Thread: Fly rod to spinning rod conversion???

Originally Posted by 2Bass2Furious

This is might be a stupid question but the pole I have has one stripper eye and the rest snakes. Could I use the snake eyes instead or would those have to be stripped off and converted? Most of the fishing I'll be doing is float and jigging, I'm not casting and retrieving.

IMHO --
They should work fine, for whatever method you choose to use. Just check them to make sure there aren't any burrs, nicks, or rough spots on any of the guides .. so your line has a smooth surface to pass over. You can use a Q-tip or cotton ball to swab the insides of the guides, to check for any "problems", as the cotton fibers will snag on any such places.

... cp

Originally Posted by 2Bass2Furious

... I do have a junky 3-4 wt. that I have in my closet that I rarely use anymore ...

Just out of curiosity, who is the manufacturer?

You may look at Mud Hole rod building Blanks. I've wrapped a hand full of their 9' blanks as fly rods( one stripper and rest snake guides). Fish them a little different with out reel but do have reel seat on them. New to crappie fishing but have been catching fish with them. I'm looking at 12' blanks to make up for spinning reel with casting guides. Your stripper guide is probably a #10/8 on a older rod, more so on rods with metal ferrules. The blanks are labeled Pan Fish/Crappie blanks page 35 in the 2016 catalog. Has anyone got any in put on these blanks. I'm not a Pro Rod Wrapper but enjoy doing it. As long as its functional when i'm finished then I'm happy

First question answer: You should be just fine with one stripper eye and the rest snake eyes. Like Pappy said, just make sure there are no burrs in the eyes to nick your line. The newer eyes are made different than the other ones. I'd fish with it for a time or two to find out how she will work before you make any changes. The rods of yesteryear are not like the rods of today. That can be both a good thing and bad thing. Good in the sense that technologies have come a long way, but bad in the sense that some of those old rod actions just cannot be duplicated with newer technologies.

BNell: I do have experience with the rods (Pan Fish/Crappie blanks) that you described. I tied one (Slab actually has it). The action was good but I was less than impressed with the rod itself. I tie a ton of MHX rods so I've dealt with quite a few over the last couple of years. Unlike a fly rod or steelhead style rod, these rod have a gigantic butt section (.63 on the 12 footer). that is huge for a panfish rod. The action was good but it was heavy as all get out. In my opinion, they would make better spider rigging rods than they would make as a caster, or a dipping/jigging rod. The weight on the blank alone is 5.1. A quality fly rod blank in the same action should come in at the low 2's. For longer rods (salmon and steelhead rods) or fly rods, I tie on other blanks. For me, the MHX blanks in those categories just don't measure up. I know we are talking apples and pineapple, but for those style of rods, I prefer "North Fork Composites". The company is owned by Gary Loomis. He started it after he sold G. Loomis to Shimano and they started running it in to the ground. Greater expense but, like I said, you are getting a Cadillac and not a Pinto.

Originally Posted by deathb4disco

Just out of curiosity, who is the manufacturer?

I honestly have no idea. It was my father's old rod and from age, the name just scraped off. I can tell it's a cheap $40-60 rod due to the construction of it.

Originally Posted by 2Bass2Furious

I honestly have no idea. It was my father's old rod and from age, the name just scraped off. I can tell it's a cheap $40-60 rod due to the construction of it.

I was just wondering because it's an odd length ( 6'9")

Is it fiberglass?

I can tell you from experience, I got a buddy that fishes with a 8ft fly rod setup like that and he has really put a beating on me many times fishing with a float. He can make the float wiggle in place with it and it is so deadly.

Yes, it is fiberglass.