Spin cast Fly Rod on a Fly Rod Blank!

[Steven McGarthwaite]

My daughter's boyfriend, is a spin cast fisherman, and expressed a desire for a long fly rod for spin casting.

I am thinking that since he mostly fishes for Largemouth Bass, I would use a lower modulus St. Croix Fly Rod (3 or 4 piece) and setup the rod with a spin cast handle/reel seat/handle sequence.

For the handles I was think burled cork, with a stone cap end. I am not sure if I should go with snake guides or single foot. I also am not sure of what weight fly rod blank I should use. Any impute would be appreciated!

~Parnelli

[Sonny Edmonds]

LOL!
I'm coming along from just the opposite direction.
I have 5 blanks for Fenway spinning rods I inherited from my Dad almost 2 decades ago.
I was thinking about building one of them into a fly rod for the Grand Son that fishes with me a lot. (I already built him a spinning rod.)
You want a long spinning rod. I'm about to make a short stout fly rod.

[Eric-WD]

I would hook up a few fly rods with a spin reel, use hose clamps or rubber bands to hold the reel in place, then lawn cast it with the lure/bate setup he wants to use with it, the only way I can think of to find the correct wt of rod.

Eric

[TampaJim]

1) That can be a LOT of fun. The length is awesome for casting AND the more giving nature of most longer blanks make for a nice fight.

2) Use of a fly blank as anything other than building a fly rod voids almost every major warranty on the market ... definitely that of St Croix. So buy something very inexpensive to do it with. IF that bothers you, look at Salmon/Steelhead blanks in the very lightest classes ... such as St Croix's 3SC90MLF2.

3) Build the rod as a traditional spinning rod. Spinning guides, spinning reel seat, etc. The appropriate guides IMO would be something along the lines of Fuji Alconite BYAG. Be sure to use the smallest possible guides as running guides. If he is using monofilament, you can drop to a 3.5mm BLAG and experience something awesome.

4) I would stay away from using too much burl/composite cork. It adds weight. Maybe some burl mixed with natural cork. On a super long spinning rod, weight is everything.

5) A rough guide to line weight versus lure weight ... every 1/16 ounce is a line weight. So ... for a medium power spinning rod, generally an 8 weight will do the trick. That is 8 times 1/16 = 1/2 ounce max lure. A typical range. IF you do decide to use a fly blank, take off the top 6". It will speed the rod up a little (good thing) and offer a touch more durability (double good thing).

Hope this helps.

TJ -

[Bigdadyrods]

Jim is right. The number 16 is the right number to use. Divide the weight of the lure to the #16. You want to cast 1/4oz lure?? 4 into 16 is 4...thats the weight of the rod to use.

I don't really wan to step on toes here but I'll try to dance around this.... cutting blanks can be done and actually can work for you. Cutting the tip will increase the weight of the lure to be used on the lower/higher weight scale. Lets say you want to target 1/4 oz. then you have that scale of 3/16 to 5/16 as your lower/higher numbers. Cutting the tip will boost up your lower number and cutting the butt will shrink your higher numbers but it really doesn't speed up your blank but actually will slow it down,slightly.
Adding an extension onto the butt will actually make the blank a little faster.
But in the end, you will have that deminishing returns as you cut and add to the original blank.

Going in either direction with a spinning/fly rod blank does work, as I make a lot of long spinning rods with fly rod blanks. The blank doesn't know what it will be til I build it. As far as going the other way, rest assured that those little cute short fly rod blanks probably started out as spinning rod mandrels.

Randy

[modocdan]

Well.. quite interesting... I just built three fly rods, all short & stout on 'glass spinning rod blanks, 61/2 -7 ft. All for other people. They all like them, and are using them in brushy areas with mostly poppers for warmwater stuff. Great fly rods, all about 4/5 wt. I also recently built my son in law a spinning rod on a graphite fly blank, a 6wt./8ft.
first time he got hung up and rared back a little too much he broke that rod right past the ferrule. I think it was too light for the 8# mono he was using. I just built him a new rod, a 71/2 foot spin rod on a 'glas spinning blank. It's a little tougher, feels more like a 7 or 8 wt. fly rod blank. I also used steel ferrules on it for a little more toughness. all this to say I agree with trimming a bit off the tip of a longer fly blank, especially if it's graphite, when using it for a spin rod. I say they make a nice longer spin rod with a nice light action and very good loading charachteristics for nice spin casting... just my 2 cents
...................ModocDan

[Steven McGarthwaite]

I had a South Bend "Black Beauty" that I picked up as a "Garage Sale", many years ago, it was a hybrid spin cast/fly rod where the reel seat/handle assembly was reversible. It was fair casting it either way, but wast not that great at either. I gave that to my daughters boy friend, and I just thought that he had a interest in my fly rods, which are longer, he might like the real thing.

I appreciate the feed back and hints, I will surely put them all to good use (and don't call me "Shirley!" ). Now I just got to get his hand grip diameter and I will be set to go! ~Parnelli

PS: I set his Beauty Fly Spin Cast Reel, up with Dacron backing, and 2X tippet line (90 feet), and gave him a spool of 3X and 4X tippet material.