Fellow rod builders,

I request advise from the collective experience of the board members.

Disclaimers:
I did a search in the forum bank of data for swordfish (all dates) read through all and did not find straight answers to the questions below.
I searched in other Saltwater Fishing forums (SFF), with some luck, but from the fishermen point of view.
I personally don't have any experience fishing for Sword fish.
Customer does not care for a spiral set-up at this point.

To the subject:

Customer:
•Owns fishing boat without fishing chair
•Will use Penn 80 Wide 2 Speed reel, he mentioned he uses braided line, also mentioned wire.
•Prefers ring guides over roller guides
•Customer measures 5'10"
•Hunts for Sword fish at depts between 800 and 1200 feet

Rodbuilder Issues/Questions :

Will use an 80# blank [no issues / questions]

Bent UB4 vs. straight butt ....what do you suggest ? I am familiar with the leverage benefits of the curved butt, but will they hold for this type of species on standup mode.

Low maintenance ring guides (e.g. LRSGs) and roller tip - vs. - all-roller setup (e.g. Big Foots or Wind on)... will the former withstand the abuse, would the largest LRSG (25) have enough height to clear the blank at 90 degrees deflection ?

Will a 5'6" overall finished rod length be practical ?


I will appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Best regards.
Ricardo Font
Puerto Rico Rods
787-528-0030
ricardo.font@gmail.com

Go to the web site at the following link:

[rodnreel.com]

This is a reports section of a fishing board for the Louisiana Gulf Coast. Set the filter for Sword fish and you will get plenty of captains names you can contact via email. There are several serious Sword Fishing Captains who work the Swords with green submerged lights at night. This is a very secretive group of guys at present - they are really doing well in a new fishery. Only about a half dozen of them fish swords successfully. I am under the impression that they are using the tuna standups that were built on Calstar and Seeker E Glass 5' 6" standups. You can contact a couple of them, Peace Marvel, is probably the most well known and they should help you with rod descriptions that they are using. He will be presenting a seminar on swordfishing at the Miami Boat Show in January. None of the guys who fish Swords here have fully adopted spirals.

A search on this board under "standup rod" will load your boat with information on heavy duty durable fishing rods.

Gon Fishn



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2006 04:17PM by Bill Stevens.

I have just started fishing swords and it is a blast.
Stand up gear, harness, 80 wide reels and solid rods.
If it were my rod I would use Aftco rollers. I would not use ring guides.
These are strong fish and even the small ones are big. A hook up can last several hours. The last thing you need is line failure with a fish close in

[www.newlattitude.com]

I'm not sure how different swordfish are from other billfish, but I have spoken to quite a few billfish specialists and found some similarities in what they prefer. One thing that would be very important to know is the method of fishing- trolling vs. jigging vs. chunking. Here in the East, it seems that pretty much everyone trolls for billfish. In this case, the preference is for very short, stout rods with a straight butt and all roller guides.

Mike take a look at this post: We are now on the upslope of our peak of our blue water winter fishing.

[rodnreel.com]

Without a fighting chair a UB4 Bent Butt is going to be to long, use a UB2 Short Bent Butt ( Penn 80W) will just fit . Use a standup blank and not a regular trolling blank. Jesse

Bill, Curtis, and Mike THANKS for your valuable comments.

I want to share with you a response that I received from Captain Cary Hanna who kindly provided his inputs and allowed me to post them on this board.

As I receive more valuable inputs, I will post them under this thread.

"Hello Ricardo,
The rod sounds about perfect. I would use aftco roller guides and go with the bigger guides. The ones where your wind-ons and line marks can all pass through without any snags. We use 50/80 weight classs rods because its nice to still have a flexible tip especially when fishing a tip rod that goes directly under the boat 80 - 300 feet. But you definately need the lifting power also. I'm using 100 pound mono on my Tiagra 80 wides with my strike drag at 28 pounds. So the rods need to be tough. Your rod length is perfect and the curved butt is great also for the tip rods. I use straight butts for all the other rods. We fish a 5-6 rod spread on our drifts.
Hope this helps. Just for your info, some guys are now going to 130 pound braided line spooled up on the reel and then a top shot of 300 pound mono about a 100 feet long to the swivel with an 10 foot 300 pound leader. that way you can hang your lights and your lead with a long line clip anywhere you want to behind the swivel.
Captain Cary Hanna"

Keep in mind too that if you build the rod on a two piece Unibutt, the angler can get a straight butt and a curved butt, and use whichever is most appropriate for the situation.

Ok. Here's my take.

You don't have to worry about the durability of ring guides. They will be plenty strong for swordfish...or any other fish out there for that matter.

A 20 butt guide will be plenty big. Go with a 25 if you want to, but only if you want to. The only clearance problems you face is using an ultra-long foreward grip that gets deep into the blanks bend-zone. You may have to place the butt guide right up next to the grip.

Bent butts will work just fine so long as the person strapped to it knows how to use one. Take a look at the East vs. West Shark Tournament show on TV for examples of 'how not to' handle a fishing rod. One guy was on there the other day stand up fishing with a bent butt and was all hunched over gripping the foreward grip with his hand. I almost passed out laughing so darn hard. You don't want to use the UB4. You should look at the UB2SC which will handle all the stand up power you can muster. Aftco now makes a UB4SC but I prefer the 2 series for a more compact outfit.

If you go with a straight butt, I would advise against the aluminum versions. They are just too long in my opinion. Instead, go with an 8" slick butt with aluminum gimble and reel seat. This will make a much better 'down & dirty' stand up rod.

Anything in the 4'8"-5'6" range should work ok for your guy. I'm in the size range you mention and I like a heavy rod somewhere between 4'10" and 5'2" for me.

A spiral wrap is always good to consider. I think LRSGs could be spiraled in this situation. For conventional rods you might look into the RSGs for heavy ring guides or most any of the big roller guides.

A Calstar or Seeker tuna blank will work well for what you want. The fish won't know what type of blank he's on, but the angler will. DO NOT build a stand up rod on a RT type IGFA blank. You will not be happy with the outcome.

Have fun!

Jay