I am trying to learn about/read up on surf and salt water fishing and heard about building a rod by combining the rear half of a trolling rod with the front half of a surf rod. I am a bit curious about this, what are the benefits of such a construction? In what circumstances would it be used? How do you choose rods that will combine well?
Thanks for helping to educate a beginner, Adam

With all the great blanks out there for virtually every conceivable fish and presentation I can't imagine the need to cobble something together like that.

I'm with Spence on this one.

Putting a surf rod tip on a big butt sounds like someone is 'experimenting'.

Buy a blank which does the same thing. They're out there.

Where'd you hear about this? For what use?

Maybe it's one of the @#$%& "Multi pieces of 20 rods pack for $5.00" people just playing around. LOL.

A book called "Fishing Hawaii Style" mentioned it in a discussion on "slide baiting" for trevally. To correct myself I just looked back at the book to get the exact quote and it says that the trolling rod was joined with a "heavy section of bamboo" so this may be old news or improvised tackle. The description was brief but had an illustration clearly showing 2 rods joined. I also mentioned this to an acquaintance from New England who seamed to have heard something about some sort of rod surgery but no real information (still could be improvised tackle). As I already said I know next to nothing about saltwater tackle, but this caught my curiosity, and I thought this forum would be the perfect place to see what the story is, or if there is a story. Just trying to learn.

humm , i can't remember the blank ## ; but isn't that how the allstar 1509 started . someone took a 1 piece blank and fitted an 'extension' into the butt .

Are you sure that it's not using 2 rods on a slide for J. Trevalle, the only person that I know of that uses two sections of a rod to create one nuke surf rod is Castaway, Nick Myers, in C.C Texas. Now I know that he does use Batson blanks to make rods for casting off the whole spool off the reels and I do mean the whole spool casted out. As for slides a different concept which we also use for King, Tarpon, Cobia and other top water predators.

Rod, Reels and 18 wheels.

The article is accurate.

I believe the time frame was somewhere around 1950 to 1960. This was at a time when large surf rods were not available and Hawaii fishermen being very innovative used a fiberglass boat rod on a bamboo handle. At a later date, graphite tips were used with fiberglass handles. Now, all graphite, 2 piece rods are available in lengths up to 15'.

Many people in Hawaii consider the first true surf rod to be the Fenwick 16810 that came out in 1981. As I understand it, it was a joint venture by McCully Bicycle of Honolulu and Fenwick. I have one of the first 30 manufactured. It handles a Penn wide 6/0 with 80# mono very nicely.

Don

Thanks all for the information. Any idea what sort of rods (surf, trolling, stand up, ect.) Nick Myers was combining to make his “nuke of a surf rod”?

Hmmm. I wonder if they also woudl put a smaller better casting reel on 1 of the 2 pieces, fire out a bomb of a cast. Switch to a shorter butt and heavier more powerful reel by cutting and retying/splicing.

There's a name for those things. Do a search on floridasurffishing.com. "search" bamboo and a few articles come up. Those guys in Hawaii use those things to cast 6/0's with 60 and 80# line. Yes, CAST? More man than me. I tried to cast a reel like that once,,,,..... once.
later, steve walters

First let me apologies for getting the name wrong, Its Breakaway Tackle, not castaway, as for the no#s of the surf blanks I would be giving you the wrong info, but one thing for sure they are Batson blanks, double fitted to your need for casting looooonnnng distance. As for a bomb Mr.B, no savy, most have long butt for slinging and the reels are set with high speed bearings. Look at BreakawayUSA.com may you might find the type of blanks or some sort of info. It's possible the reels are smaller light 20# test line with 80# tippet to chunk 8 and 10oz weights.

Rod, Reels and 18 wheels.

I put together casting workshops in 2005 and 2006.

Some may find the follow ling link for 2006 interesting:

[www.hanapaa.com]

I did award "Makoi Extreme Caster" ball caps to those who used my Conoflex Makoi Extreme rod mounted with a Penn wide 6/0 and loaded with 80# mono. The casting weight was 10 ounces. The Conoflex Makoi Extreme is 14' 4" long.

Don

Here's a link to the 2005 workshop:

[floridasurffishing.net]

The talented Roger Mortimore (mispelled by many as Mortimer) is one of the UK's top tournament casters.

Don