Hi

Back in the late 90's I built a G.Loomis IMX S842-2 which caught a lot of fish and is still rolling with a friend of mine (almost 20 years on - not bad!). I loved the rod and got all sorts on it but the tip was a little soft for jigs (or maybe it softened a bit over a very hard life) but eventually I moved it along.

I want to recreate the magic and build an up to date replacement with K guides. I know that Mudhole and others do versions of this classic blank but to me the obvious choice is to stick with Gary so I'm looking at the NFC FW 702-2 (IM).

I saw an odd picture on a Russian forum where an IMX S842-2 and NFC FW 702-2 where compared by putting a book on the top few inches of both blanks and allowing the banks to bend under their own weight. Based on this the NFC looked to be faster or maybe the blank is just lighter? Does anyone have input on the NFC versus the GL original - is it a little faster? I'll use it for general UL activities with the occasional marabou jig / grub up to 1/8th oz.

Thanks

Rolfe

FW 702-2 (IM) and TSR 862-2 GLX are 10.23 ERN, 75.60 AA
FW 702-1 (IM) and S842 are 10.23 ERN, 72.70 AA

[www.northforkcomposites.com]

Thanks! That NFC PDF is really useful. Did a quick refresher on ERN/AA - numbers confirm that the 702-2 is slightly faster / stiffer than the 842-2. Should be spot on for the intended use.

I like the Batson IP 840 and/or the SC 3S70 ULF. I have built several on both these blanks.

Ed Smith

The numbers show the blanks to have the same power with a softer tip on the NFC. Fast and stiff have no common correlation.

Here is our model as Edward D. Smith stated: [rainshadowrodblanks.com]

We do however have a new blank model called the Immortal out: [rainshadowrodblanks.com]

Spencer Phipps Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The numbers show the blanks to have the same power
> with a softer tip on the NFC. Fast and stiff have
> no common correlation.

OK thanks for the clarification.

Thanks also for the Rainshadow blank suggestions - I need a 2 pce (I will do some hiking with this rod) which rules these options out. This also excludes the SC 370ULF leaving:

StCroix 5S70LF2 and NFC FW702-2

I also considered Phenix Iron Feather (tip too soft, worried about durability) and MHX S842-2 but going the whole hog (Ti K guide) on a budget blank doesn't seem right somehow.
Any thoughts on CTS options?

Thanks.

CTS EST is pretty popular in Russia, Germany and Europe in general. Used to be called Salmon and Steelhead series (SS) and it has an isometric taper which means a true progressive bending. EST stands currently for (at least in Europe) extra slim taper and it is used mostly because it is polivalent. In 1 power the casting weight given is something like 3 to 20 grams. In Germany variants of the EST series are available in the rodbuilding stores and are usually showing a faster action than the classical EST. Other series from CTS that are worth mentioning are the ES, they had a true ultra light mandrel to build models like the ES7300 on this series and the CTS SD, which is the well known go-to popping blank.

The NFC SMP7212 IM and SMP7022 IM are available from Japan. Hook Hackle listed the SSP 7202 at some point but apparently they don't know much about it and it isn't (never was?) in stock (http://hookhack.com/html/nfc.html). Anglers Workshop used to list a light SSP model on top of the SSP (NFC IM column, SSP table) series on their last catalogues.

Later edit: I think it is the 0 power for 3-20g as the 1 power is usually a 5-30g cw.