Retirement Rod for Father

[jakemcarroll]

My dad is retiring soon and he plans to do more fishing in his retirement (sounds rough, huh?). My plan as a retirement gift is a custom rod. I've built a handful of ice rods, but never a summer rod so I need a little help picking the blank.

This is as much as I know: 6.5-7', at least IM6 graphite, 2 piece spinning rod.

He will be primarily casting/reeling with jigs or bobber fishing, mostly targeting panfish, crappies, with some occasional bass and pike.

Looking for recommendations, thanks in advance!!

[upnorth]

That is a pretty wide spectrum. If he mainly is pan fishing I would look for a med Light blank rated for something like 4 to 8 pound line and 1/16 to 1/4 ounce lures.

Rainshadow has a nice one with this blank.

RX8+822.5 6'10" x fast 1/8 to 1/2 ounce lure and 6 to 12 pound line.

I have 2 for walleye fishing, one wrapped as spinning for jigging and the other spiral wrapped for pulling plugs. Nice blank that will cover a wide variety of situations.

[Jmeyers]

I agree with the Rainshadow option, they are very nice blanks.

Can also look into MHX, they sell some package deals with Microwave guides that may save you some money if that is what you are looking for. I'm not sure of your price range.

Here is the blank ID: SJ783-2-MHX

[Willow Sticks]

I like the St Croix in either the SCII or SCIII. Both series have a wide choice of options. Plus I like the fact they are built in Wisconsin.

[Coryy]

I don't know how much you are looking to spend, but I have had really good luck with the MHX blanks. They are on the lower end of the spectrum, but they are solid and have a huge variety of choices. IMHO

[A.W.Wolfram]

All good suggestions here.

The biggest item that sways my purchasing is shipping. I strongly dislike paying for shipping.

Since you are from the west metro there is a few options to purchase from a vender locally.

This is my preferred method and it saves me 20% of build cost in most cases.

Another blank series to look at is the new Batson Revaluation rod blanks. Best bang for the buck IMHO and if you can cut out the shipping nothing else can compete as far as value is concerned.

Look at the REVS610MXF. A sister to the XSB822.5 and ISB822.5