The new Centuryt Stealth blanks means tough rod/reel decisions will be coming up

[Saltheart]

As far as I know , the Century's have a lifetimr warrantee. I do not know all the details but I am pretty sure you redeem a warrantee claim through the US distributors , you do not hav e to deal with the UK manufacturer. I mention the high density of the cured resin/ fiber composite in the Stealths in the above posts. I think they will be tough as nails. I know they bent the 10 fppter more than I would ever dare do to any rod and it didn't hurt the rod. To purposely abuse the blanks the way they did at the MSBA show , they must have very high confidence in the blanks.

I have the 10 foot Stealth blank and of course I have been dry casting the bare blank to get a feel. It will be at its sweey spot at about 3 oz or 3 with a tail (like a 8 inch curltail). Its just like the XRA 1205 in that respect. I am not building it until I have an 11 footer in hand as I may adjust the build on each a little to make sure I cover all I need up to the very heavy stuff where I use the Century TTL.

[numbskull]

Here is another thought.

A reel like the Stella 5000sw has the power and line capacity (in 30-40# good braid) of an old school 706 with #20 mono. To me that means the little reel should be able to handle any fish a 706 could handle (at least outside the canal). Yet the little reel weighs only 15 oz. That means with titanium guides, you can get a rod/reel combo capable of beating large fish that weighs about what most full sized reels weigh alone. The issue becomes finding a blank to handle the power of the reel, yet still balance well. Most 10 foot blanks with standard guide setups balance better with larger reels. Finding something as light or lighter than the GSB1201L, but with more mid shaft stopping power and a bit higher weight range could make me retire all this full sized spinning stuff very quickly. I'll be curious to see if the 10' Stealth is such a rod.

[Mike P]

I've only made a few casts with the 10' Stealth, at the demo that Big Dave put on at the Scussett pier about a month ago. It was a factory set-up, and the reel seat placement wasn't ideal for someone my height. I made a few casts with a Daiwa SP minnow. That's not an good plug for judging how a rod throws, because in my experience, they fly as far on most rods, with most reels/guide set-ups. It throws about the same on my 1322 with a COF guide set-up, my 3/4-4 Mojo with a less-than-ideal LC set-up, and on my HJ 1327 Century with a K-frame set-up. It's a good casting plug for a plastic minnow swimmer, but it's not the best for showing what a rod is capable of.

If I remember correctly, the factory Stealth came with a HH frame hardaloy first guide, and single foot hardaloys the rest of the way.

[Diggin Jiggin]

I picked up the 10' stealth blank at the msba show but I have not built on it yet. I set it up a bunch of different ways, NGC, traditional, a blend of the 2. When I was test casting it, the sweet spot seemed to be down around 2.5 oz, but almost all my plugs (and there are a lot of them) are over 3. It could cast them but to me it felt overloaded and I'm curious if anyone else is throwing over 3 with it and what their impression is of it with plugs over 3 or 3.25. When I was test casting 3 1/4 ounce pencils my allstar 1145-2 which in some ways is a very similar rod, was outcasting the stealth by on average 10 cranks of my vs and I spent hours test casting it with 3 different guide layouts before deciding to go another route.

[rickhern]

Originally Posted by Diggin Jiggin

I picked up the 10' stealth blank at the msba show but I have not built on it yet. I set it up a bunch of different ways, NGC, traditional, a blend of the 2. When I was test casting it, the sweet spot seemed to be down around 2.5 oz, but almost all my plugs (and there are a lot of them) are over 3. It could cast them but to me it felt overloaded and I'm curious if anyone else is throwing over 3 with it and what their impression is of it with plugs over 3 or 3.25. When I was test casting 3 1/4 ounce pencils my allstar 1145-2 which in some ways is a very similar rod, was outcasting the stealth by on average 10 cranks of my vs and I spent hours test casting it with 3 different guide layouts before deciding to go another route.

I, or rather my girlfriend, has been using the 10 stealth for about a month now. The rod is extremely light, allowing her to get decent distance with smallish plugs. For her, the sweetspot is around 1-1/2. I used on MV throwing tins at Wasque and was surprised that it threw 4 but loved 3. I also threw plugs up to about 2-1/2 and it was fine. It really doesn't feel like it will launch large wind resistant plugs too well but I could be wrong. For bombers and small to midsize plugs and medium eels, it has performed very well.