Guide to buying a GT rod - updated as at February 2017

[jonathan yeo]

anyone has got experience with Kaiser El Toro 100? is it good for working poppers and stick baits?

[Justin Zuvela]

Sorry to reopen an old thread guys but I'm a new member to the forum and also Love building my own rods.

I was just wondering if anyone could point me in the direction of some rod company's that sell blanks, I've searched for all the major rod makers but can only seem to find complete rods.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Justin

P.s loving the forum, so much helpful information from a great community. Keep up the great work guys

[Felix Lux]

Are you talking GT rods? What line rating and what kind of blank are you looking at?
Very hard to get top blanks. Almost impossible to get something that matches Carpenter or Ripple Fisher blank quality.

I build rods as well and looked into it.
Depending on what kind of rod you want, the Saltywater racepoint series is most likely your best bet to get a very good quality. Maybe not quite as light as Carpenter and definitely not RF, but they are proven on big fish and do the job very well. Personally only handled the 150 and 200 so far, which would be in the pe6-8 territory and are more suited to stickbaits or smaller (in GT terms) poppers.

Then there's a few Blackhole, a few Matagi and some other blanks, that it can't really judge.
As far as I know, temple reef doesn't sell their new blanks, which is a shame, as they seem to be quite good.

[Andrew Hopkins]

Hey guys,

New to GT popping and looking at buying a gt rod on a bit of a budget. How do the live fibre venoms go compared to a shimano gt special? Are the rods mentioned worth spending the money on or am I far better off spending a bit more on something else. Im an Aussie so would prefer to buy from here and looking at second hand stuff to save a bit of money.

Cheers,
Andrew

[Ruben Frank]

Thank you very much for the information. Thinking about buying a set of rods myself very soon, much cheaper than renting gear again and again...

[Trevor Skinner]

Andrew,

I've got no experience with the Wilson rods so I'll leave that to somebody who has. I started with a GT Special so have a soft spot for them. You may get a better response if you post your question in the main GT Tackle and Techniques forum under a separate topic. Brandon's thorough explanation of what's required of a GT rod, the alternatives and compromises at the beginning of this thread pretty is pretty much the A to Z.

Ruben,

in my experience if you want to continue fishing for GTs and plan to do a few more trips good quality equipment ultimately pays for itself. Despite a proclivity to ignore my own advice, you don't need to have heaps of gear, just make sure what you have is balanced and appropriate for the class of fish you're chasing. If in doubt, ask on one of the forums.

Regards,


Trev