I use pretty much the rod you are talking about and it is my favorite long rod. It is a 4 wt GLoomis fly blank which are unfortunately no longer available. I have a St Croix 5 wt fly rod that I use also. Instead of building it with a standard fly rod type reel seat I used half of a Tennessee grip for the rear grip and a 3” fore grip. With the length of rod you have to work with you can get creative with your decorative wrap. The Confederate flag wrap I did was on one of these.

I use to get some pretty good inexpensive fly rod blanks from CUI products out of Tulsa, Oklahoma but I have not ordered from them in a while and am not sure if they are still in business. CUI is a wholesale only distributor so a tax number will be required.

I built rods under the label “Cast Master Custom Rods” and is possible that some of you guys might have seen one. Even though I am retired I have retained the LLC and label name and still build the occasion rod.