This is sort of “off topic”, but I’ve seen the issue about ratings being questioned here several times, so I thought some would find this interesting.

A customer just told me about a recent 10 day trip on the “Red Rooster III”, which is one of San Diego’s premier long range boats. Several people on board had the lightweight Butterfly type rods and they didn’t make any friends on that trip. In fact, I’m told that fights nearly broke out among passengers because of their use. He described it as “they were fighting the fish on the reel alone”.

Apparently these AREN’T the rods you want to be using in a wide-open bite in an open charter situation as they caused quite a mess when several Anglers were hooked up at the same time. These guys were all over the boat as the big Tuna “worked” them far too long, causing a lot of tangles, break-off’s, etc.... These weren’t 200lb “cows” either. The situation elevated to the point of people intentionally knocking each other in the heads with reel clamps, etc… as they came “over & under” each other coming down the rail with a hot fish on. The Deckhands finally had to intervene, telling the customers to either switch rods or fish “up front” away from the others.

This pretty much confirmed in my mind what Leon at Calstar had told me a while back when talking to him about these lightweight wonders and why he hadn’t entered the game. He bent a GF700L over and said, “a 200lb fish won’t break this rod, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right tool for the job…”

Bill, this may shed some light on your question about using these rods anchored near rigs. I’m sure they have their place and do their job in properly presenting knife/butterfly jigs, it just doesn’t sound like a crowded boat is that place.


Mark Griffin
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C&M Custom Tackle
San Dimas, California

I just seems to me that a fast action blank should be able to impart enough action to get a bite while a strong butt would surely help in subdoing the fish in a timely manner.

Those 'noodle' butterfly rods just don't look like much fun to me.

Jay

Sir I tip my hat to you - that is exactly the post that I have been waiting to see concerning bringing the fish to the boat - all the pictures of the things in action had a running engine in the back ground - three or four big yellows on at the same time are a walk in the park for us anchored - we would probably have to call the Coast Guard to aid in man overboard if guys were armed with noodles! On my earlier post on the fix for the lathe I will change my barter request via email. Thanks again for the anti hype message from a vendor!

A good point Mark, thanks for the tip. I have to confess I had not thought of this, but you have certainly brought the point home to me.
Apart from upsetting other anglers for having to put up with the inconvenience these things can cause on a busy boat, there is a conservation point that comes to mind.
I live in the Philippines, and deep jigging is taking off here. People are catching some reasonable fish, but they are loosing quite a few through being undergunned.Their preperation and technique are right on,but as far as they are concerned according to the catalogs and the teaching of the Japanese gurus, fishing where there are big dogtooth, 60kg GTs , YFTs, Bigeye tuna etc, is not a problem for these "Butterfly Sticks" because as it says in the catalog the rod is rated for 30-200lbs ??? An aquaintance of mine recently had a trip with some frinds and three of them were spooled in that one trip-now there is 1200 yards of 80lb spectra attatched to some fish swimming around out there. This is not uncommon, seems to happen with regular frequency at this mark-These guys are under a miss conception from being miss educated-Furter to make things worse, they feel they get their bang for the buck because this type of rig can be relatively cheap (A 2 peice jig stick ,rated 3-5 PE, Sic rings throughout, Fuji reel seat, and they look the biz, for a little over $50-available here, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and who knows where else, coupled with a Tica, or Fung Dong Hwa "Super Scorpio 65XFBS" for another 30-50 bucks and you have the rig to be one of the boys) so this makes it difficult to persuade them that their gear is inadequate for the job.
The point here is that people are being mis-directed, mis-informed to cause misrey.. I am sure this happens in many parts of the world. People are suffering broken burnt out gear and leaving miles of unrotable line attached to fish, caiusing misery and adding amunition for the anti's. It would only take a couple of dead turtles to be found with a couple of hundred meters of spectra wrapped around them and the finger will be pointed !!!
Mark, you have made this point and you got me thinking. Myself and others like us,indeed all, Should make a point to our customers as we are opinion leaders. Even the big giants such as Shimano should also convey the right information to educate for proper and responsible use.