I am thinking about building another rod. It will hopefully be my main smallmouth small stream wading rod.
If you all had to order these rods in order from fastest to slowest, how would you do so?
St Croix IV, St Croix V, Five Rivers Sig V, Rx7+, Rx8+, TFO Professional, TFO TicrX, Five Rivers FT (probably the fastest?) and include my current Orvis TLS Mid-Flex rod in that list. Also please include any suggested blanks I am missing in the under $200 price range and 4 pieces.
I am pretty sure I don’t want the FT, as from what I have read, it’s common to over line it and slow it down. I don’t need that fast.
I am thinking about putting a REC RSLS saltwater reel seat on it. I’ll be using my Orvis Large Arbor IV reel and a Rio Clouser floating line.
Your question is hard to answer as the power of the rods is all over the place in your listing and it’s not really the fast tip that causes you to have to overline or underline a blank, but the true power of the blank itself. Blank classification by the manufacturers is not governed by any body or agreement so they can list them anyway they please.
Go to www.superbob.org and there you’ll see a listing of rods and blanks, you’ll also see from the discriptions that some of the faster rods you’ve fished were really underrated and the moderate actioned rods you may have fished were really overrated fast action blanks.
Yea no one seems eager to rank them. I have decided . . . did so Saturday. I am going to get a Scott A2 6wt 4 pc. I cast several rods and decided to go with something I know and not something that’s unknown to me . . .
FWIW, I just built a Dan Craft FT906 and am using a 6 wt Clouser line- it performs great (at least for me). I’ve read a lot about overlining this rod and I know the Clouser is a “heavy” line, but I’m really happy with it. It throws the line a mile with little effort and is still quite sensitive. Great blank.