Custom rod on United DHX blank UC70LXF. Best combo I've come across, there is also a 6 1/2 ft. version. The ultimate is a NFC blank, but it's only 5 ft. 10 in. long, I have extended them to 6 1/2 ft. but no further with good sucess. Stan Fagerstrom the Hall of Famer, said it was one of his all time ...

Build a casting rod on the same blank you use for finesse with a spinning rod. The blank don't care and neither will the fish. Been building casting rods for light stuff with 2 power spin jig blanks for over 20 years, they throw 1/8 - 3/8 oz. best just like they do spinning reels. My best and most e...

Gary Loomis designed an outstanding ulralight mag bass blank maybe 30 years ago, one of Stan Fagerstom's all time favorite rods, the SJR 700. Built one many years ago as a casting rod with a a Shimano Bantam 100 EX reel, the first reel I'm aware of designed as an ultralight casting reel. Has a selel...

On Dec. 07, 2016 Rich Forhan aswered a question about how much weight is needed to balance an 8 ft. flipping stick. Quote: The right amount of weight for an 8 ft. flippng stick to be perfectly balanced is ZERO! This applies to your rod also. Google who Rich Forhan is, what you find will be maybe 10%...

On a casting rod once you have the line under control the size doesn't really affect performance even with the stiffer fluorocarbons, etc. It's a straight line run out of the guides unlike a spinning rod, after all the line runs out of a pretty small guide on the reel long before it gets to the rod....

Now days many factory rods are finished with other things besides epoxy, UV curing finishes being one of them. They are tougher than epoxy, closer to the toughness of Permagloss, but they are much less flexible.

Get with NFC and see if they make a blank similar to the G Loomis SJ700. An ultralight mag bass taper blank design.

Isn't all that info still on the Batson Enterprises site?

Nothing new here Union Carbide and others have been making synthetic stones forever it seems. Similar technology to making silicone wafers are used for some. Pocket watches, clocks, etc. had ruby bearings in them, that's what a "jeweled movement" meant. Walk into a Union Carbide plant that does this...

I still have a few I haven't got built yet, SHX and SH III, no SH II left. I used to buy all the blank stock for the rod builders in our bass club because I had the wholesale license and I custom build rods. Wish I still had some of the 764 flipping stick blanks, I still think they are the finest bl...

Frosty, Hopefully your post was in jest. In my younger years I noticed that when my head was near, or in the bowl things got a bunch louder. Does than mean I can amplify rod vibrations and sensitivity by using one somehow? This also is in jest, the plumbing would take away to much of my needed stora...

When Berkeley started listening to their pros and actually looked at the tackle they were designing and selling and building rods that optimized their use they did themselves and the sport a big favor. They ended up with a rod line up than were closer to the softer tipped G Loomis designs than the r...

Forgot to mention the St Croix 3, 4, and 5S76MLXF blank is similar, though a bit lighter powered. They only build it in a spinning rod though I think, but it comes in one and two piece cofigurations. Tackle Tour tested that rod in the SCV graphite some years ago.

6 to 12 lb. line, ulralite popping rod, built for over 30 years. Another G Loomis innovation, Shikari, when they were in business also had a version, the P700, IP700, and PP700 which was in SHX graphite. Great dropshot rods, some shortened them to 6' 9", ulralight rod tip tied to a 6 to 12 lb spin j...

Stan Fagerstrom the trick caster and elite angler before they had a name for it, could make the Loomis CR721 and SJR700 do anything, but bark like a dog. G Loomis innovations that stood the test of time.