Hey P'Row,

I am very curious to see how your 2 pc turns out and how the metal ferrules affect the action. I was going to do the same thing, but I screwed up the cuts and ended up ruining the blank. Thank god they are so inexspensive!

On another note, I would never say that I am an innovator, I just tried something that seemed to make sense to me. Like Jim said in the article, it's been done many times before. Ed Shenk, among others, used short spinning blanks to make small stream rods a very long time ago.

It comes down to one thing, I cannot in a million years imagine spending over $150 on a factory fly rod that is rated for the wrong line, has many flaws in the mass produced workmanship, and is no better for my style of fishing than these rods. There is a post on the main forum asking how many $600-$700 fly rods people own with 17 pages of responses. You have got to be kidding! That blows me away.......all of my home made rods don't add up to that much. However, my $75 rods have better workmanship, components that do the job, better guides (snake guides are not cutting edge and I cannot understand why they are the standard on cutting edge rods costing upto $700), and fit my casting stroke. I wouldn't sell any of them off, and I would stack them up against any high end rod because I know that these rods fit my style. That's all that matters.

If anything, I am a rod companies worst nightmare. I flat out refuse to allow their marketing campaigns to influence what line weight works best on a rod. IT is not about 1 size fits all, and I will decide what line loads the rod to my liking. My rods are for fishing, not to see how far I can cast in a parking lot. Another example of my rebelious ways is the fact that in an attempt to find a 4pc 7.5' 6wt, I turned to a Forecast IM6 4wt graphite blank to fit the bill. It casts beautifully with a 6wt line, despite the line that it is rated for. Again, it fits my needs and that's all that matters.

Fly fishing is not as complicated as some people make it out to be. I just experimented on a hunch to meet my own demands....in this instance, it just so happens that the blanks I decided to try were glass spinning blanks.

I will say this, I hope that Batson doesn't decide to re-market these as Small Stream Specialty Fly Blanks because the price will increase by 500%.

Specifically regarding the E-glass spinning blanks, I decided to try them because:

1. The short graphite rods on the market are mostly rated for 2wt lines and these are too light for throwing the variety of flies that a 4-6wt line allows for. (On another note, most of the IM6 2wt blanks make excellent 3-4wt rods if you are looking for a glass like slow action rod)

2. The short graphite rods on the market are just too stiff to load in close with the designated lines.

3. These blanks are labeled as slow traditional spinning action and just seemed like they might be flexible enough to make good fly rods and it turned out in a positive way.

This turned into a huge rant, but I think it is relevant to show the mindset that went into trying these blanks. IF anything, I hope to encourage others to think outside the box and try things out for themeselves.

Lou