You can't go wrong with a St. croix blank. Take a 3s50ULF and trim a couple of inches off the butt to get the lenght you want. I build a lot of ultra-lights for trout fishing and St. Croix is my blank of choice.
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Bill Trout rods are all I build and 5 1/2 ft is the most common length. My favorite blank is a St. Croix 3s60ULF, their 6 foot ultra-light with 6" trimmed off the butt. In my opinion the best ultra-light blank on the planet was the St. Croix 5s59ULF, but they quit making it. Jim Reinhardt
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Bill They make 2 lbs. in both the smoke and the crystal. I like the smoke. I buy it on-line, but I can't remember where. It's not one of the big tackle retailers. It's not a braid but the fused line. I believe they make 1 lbs. also. Jim
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Try the Pfluger President 6720. I use Pfluger reels exclusively and fish with 2 lbs. fireline in the summer and 4 lbs. Tectan in the winter. I own a Supreme and it sits on the shelf. There is something about the spool shape that causes the fireline to come off in terrible snarls. I can spool up a President in April and use the same line most of the summer with no problems. Go figure! I own 5 Pr
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Klass Kote epoxy paint can be purchased with a satin hardener. Some of the bamboo boys use Sally Hanson's Sand Turtle Gleamer to knock down the sheen on their wraps.
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Try posting your question here: This is a bamboo forum. Jim
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Mike The permagloss does not wick out of the guide channel. Permagloss contains a ton of solvent and as the solvent evaporates the volume of finish decreases opening up the area near the guide foot. If you use an undercoat of light epoxy (threadmaster light, flexcoat light, klass kote etc.) and start your finish at the guide foot and let it wick into the tunnel as you work toward the guide r
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I had trouble with line sticking to a wet ultra-light blank with BLAG #4 running guides spaced at 6 inches when pitching 1/32 oz. jigs with 2 lbs. fireline. Last night I applied Ardent Line Butter to both the line an the blank and took it out fishing this morning. The line butter caused the water to bead up on the blank but a quick shake pretty much dried the blank off. No problems pitching!! T
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I posted the weights of the 4L's and the tips below in the post M&M.
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Went to school to get ready for another year (number 36) and weighed some guides and tip tops. Our scales get some pretty hard use so I don't know how accurate these are, but the relative weights should be useful. Pac Bay Match Guides "M" 4L .12 grams Tip Top .28 grams Fuji Mirco 4 .06 grams Tip 4.5 - 3.8 .14 grams Rec
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David the 4L are the smallest and the height is a pretty close match to the height of the tip.
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Steve Do you know how much higher the Batson guides are? I don't have this trouble with Fuji BLAG 6.
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Bill I know you are right. The line gets stuck in the surface film. I din't know the physics behind it, but I bet Ralph could help with that. Anything that would keep the blank from gettin wet would help, maybe a good coat of carnuba. I'd be interested in what you find out.
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I am going to compare the weight of the micros and a tip (sounds like I would need 5 or 6 and the tip) to four "M" style 4L and a tip. I know the higher guides wil elliminat the problem.
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I'm going to try the extra guide first. If I end up using "M" style running guides it will be back to the future, my old set up used to be all "m" style 16-7-4L running guides. The biggest dissadvantage would probably be the weight of the "M" style tip. Thanks for all your replies Jim
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One more BLAG 4 would space all my running guides at 4.5 inches. Does that sound better? Thanks for your quick reply. Jim
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I built an ultra-light spinning rod on a St. Croix 3S60ULF blank cut to 5 1/2 feet by cutting 6 inches off the butt. It is set up with a Pac Bay "M" 16 butt guide followed by a Pac Bay "M" 6 and four Fuji BLAG 4 running guides and a Fuji 4.5-3.8 tip. I use 2 lbs. fireline and throw 1/32 oz. jigs. The rod is absolutely dianamite on overhead casts and 95% off the time works gre
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Billy I think that is a great idea! Thanks
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I think that St. Croix is the most fantastic rod company on the planet, nestled in the heart of northern Wisc. Great rods, good beer and good cheese. If you ever get to Park Falls stop in and watch the ladies putting on Flex Coat through the big picture window. I wish I would have put a stop watch on them, they don't mess around and if you get lucky one might wave at you. Now comes the rub the
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How do LS Supreme or LS supreme High Build compare to Classic Rod Coat in viscosity and pot life. I currently use Classic and love it ,but I read in one of Ralph's older posts that Supreme was mor flexible and would lead to less cracking by the guide foot.
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Try asking the boys on this site
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Anyone know where I can get a Cortland slide band seat with the cork inseert and the double aluminum slide bands? Thanks Jim
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Tom Several others have reccomended the gatti blank. I will contact Brian at Gatti USA
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Thanks for you help!
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I have a co-worker looking for a very fast action 2 wt.,2 piece, 7.5' to 8.5' rod. He wants me to use a high end blank so cost isn't an issue. Any suggestions?
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You might try:
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I often use silk on graphite fly rod and ultra-light spinning rods. I usually use YLI 3/0 with good results. Jim
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St. Croix 2SW70MF3 Spinning/Casting 7' 8-17 line 3/8-3/4 lure 3 piece Medium Power FAST ACTION Butt 0.565 Tip 5.0 2.3 oz. $135
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Batson Rainshadow RX 7 SB841-3 Clear Gloss 7'0" 3 piece 6-12lb. 1/8 - 3/8oz. butt 0.605 tip 5.5 Fast Medium-Light 2.20 oz.
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I just got done looking at Jeff Shafer's reel seat in the picture gallery. I have been doing reel seats using epoxy to fill the grain and following with 6 coats of Tru-Oil. I know that Perma-Gloss is about as tough a finish as there is and I think Jeff''s reel seat looks fantastic. How about filling grain when using Perma-Gloss? Any tips Jeff?
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