I have been given an interesting problem and would appreciate any help and advice from this forum.

A friend of mine is into Kayak fishing for light game fish ie; Yellowtail Kingfish, Cobia, Tuna etc off the East coast of Australia. He and his friend have been using composite blanks in the 5'8" - 6'6" range and have been landing some really great catches. The problem they are finding is that they are regulary breaking the tip sections of their blanks. I put this down to "high sticking" when they get their fish close to the kayak. They would be in a position where they would be keeping tention on the rod handle while trying to lip or gill the fish with their free hand. You can imagine what this wold be like with a rampaging king or tuna at boatside.

I am after any recommendations for blanks, composite or fibreglass, which have plenty of butt power yet able to handle the sudden surge of big fish in close. I have never built or designed a rod for this purpose. The second problem is that these "Yak" fishermen like to attach a lanyard to the rod positoned near the bottom guide. Obviously this is a security measure to prevent the rod being pulled into the drink. They fish with either big spinning reels or mid range overhead game reels using 50lb braid (sounds like fun attached to a big Yellowfin Tuna?).

Thanks beforehand for any replies.



Regards
Mark Fisher
Outback

Another thing that breaks rods in kayaks, is the guys who use longer kayaks and can't lead or follow a fish around the boat. So they have to put the rod under water and try to do something that way. If the fish keeps swimming on the other side of the boat, a broken rod can be the result.

Preventing a high-sticking break is just a matter of education between you and your customer. If they never reel beyond about one rod length of line past the tip and try to keep their rod at less than a 45 degree angle to the line, it shouldn't be much of a problem. Of course, in the excitement of a fight in close quarters...



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Mark; You might send an E-Mail to Seeker rods and try one of their new "Super Seeker" blanks. They are a really tough blank and I'm sure they will ship to you Down Under.

I can't help with a blank suggestion, but as far as the lanyard, if they insist on attaching it near the first guide (which seems like it would be in the way an awful lot), maybe wrap a small, off-color, double foot near that area just for that purpose that couldn't be mistaken for a line guide? Other options could be a brass eye bolt countersunk in the butt cap (which I've done on some kid rods for lanyards), or a small cutout area on the bottom of the grip in the rear area revealing a piece of brass rod to tie off to.

Thank you all for the suggestions. Mick I like the ideas with the lanyard connection. Jim I will have a look at the Super Seekers. I did't think of them originally but I agree, they might just fit the requirements. Tom you are right about them having to put the rod into the water to try and manouver the fish. Several have been broken this way.

Thanks again
Mark