I brought one 8' custom popping rod and one blank from Korea yesterday.
Tom(Ragman) also wanted the custom rod, but I had to bring a blank instead of completed rod as they didn't have any completed rod.
While the completed custom rod is only $200 with Fuji SIC guides, the blank cost $110.
But the blank already have Fuji reel seats, grip and gimbal from the factory, and only guides are missing.
When I saw the popping rod on the Fiji GT popping trip, I thought the rod was too light and fragile as it looked only for PE4 - PE5, but I was impressed when the rod survived the punishment of 40 - 70 lbs GT while an expensive custom popping rod from Hawaii got broken on the first day.
I was looking for a light-tipped, but strong popping rod to cast small poppers as light as 2 oz as bluefin tuna around Cape Cod, MA as bluefin there sometimes are interested in only small poppers. And I thought the rod can do the job.
The blank looks composite and it is not light. The completed rod weighs 19 1/2 oz, same as OTI's 7'6" 80 lbs rod.
With the addition of this rod along with Smith80P/35 and OTI's 80 lbs popping rod, I can throw any poppers in any kind of situations.
tip parts of OTI popping rod/Smith 80P/35 amd Korean popping rod.
bottom parts of the blanks( they provide completed bottom part when they sell blanks)
