Hey all,

I was wondering if anyone has thought of making the perfect panfish rod. I know a few of us enjoy fishing with fly rods, but it appears a majority fish with UL spinning gear. Now as a fly fisherman I know one of the biggest "things" about liking a fly rod is the fight when you hook a fish. The "long rod" is much more flexible than your average conventional gear and makes the fish feel much stronger in battle.

But the fly rod does have some serious draw backs. First, it can be hard to get the hang of it for some. Fishing in tight spaces can also be a chore. You can roll cast, but even that can be a pain at times. Also it is very fun to catch small fish on a small fly rod, but any wind can really affect the casting of the rod.

Now conventional gear is fine, but most of it is very short. I have an UL ugly stick but it's only 4 1/2 feet long. Makes casing it a bear (as in I can't get much distance). You could go with longer rods, but then you loose some of the UL feel. So my thought is longer rods cast better, you get more leverage and the fight would feel much stronger with more flexing going on.

Well, I have been thinking of combining them to get the best of both Worlds. What if I took say a 7-8 foot 2 or 3 weight blank and built it as an UL spinning rod. It would be long for chunking light lures and bait, it would be really "soft" so the fight of the fish would be increased and it would give you the over all feel of an UL rod.

Anyone ever tried this or think it may work?

I've yet to find an UL rod with the kind of back bone I really want. I'd love to have a 6.5 UL with plenty of sensetivity and still had plenty of backbone for setting the hook on those real light quick bites.

I have been using the small ultra light Shakespeare Ugly Stick. It has worked very well for me. I have caught tons of sunfish on it. The only draw back is when you hook into a large or very large fish you stand a good chance on loosing it. However again for the sunfish it is a very good rod.

When not actually fly fishing for 'gills, I go to this old favorite utility rig: an old fly rod that I broke a tip on and then replaced the end eye, strapped on an ultra lite spinning reel and presto: one perfect blend of both worlds.

Makes a great crappie rig also.

How long is your ugly stick, banker? And I don't mean that in a ghey way. I'd liked the backbone those have when I checked on out in the store but I couldn't find a 6.5' one.

Hey "MR" it is 56 inches in length. Academy has the combo both rod and reel for sale at $39.00. I have seen them on sale for $29.00 in the past. I have had mine for several years and it has worked very well.

Well I did do a little experimenting last night. I have a Cabalas 6 1/2 ft. 2 weight. I took one of my small spinning reels and used cable ties to secure it to the handle. Surprisingly it didn't seem to cast much further than my Ugly Stick, but the sensitivity was increased quite a bit. Not sure if the wire type fly guides prevented if from casting further that it did, but the overall feel was really nice. I guess I need to do some more experimenting to find the right blank for what I am looking for.

My rod choices:
1)For fun, UL, can't beat it from 000-3Wt.
2)Any Euro-rod (Quiver-Tips, Avons, Waggler Rods, etc <1TC) BIG TIME FUN!
3)For the non-FFer in America, any Howard Processed rod blank.

I can't begin to tell you the fun I had as a kid freelining doughballs without a rod.
Then came Bamboo, Cane, Metal, Glass, Composits, Graphite... they all saw bluegill action.

I know what ya mean about those traditional ULs. Most of 'em are under 6'. I started off with the 4'6" Ugly Stik and it worked well for a long time, but eventually, you do want something that can cast longer and give you a better hook set on fish that are further away. The 4'6" Stik still has a place in my stable though. It's a great rod for banks that are choked with trees and brush. Ugly Stik makes a 7' two piece UL.

I've always wanted to try out some of those long fiberglass fly rod blanks with a spinning reel seat and spinning guides. Could probably get some great distance with my micro cranks and topwaters. Most of the time when I'm hunting panfish, I'm throwing jigs or some other lure that requires a lot of feel. For those cases, 1 piece graphite rods are the ticket for me. I don't know if it would be feasible to make a 1 piece graphite UL rod over 6'6" (don't know if the UL graphite would hold up to those lenghts), but I would be willing to test out such a rod for anyone. Hobbyist or Manufacturer!

