick. I have not done a 5wt in that length, but plenty of them in 8ft and 8-6, again great casting rods. The Epics are also really good, CTS rolls the Epic blanks, in some configurations they are a bit different, bit more power than the same blank in a CTS. The 7-6 and 8ft models in each line weight seem to me t
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Get rid of the larger sizes, the 3, 4 and 12 stripper. Continue with the #2's all the way to the stripper and use a #8 or #10 for that. You don't need all those different size guides, 3 at the most, object is to create the straightest line path. Having a taper of many different guide sizes does nothing except add unnecessary weight to the blank. Use the smallest guide that will pass your line
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Like Herb said, CTS, there are several tapers to choose from as well as lengths. Really cannot go wrong with a CTS, either Graphite or Glass. I build on them and I fish them, a lot. Steffen Brothers and Epic also have some neat Glass in "bass" sizes and shorter lengths too.
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It really comes down to personal preference, all my Graphite bass rods are 9ft, my Fiberglass, 8ft 6in. I do find myself reaching for the glass more often nowadays, I just like that deeper load and more elegant loop you get with glass, and how they bend when a small mouth tanks a streamer.
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I get this same question posed to me quite often, anglers wanting to use the same fly rod for bass and trout fishing. The question and information I give back to them is, what size flies do you plan on using for both species? Consider this, most trout anglers use flies from lets say #8 down to #20 most of the time, dries weight almost nothing, bead head nymphs more, maybe some small streamers
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Joel Lemke makes some nice hardware in the LC-1 Downlock, Garrison Style GS-1, look at Southwest Custom Rods or Custom Fly Rod Crafters, Mike McCoy at Snake Brand has Lemke stuff as well. You won't find a better looking seat for the money.
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Lots! CTS Quartz Epic, Swift Fly Fishing, CTS Rolls their blanks to Epic Spec's. Steffen Brothers Seele Kabuto Livingston Rod Company Tom Morgan Rodsmiths The above stuff is all higher end stuff, there are other import blanks that are in a much lower price point, but I don't have any experience with them. Take a look at the Fibe
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If they are Glass, 2 or 3 piece, and that also goes for the majority of my customers too. Graphite, I really don't build many of them that short.
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You didn't ruffle my feathers either, just trying to save you and other builders some misery down the road.
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Tom is correct, they do weigh different amounts even if the volumes are equal. Years back I weighed a couple of different brands of thread finish, 3 different ones to be exact. I cannot remember exactly what the difference was, and they were all slightly different from each other too, but it was roughly a 10% to 15% difference between the two parts. Thats quite a bit when only mixing up 3cc of ea
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Light Wire Universal. Anglers Workshop does carry Snake Brand guides.
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I have done a gang of builds on the 905 CTS blanks, all models. Tom is totally correct on not using more than 3 sizes of guides, the rod will cast much better having a straight line path thru the guides. I am also a big fan of Snake Brand Universal guides, low profile, round profile and very small foot print on the blank. I'd use a #10 double foot for the stripper, then a #2 snake, followed b
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