Casting Rods For The Cape Cod Canal

You did not mention if you were looking for a factory built rod or just a blank to build your own. I have been using a stock 10' GSB120-1M in the canal it can handle what you need. Personally, I like it best with 3oz jigs and plugs. Reels used with this rod were the Newell 229-F and Ambassador BG7000HSN. An alternate blank would be the GSB122-1MH it will more than handle the 4oz but was too stiff for my needs. Suggest you check out CMS in New Bedford they can set you up with what you need.
Tight Lines

Good Morning

I would go with the X 10 MHC. It is built on the GSB 120 2M Blank, In a 2 piece. Or the XS 101 MHC if you are set on a 1 piece.

This reply is to "Cheater": It is strictly up to "Canalrat" and his personal needs but for the type of jigging he intends to do I personally would not trust the ferrule on anybody's two piece rod. You will not see one experienced jigger on the canal with a two piece rod. Plugging is one thing but when you are fishing 4oz. plus in the canal you are fishing on a full or new moon tide that can rip up to 6 knots and trying to pry the fish off the bottom with some nasty structure. Stick with the one piece.

Now can you answer a question for me? This summer I watched Ron Arra put on a "casting clinic" in the canal. I know he has one rod especially for jigging and one for plug casting. As I have not seen him for awhile have not been able to ask him personally but do you know which blank he is using for the conventional plugging rod?
Thank you

i am very sorry ontherocks i have no idea what he uses my best guess would be maybe a xcra 1205 but that is strictly a guess. also i have only fished stock rods what would be the benefit of buying a blank?

Thank you for the reply. Great to know. As far as your question for Ron Arra I will try to contact him on Tuesday and I will let you know.

alright thankyou cheater

I got in contact with Ron Arra he said his rod of choice would be the XRA 1322 11' 1 piece 15-30# 1-5oz
Custom built.

i did not know that the 1322 came in a conventional or was he suggesting a spinning rod?

No he had the blank built in to a conventional rod.

yeah that is a great rod i have the same one in a spinning rod cast a pencil a mile.

sorry, did not mean to confuse the issue, my question regarding Ron Arra was directed to "Cheater" as his title of "rod guru" lead me to belive he was with Lamiglass and may have had first hand knowlege from working with Ron. He was nice enough to get me the information.
As to factory built vs buying the blank itself to me it is about getting the rod built to my personal needs not accepting something off the shelf that was designed for the "average" person. Given today's high cost of first quality rods I want it my way. One of the most noteable advantages to a custom rod is simply the length of rear grip and postitioning of the reel seat to fit your own unique arm length. Do you like all cork grips or hypalon etc. grips factory rods do not give you the choice. As you know if you are going to be swinging that 10 or 11ft rod through a full tide you want to be as comfortable as possible. From there you can get into upgrading the guides ( sizes, and quality),again compared to a factory built rod, all of which can enhance performance and life of the rod. Don't forget with a custom you can get the wrap colors the way you like them to your own personal tastes as well. If you get into building you own, like I do, it is a great way to make a long winter a little shorter. Check out some good custom rod builders I think you will find the cost to be quite comparable to top brand factory rods. The shops cannot charge much more since they too are competing with the factory rod prices. A factory built rod was created to sell at a certain price with a profit margin built in for the dealer and factory. All the component costs were chosen to meet that price point not to be the best for you. If you find a factory rod you love great . But before shelling out $200-300 plus I would seriously check out all my options.
Good Luck, enjoyed "chatting" with you

Cheater,
Thank you very much I appreciate your courtesy. If Santa is good to me that blank will be about #24 in my Lamiglass collection. Building these things gets to be a little bit addictive.
Tight Lines

I am an employee of Lamiglas. My name is Jason. I handle retail sales and I deal with the guides. I handle most of the technical questions. Josh is in Charge of our Rod Design. He is who deals a lot with Ron Arra. Among many other great anglers, from all over the world. Everyone's feed back is very much appreciated. There is no way we would be able to advance our product line without all the help of everyone. We will be happy to do what we can to acquire any info. you or anybody else needs. Thank you.

canalrat i see you are from bourne. might i suggest you go to red top sporting goods and try to bump in to ron in person he loves to talk about his lamy rods but he is hard to catch in there at times but he's in there a couple times a week in the season and might i sugest you look into building a super surf i have a ssu1201m i built for the canal and i love it i'm planning on building a ssu 1321m this winter if i can they are very nice blanks and a lot of the canal guys are switching to them.