MHX Native Fly Rod Blanks

Building this new rod. Mud hole has great customer service with answering questions and helping customers to find what they need. Will post later more after I complete the build and fish it

This is a great blank, upon which guudes were added and Gen4 used

I have been fishing the Shenadoah National Park streams with a 4 wt. I went out with a guide and used his 3 wt, which worked great. I had built a MHX 5 wt for a trip to Montana in 2023 and went to Mud Hole to look at fly blanks. I had noticed the Native Blanks and spoke with Jake about the difference between MHX and MHX Native. He reported both rods great but the Native will be closer to a Sage at less the cost. I ordered the Native Blank, 3 wt and was not disappointed! I paired it with an Orvis Battenkill Click Reel (I) and it is well balanced. The rod handles and casts well. My friend came by a couple of weeks ago and we took it out. He was thinking of getting a 3 wt Sage, but after handling mine, asked if I would build one for him! The photo shows both rods, his is almost complete.
I do have one minor issue that does not impact the rod and that is that MHX wrote their name, length and weight on the rod. I still like to put hook keepers after the handle and like to add my "crest" to that area as well. The spacing is tight between the handle and where the writing begins. While this is important information, I would prefer to write it on the rod myself as I do for the serial number. Still not an issue for the performance of the rod. I am looking forward to many days on the Rapidan with it!!

I've just starting this build as a birthday gift for my adult son. It's been a few years since my last build, but customer service gave me a boost of confidence to get it done.

I've built 3 rods on the native blanks, 1 7.5' 4 wt., and 2 9' 10 wts. they're very responsive.

After using quite a few blanks from different vendors, im convinced the Mudhole Native blanks are far , superior to any blank in its price range, and can be compared to blanks from big flyrod companies that charge 2 to 3 times the price of a Mudhole Native blank, they are light, have great action, and are good looking.

Your staff was very helpful along with getting me info on a custom paint for the blank. Forwarded your info to fellow members who teach fly tying and fishing at the VA.

Excellent blanks, light in the hand and responsive. Better when they came from Korea though.

Love these state of art blanks. Lightweight, responsive, not too fast which suits me. Great finish. Price is good. I build them with Fuji #5 or #6 single foot titanium guides and generally add another guide or two to the MHX spec. Greatly improved casting capability.

MHX Native Fly Rod Blanks

Just finished a four pieces MHX Native 7wt fly blank. Haven’t fished it yet, but did lots of test cast. Absolutely a great casting rod. Super smooth I’ll be buying an other one

Thanks MHX guys

Good quality and small diameter. Going to be a fun build.

I haven’t fish with my Native Fly rods very much yet; but, they feel very superior even to the original MHX fly rods. I think the Mitsubishi Rayon is proving to be lighter weight and stronger. That’s the perfect goal. I noticed they are made in China. That disappoints me. I wish they were made in America. That’s the good, the bad and the ugly. I’ll know more once I’ve fished with them for a few years.

Just got it
Working on another Rod right now

great 4 piece fly rod just finished and can't wait to fish this one!

Have used other blanks with out getting consistent results from the blanks. MHX blanks are the most consistent form rod to rod including different weights. My bank I recommend when building for another person.

Heard lots about these blanks. Looking forward to building the 4and 6wt rods.

I have been wanting one of these blanks for several years. Cannot wait to build it for one of my grandsons.

Let me get to the punch line quickly.. I love this blank so far. I am sorely disappointed there are no 9 weights available for purchase.

So the only real negative is that like the 8 weight that I reviewed, there is a slight, off spine camber. This one is totally acceptable, but it is still there. For contrast, the last two traditional MHX blanks that I built were both dead straight.

I built this rod like the 8 weight. Fuji titanium stripper into rec guides. This one I paired with the Nautilus XL reel with Flats Pro 6 wt Rio line. I have yet to formally fish this but I have a couple of casting days (on water). I see this as a rod to employ when conditions are calm and fish get spooky so I put a 14 foot leader on with a size 4 bead eyed gotcha. With no wind 90 feet of the fly line went out with little effort and straighten the leader out. Best is that the fly lands as if it was dropped by a butterfly. Shortening the distance was more gratifying. Loop control was easy to dial in from the jump. I'm very satisfied with these two blanks. They seem to have found a goldilocks zone with them, especially the 6. Not too fast, not too slow. Not too heavy, not too light.

Now the dilemma, the 9 weights are sold out. Boo... hopefully the next batch will be dead straight but have the same performance as this rod. I will be purchasing one for sure.

My next question... do I need a new trout rod?

This is a rod that is growing on me as time is spent with it. I built out the rod with an REC reel seat, ultra select cork rings, titanium fuji strippers and single foot rec recoil running guides.
Let's start with the bad first. At this price point for a made in China blank, I expect a dead straight blank. This one is not. It has an off-spine cant that pitches to the left. I see it every time I put the rod together and site down the guides. Tho it doesn't have a noticeable consistent effect on casting that I'm aware of, at this price point for an import rod, I expect a little tighter QC.
Now for the good. I built this as a backup on a recent Bahamas trip. I paired it with Rio Elite Bonefish Pro and a Tibor Everglades. I intended on using my Sage Xi2 as my primary rod, but I kept reaching for this one and ended up fishing it more. I have better loop control and therefore better presentation with this rod. It isn't super powerful like some of the others I've used but it recovers nice and dampens well on everything under 80 feet. Because of this, it fishes really well. This isn't the longest casting blank that I have but I think it may be the best for fishing. Yes dumping the fly line is possible with ideal conditions but that isn't this rod's forte, with the Rio line everything has to be timed just perfect and too much power will cause the rod to be slightly soft. However, when fishing, I rarely am making a 100 foot plus cast. Having it hit a small window at a tailing fish from 30 to 60 feet and this is when this blank shines.
Bottom line, I've already ordered another 6 wt Native blank. If this one performs like the 8, I will probably add the 7 and 9 to complete the quiver.

If this blank was straight, this would be a 5 star all the way. As it sits, it is a 3.5 star (I gave it 4 because the performance). For personal use it's more than acceptable, but as a former rod builder with over 1000 units sold, I'd have to discount if I missed this prior to starting the build. I will be checking better going forward.