Purglas 400/2 Spinning conversion

[Dewald Posthumus]

Hi there,
Been planning this for quite some time now, but I recently converted my old Purglas 400/2 one piece into a spinning rod. I use this rod with a Daiwa Exceler Oceano 4500 loaded with 14lb Fireline and my first test cast was with a leader (FG Knot) of .50mm of around 7 meters, and I did not even hear the knot go through the guides. The rod casts like a dream
I went for an all black version, black guides with plain black wrapping, x flock and the like.
Stripped the rod down to bare blank.
Cut it down from 400 to 350 - all done and the rod is now a 12'6" rod.
Low reel seat position
Oversized EVA foam butt
Fuji reel seat
X Flock grips
The guides used: Size 20 BLCAG (Low rider), #16 BLCAG (Low rider), followed by 2 x #16 BNOG guides, 4 x #12 BNOG guides and a #12 tip.
The theory behind the low rider guides are they will do most of the work to flatten out the braid with the first to guides and then the rest will be able to handle the cast a lot easier - this is a cheaper alternative than going all the Low rider guides - it suits my pocket and needs.
Thanks to Craig Neill for supplying the guides and Brandon McQueen (fishatic - UA forum name) for the guide fitment, they both really go the extra mile to deliver great service!

[REEFMAN]

Nice!! Got me thinking now... got some old Blue Marlin blanks lying around somewhere... 

[BAUMANNATOR]

That is a sweet looking rod there. I especially like your use of low riders to tame.
I have done several eye configurations to get best distance with braid and have to say that using Low riders to tame and kwags for the rest of the chain worked the best. Using concept idea to bring the whole blank into play really  breathes life into the rod.
The photo on my profile is the last one I build. It uses 3 low riders as choke chain, to 6 kwag runners with low rider anti tangle tip. I was testing the rod with a conventional in the photo and it performed perfectly with a 0.70 leader.

[Dewald Posthumus]

I also wanted to go that route, BLCAG to KWAG, however, I could no justify the cost.
All in, the rod cost me around R1000 to redo with the current setup.
Testing it from Saturday to Wednesday in Mabibi - general scratching and spinning with large plugs/ poppers. Hopefully it will be put to good use!

[Marthin]

i wanted to go that route at some stage.... think the stroke 1 would be better suited for 2 ounce jigs and lures that i'd be throwing as well as wanted to cast out a prawn or worm bait far as possible, i'd cut it down a tad and like a high reel seat for a grinder (papgooi), looking forward to your results the old purglass executive still one of the best blanks around imo.

[Dewald Posthumus]

Marthin,
Exactly what I had (350/1) that fell off my bakkie's roof last year in May after it was redone on the way to Kosi mouth before I even had a cast with it!
Had this older 400/2 which I decided would suit me better. I have a 10ft rod and reel combo that handles all the 2 ounce lures. This one can cast up to 6 ounces, although I will max it out at 5 ounce plugs.
Mias Woodmead had a bargain corner at the entrance with all their old stock Purglas rods (all one piece) for R200 each about two years ago - I should have bought 5!
 

[Marthin]

MASE!!!! i would have take 5 off you at R300 each!

[pieta]

At that price you could have taken everything. 300/1 for dropshot. 350 or 400/0+1+2 all for scratching and lure casting./3 +4 for allrounder and everything above /5 dedicated shark rods.

[BAUMANNATOR]

Dewald, you are going to get a good workout throwing plugs with that setup. I use mine to get out far when I see activity on the backline, rest of time use lighter setup. It will be an amazing scratching set-up and with braid configuration will pull above its weight, in fact you will need to give more with the drag...long range GT medicine that rod.