Nice thread. I've been thinking about this for a while, but never put it out there. Nice thread UF!

It's definitely the guides. A lot of line slap happens on those first few guides (the ones closest to the reel). That friction robs a lot of your distance. It's the reason spinning rod guides have a descending diameter to their rod guides as opposed to casting rods and fly rods, which have roughly the same diameter to their guides through out the rod. At least, that's my opinion on the matter.

I know the feeling MR. I was losing fish when they bit at the end off my cast and when trying to set the hook on a slip float rigged deep. I ended up switching to a 7' ML (medium light) rod when I'm fishing in areas with thick vegetation, thick reeds, immense brush reefs and rocky formations. The lenght of the 7' rod helps give me a longer cast and more "reach" (leverage?) on my hookset. The ML aspect of the rod gives me more backbone, and that backbone gives me more control when those big 'gills make their run for the thick stuff. Before I got that 7' ML rod and those fish got into the thick stuff, they got off almost every time. Now they don't make it into the cover as much and, when they do, I have a better chance of pulling them out.

I still love my UL fishing, but ya gotta have a heavier stick when those bull 'gills make that run away train charge into that their jungle. That's not little pen knife territory; that's machete territory IMHO.

Well I have been looking around to see what the manufactures offer in blanks that I am looking for. Mud Hole has a neat feature on their site. It's called a Rod Blank Search...pretty original name...LOL! So anyway you type in the specs your looking for and it gives you an array of blanks to choose from that fit close to your criteria. I found some that look interesting but are pretty pricey (at least for my budget). A lot of them in the 6-7 foot range with a 4 lbs line rating and 1/8 oz lure weight seem to be the drop shot rods. I should have thought about that one. Drop shot rods usually use very small weights (compared to big jigs or crank baits) and are long rods for the leverage needed.

One of the good and bad points with Mud Hole or other rod building suppliers is that you can buy blanks not offered as a complete rod. So in other words to fish one either you need to build it yourself or find someone else to build it for you (truly unique rods). Batson and some of the other suppliers offer blanks that are excellent quality and value for the price (I have a couple of them). But the bad side is since they are not found at a retailer, you can't go "bend" one at a store and see if its got the feel your looking for. So I think I will try to make it to Bass Pro or another retailer soon and shake some of their drop shots to see if they have the back bone and feel I'm looking for in a 6-7 foot rod.

Below is a link to one I did find using the search tool that looks really interesting. Too pricey for me at over $100.00 just for the blank, but I think I can find one similar from another manufacture that offers it at a better price. I'm at work now, but another cool thing with Mud Hole (or again other suppliers not trying to push one over another) is that they usually have great customer service. You can call them, tell them exactly what your looking for and what the goal of the rod is and they will guide you to the best blank to fit your needs.

http://www.mudhole.com/s.nl/it.A/id.25262/.f

You can buy the batson e-glass(fiberglass) one piece blanks for under $15 each; the 5 foot, 6 foot and 6'6' come in the ultralight and are ideal for brim, crappie, white bass, etc. here's two i recently made; total cost was under $30 each-p-

Hey Pearow (actually this is Harold from Uncle Larry's site), where did you get those...Mud Hole? I guess I could look them up, but if you already a place to get them at a good price. I was just fearful of the glass rods having a more parabolic type bend then what I am looking for. The experiment with the 2 weight and the spinning reel led me to think that it was just to "soft" to work as I was hoping. I guess I'm looking for something with a soft forgiving tip, yet a strong backbone in the mid and lower sections.

By the way...GREAT looking rods!!

Iv got a a buddy whos dad has a fly rod that he has put a spinning reel in. I think its about an 8' rod. He mainly uses it during the white bass and crappie run up in the rivers and creeks. It has also worked great for catchin bluegills for bait to put on a trotline.