St Croix Permier vs. Fishstick Custom

[kmw21230]

MY wife has alreadystarted to ask me what I want for Christmas. I had my eye on a 11,6 foot permier. A nice gentleman from P&S told me if I was going to spend $250 on a rod I should look at a rainshadow blank(1509) From Fishstick, and have them wrap it. I no nothing about custom rods... so I would like your honest opinion...

[Digger]

St Croix builds a good off the shelf Stick. It appear's Breakaway which has the HDX comming out soon(day's) will have a compeator coming in a 229. And their are several others prebuilt rods out their.

Now when it comes to custom's they have their advantages. One you can get the rod built the way you want it built (if you know what you want and why). Also you can have a great builder reverse enginneer one for you. He or she would look are where you are in casting, size and action. Then they would recomend a blank and put it together for you.
Blank selection canbe tricky since there so many to pick from with different strenght's and you want to get it right. I see used custom's floating around by the Tackle Hoe's who want the latest and greatest. Some of these I believe they don't have the right blank and other that just the way they are. But if you want a custom go to a shop that has several different blanks prebuilt that will let you try them (you may have such a shop near you with AI being close) that way you can find out what is best for you.

[Cdog]

so I would like your honest opinion...
Honest opinion, If I had to chose between an off the rack vs a fishstick I would go with the otr rod.

Now if I had a choice of OTR and a custom from anyone I would choose a custom from a more expensive builder that I know does quality work. The reason so many people are talking about the fs4u "custom" rods is because they are cheap. Well I believe ya get what ya pay for and If I'm gonna go custom I would rather pay more and know that I was getting top notch materials and know how.

BTW I have serveral friends that have th fs4u rods but IMO I wouldn't go that route.

[Newsjeff]

Good points, fellas.

Here's the thing. FS4U sells Rainshadow blanks cheap. I got my last two blanks from them and then had my builder wrap them.

The Fishsticks builder, Ronnie, isn't bad. I've seen his work, and it's pretty good. You can get a RS1509, 1508, 1502, 1569, ect. built for about $275 out the door. Why so cheap? They use Forcast (Batson/Rainshadow) guides and reel seats. That and Ronnie doesn't charge that much for his work.

The Forcast hardware is pretty good stuff from what I hear. I've never owned a rod with their guides or reel seats, but I haven't head anything negitive about them either.

Here's my take: I'd much rather spend $275 for a Fishsticks custom than pay $250 for a factory rod any day of the week. Everything said and done, I want a custom built as a custom. That means getting my builder to do the wrap.

P.S. I hate discussing this company on P&S. This is my last post about them. I'm done.

[Cdog]

KMW, check out this thread on th Marketplace.
http://www.pierandsurf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30281

Clyde builds some primo stuff, that 1509 is what you were asking about.

[JimInVA]

I absolutely love my 1569 FS custom! Enough said...

Jim

[DERFM]

one thing to learn early in the custom rod game ..
there are rod wrappers and rod builders ...
when you know the difference you will understand :)
derf

[chuck(skidmark)]

There are many different ways to "build" a rod.

You can still spend way over $400 to $500 for a rod that is built using shortcuts (wrong size thread, which leads to gaps, really bad finishing jobs, etc.). If you have any kind of an eye for detail, it's easy to pick these rush jobs out.

Some people don't pay as much attention to detail as others....both on the building end and on the buying end. If the customer feels he got a nice rod, then everybody is happy.

I've spent 20 hours or more on a rod, just to go back and strip everything off because I wasn't happy with it. It's a disease I think.;)