Question about the e-glass spin blanks

Equipment Rod Building: Cane and Graphite
1

Maybe Loudog, Jim Flamming, or someone else with experience with these blanks can answer a question
A quote from Jim’s article

However, not all of these blanks appear well suited for building fly rods

How would you know if a blank is suitable?

Ever since Loudog talked about his first e-glass rod back on Clark’s fiberglass forum some years back, I’ve been interested in such a rod.
But for me, I think that a rod that would throw an 8 or 9wt line might be more to my needs.
What characteristics would you look for that would make one blank more suitable than another?
Do you look at tip diameter? Should I go wiggle a few blanks? (Cote’s fly shop is not that far)
Or do you think I should just pick one and go for it.

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I’ll leave room for Lou to respond as well, but for my two cents, if Cotes’ is close by, I would print off the article and go stop by there and do some wiggling. Talk to them as well, they would be able to stear you towards a little heavier blank. If you look on their website, you will see that the rods that I list in the article are all listed as ultralight for 2-6 lb test, stuff like that. The lightest rods in that series basically. There are several models that are heavier than these, so if you went one weight or action stiffer, maybe you would hit the mark. Cotes’ can probably set you up with some low cost guides, reel seat and grip as well, so just try experimenting. For the price of the rods, it almost doesn’t matter if the experiment fails, you will likely only be out around $20. Then by all means, report back to the rest of us regarding your impressions on how the rod performs.

Jeez, a 6’ 9wt! That’s a baton man!! It could double as a gaff! :smiley:

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…maybe not 6 foot…
A 7 or 7.5 footer might make a good kayak striper rod though

(I was just looking at those pink :oops: closeout e-glass blanks at mudhole
now that would be “distinctive”)

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Hi Dudley,

Sorry for the delayed response to your questions, but I am dealing with a personal family issue so I have not been on-line much.

I would definitely recommend that you go into Cotes and wiggle a few blanks. I found the blanks that worked for me through trial and error ordering on the web, but nothing beats actually feeling what a blanks flex characteristics are like.

I would start with the 2 and 3 power blanks for an 8/9 wt. The SPG842 or 843 would most likely hit the mark for a 7’ 8 or 9wt, if I had to guess. Glad others are trying these blanks as they are really fun to build.

Jim, thanks again for writing the article and bringing these blanks to others attention.

Lou

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Lou, Jim,
I’m looking at the SPG842 ( 7’, light action, for a 6-12# line)
It’s not in the Cote’s catalog, but it is on sale at Schneider’s ($11.95)
I think this might be a good project this off season

Yesterday I was out in my kayak chasing bluefish.
You follow the sea gulls to the blitz, make a cast, strip, strip, strip, and your on.
The problem was that by the time I had landed the fish, the school had sounded, and I had to chase the gulls to another school of fish.
And that can be a ways.
If I could have landed my fish sooner, I might have gotten another shot at the original school
I’m thinking that with a shorter rod, the fish might come to hand quicker, more shots, less paddling :smiley:

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Lou-dog is an innovator. I have seen and read about his work on several forums, and am presently building a fly rod on the 6’6" one piece batson e-glass blank, which I have made 2 piece, using metal ferrules. I placed the ferrule back on the butt of the rod so that the stripper guide would be on the tip section, thereby attempting to maintain as much of the rods flexation as possible with metal ferrules. I am in the final stages and will report how it works out-p-

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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

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well, we appreciate you blazing the trail on this ;I enoy seeing your work; you can have a nice rod without spending the rent money; My rationale for using the metal ferrule was to offset it to the point where it appeared not to affect the flex of the rod. All my line guides are on the tip section, which allows plenty of flex, while making it easily transported. I am gonna try a spigot ferrule on the next one, but according to Clemens there is little difference in the flex of metal versus spigot, so I plan to offset it also. I tested the blank with ferrule in place and guides wrapped and it tested 5.3 ERN on the “cents” method. I also tested a 7’-5 weight Fenwick ff705 just to get a comparison. The little fenwick glass tested 3.42, even though its marked a 5. I’ll try the 6 foot e-glass next. Its a lot of fun and I think they’l make really good small stream rods. -p-

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I love the batson line of rod blanks; and my buddies (customers) do also. I have made a ton of the little 6’6" 2 weights in the four piece and the two piece; they will carry a 4 weight line 60-65 feet easily and really load well for shooting line under riverbank foliage. Also, the 7’6 and the 7’9" in the three weight are great panfish blanks. I like the forecast in these models .-p-