If I had to guess I would say the USA made kistler blanks are made by composite forge, which is a newer company making blanks in Texas.

Yeah, it is a bit over budget. But Rod Geeks sells the blank in SC3+ if he wants to go that direction. I built one and really like it, though I finished late fall and haven't been able to fish it much.

Legend Tournament 7'10" medium mod fast. Designed for your exact purpose.

It was so nice of St. Croix to let Okuma use their tooling.

Outdoors grips came first, patented the design and sold to PacBay. I'm currently building a musky rod with one of those (PacBay Revolution) to see how it works. Regular reel seats work fine for throwing smaller baits, but anything that helps pain and fatigue after throwing big baits for a while is w...

Torzite is silicon nitride. G Loomis used to use a lot of Pac Bay components, and in my opinion Sea Guide stuff is higher quality than Pac Bay. I'd call Fuji Daiwa or Shimano and Sea Guide Doyo. Still good stuff, but more on the copied and derivative side.

I built a bunch of rods for my club on Rainshadow RX6 blanks. Cost I think was $48 per rod. They turned out surprisingly nice. I built one for myself with smaller nicer guides and better cork and it turned out to be one of my favorite rods at a cost of something like $65.

Your guide plan starting with a 16 is fine with light braid. More than ten pound braid, mono, or fluoro I would start with a 20. My favorite rod building supplier is voodoo rods. I suspect they will have what you want.

I would go Fuji titanium SIC on a blank like that. I can tell the weight difference between corrosion control and titanium on a light blank. I don't see much advantage to torzite unless you feel the need to have the best. I would do a KR setup with KL-H 20, KL-H 10, and KL 5.5M for a reduction train...

High end rods are wrapped how the manufacturer wants them wrapped. Most builders wrap on the straightest axis. The spine isn't an actual physical thing, it is just an effect based on the average stiffness over the length of the rod. Casting it can't make any different because we cast at all differen...

I have to admit that I don't understand split reel seats at all. They are not lighter, especially as mentioned above when they have an insert. Many people find them less comfortable. I don't think there is a big group that finds them more comfortable. My guess is that their use is all about looks. M...

That's really unfortunate. I've built on 4 rod geeks blanks and been happy with their quality. I have a metallic red glass blank and I think it looks great. No excuse for crappy quality control. In terms of the carbon 2 blanks, yes they are the same as St. Croix blanks, but remember that they are th...

I was talking about the casting seat with the EVA insert, and also the spinning seat. Maybe it is just me. I was looking at the Victory rods again the other day, and I can't stop thinking that they feel cheap compared with the avid and avid x. Of course they are newer and less expensive. Maybe I exp...

If St. Croix made the choice for components on the Victory based on preference that would be fine. Unfortunately, they made the choice on price. Has anyone ever seen a custom rod with a split reel seat with EVA in the middle? I have not. I would be willing to bet less than 5% of fishermen have a gri...

40 lb maxcuatro is the same diameter as 12 lb tatsu. It will, therefore, allow crankbaits to run equally deep. Floating or sinking line has nothing to do with it, it is all about line diameter and water resistance. I'd be fine frogging with 40 lb maxcuatro, since it is probably 60 lb line, and I dou...