This may go down as the dumbest question ever, but for years I've seen blanks and rods listed as "Regulation" by the IGFA line class rating for use mostly as trolling rods.
Just what does this mean as far as power/taper or anything I would care about when ordering a blank for normal fishing.
I've wondered about this group of rods for years and there aren't a lot of saltwater hobby builders here in Vegas to clue in us slow types.

It won't tell you much about the taper, although most "regulation IGFA" blanks fall into the medium action/taper category.

Power is relative to the line weight/class being fished. These class ratings will vary somewhat as they are certainly subjective, but I think you'll find that most "50lb class" blanks will be roughly the same power. These do differ on the east and west coasts somewhat. For many years Seeker gave two ratings, an east and west coas listingt. A 30lb blank on the east coast was (is) considered a 50lb blank on the west coast. A 50lb on the east is an 80lb on the west.

(You could put a Common Cents ERN power rating on them but honestly, the amount of weight needed to rate them would require a holding fixture that most wouldn't have access to. It wouldn't be very practical I'm afraid.)


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Generally speaking you would only want an IGFA-RT blank if you were planning on fighting a fish from a chair mounted in a boat cockpit. You can also fight a fish by leaving the rod in the gunnel mounted rod holder, but these sticks were designed for the chair. They are normally long rods in the 7'-8' catagory. This is so the line can clear the stern corners of the boat when a fish is close. Boat builders keep giving us wider beams which does nothing for ease of landing big fish from the chair. I hope this gives you a 'little' insight for what RT blanks are for and their use.

As Tom said they are normally medium action blanks. They are also thick from butt to tip. An 80# RT will have close to a 1" butt and something like a 26 or 28 tip.

Jay