I'll assume that since you posted, you're inviting comment. Forecast blanks are fine from what I've seen, and I have one in the mini-Spey catagory, 11' 6".

Why the fighting butt on a 5 wt? IMO a good rod build should express "understated elegance." A fighting butt on anything under a 7 wt exclaims, "I don't know schit!" What are you going to catch on your 5 wt, whales? A fighting butt on that rod won't say anything positive about you, excepting positively negative.

Negative also on the hook keeper. They make no fukkin' sense on most fly rods, and at worst occasionally get in the way. When fishing a floating line, you have a leader 9' or longer. Reel in to put the fly in the keeper and put a 180* bend in your leader butt section. Not only classless, but now you've just made a perfectly good leader less functional. When I reel in I always leave a bit of fly line sticking out the tip top and bring a length of the finer leader section around the reel foot and hook my fly on the stripping guide or one of the snake guides if it's a real long leader.

The dark nickel silver reel seat fitting look smashing on that blank color, and a maple wood insert is a cool contrast, and less common than the walnut and cocobolo.

Have fun building and fishing!

Sg