Building own rod, 7wt? Attention SageFlyguy and other builders

[mdrew9]

I am going to be building a rod this winter and am wondering if a 7wt would be too light for light shore fishing for Spring bass, and Albies? I would like a fairly quick stick. What are terms like high modulus grafite refering to?
Mike

[sage fly guy]

I would rather see you go with an 8 wt. A much more versatile stick that would cover more applications than a 7 would. You could use it for schoolies in the spring, but not be overmatched by keeper size bass later in the year. Perfect for albies or bones.

For my first rod building project I would look into St Croix's line up of blanks. They cover every base from the entry level SC1 to the high end SCV. Lots of good choices. www.stcroixrods.com

I built 2 earlier in the year for my oldest daughters. Quite a nice pair of sticks.

For components, Pac Bay makes a nice line of gear. I don't think for your first stick you want to start off with a $100.00 REC reel seat, but maybe you do.

Any questions, feel free to post here or email me directly.

A good source of info is here www.rodbuilding.org Builder's from all over the country post here.

chris

[mdrew9]

Chris I own a 9wt which is one of the reasons I thought of going with the 7 wt. Is there a big difference between the 9wt and an 8wt or does it greatly depend on blank selection?

[sage fly guy]

I started off with a 7wt years ago, and I must say I use it less frequently than other other size I own.

A 9wt RPLXi was my go to rod for the last 5 years, but this past season I've used an 8wt quite a bit. Pretty versatile stick.

You will find many different actions between 7's from different manufacturer's. If you can wait till the winter shows(Wilmington&Marlborough), go try out a bunch of 7's and 8's from every manufacturer, you will find one you like. Then just order the blank.

Or skip all that, build one of each. --127-3-

Once you start building, you will end up with them all anyways.


chris

[dudley]

I agree with Chris, once you build your first rod you will realize that it's really quite easy and you will want to keep going.
Check out the mudhole.com web site, they even have videos to help you along.
My first homerolled rod I got as a kit from Hook and Hackle, and Bob has been very good to me over the years. He has very good prices and even better sales.

[dudley]

Modulus of elasticity is a thoretical measure of a material in terms of it's resistance to deformation. In other words high modulus rods will stress cleanly and return chrisply to their original form.
What is far more important than the terms that rod companys use to sell their product is how the rod reacts to your casting style.
For albies I would go with a 10 wt.

That makes 3 and counting. :)

I'll be restoring a couple of bamboo rods this winter. Might have to spend more time fishing for trout next year.

[mdrew9]

Yeah I get 40% off the Hook and Hackle kits

[dudley]

I have two rod built on H&H IM6 blanks
The 8.5' 5 wt. is a med. to med.fast action at most. Faster than my storebought IM6 6 wt. but not by much. It is not my favorate 5 wt.
The 9' 9 wt. 4 piece that I built last winter has a suprisingly fast action for an IM6. It was my main stick for most of this SW season.