I am planning on building myself a new tuna rod for fishing the party boats out of NJ. This rod will be built on a Seeker Extreme Series EX6460XXH-6' 50 (80) 130 and paired up to a 2 speed 50 wide avet. I am toying with the idea of doing this rod acid wrapped if I do what guides would you guys suggest (not rollers)

Mike,
If you've never built a stand-up rod I suggest you order the RMM
back issue volume 5 issue 6. There is a good article in that
issue that tells you all you need to know about stand-ups.



Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

I have built standup rods before. I just have never built one acid or spiral wrapped. On the rods I have built before I prefered the Turbo style guides, but I have a feeling that these are not the best suited for this application.

No reason they wouldn't work fine. There is no difference in the load put on the guides.

A few days ago, off of Cape Cod, I was pulling in a 50" tuna with a #30 Penn International reel and 50lb line and a someone's tuna rod. I showed the men on the boat the guides as the fish held tight, that the tip and guides were practically twisted 90 degrees. My concern at that moment was not the line, but the possiblity of the rod breaking. I think the spiral wrap would have been the way to go at that moment. I have built several spiral wraps and find they work well in that situation, at least, I don't feel the tremendous pull and twisting of the rod. We can all argue back and forth about this, but a conventional rod has a greater possiblity of breaking with what I experienced. The spiral wrap also would have prevented a good deal of the torquing which pulled me around using stand up equipment such as the harness and belt. We did get the fish in the boat,however.
Sanford Hochman

Whatever guide design you want to use is fine, for several reasons: (1) there's no effect on casting because the line has already had to go through a stripper, make the angle through the bumper guide, and then the next angle into the first under-the-rod guide. I would recommend using a lrger under-the-rod first guide to reduce the angle from the bumper guide to that first guide. Basically, this is an upside-down casting rod.

Second, the spiral design does indeed reduce the torque found in a normal casting design. Remembering that folks have been catching really big fish with "classic" layouts for - well, a really long time - this is still an improvement at the point where a heavyweight fish, perhaps larger than the rod rating, strains the rig enough to worry about the rod's survival.

Remember, what I just said is from a team who only build these when requested to do so. We don't build them for the rack because they don't sell, which is the same reason a couple of the major manufacturers pulled them after placing them for a season or two. Same issue as the Diawa in-line rod - those things really work (we have a 9' and a 10' pair of surf sticks) on heavy fish but the average store-type customer won't buy them because the are "different", and also because they cost more.

Uncle Russ
Calico Creek Rods

Go for it. Use SIC guides. I built mine stand up stick using Fuji LBSG single foot heavy duty boat guides. I fish 80# test line with 27# of drag at strike. If single foot guides make you nervous then use HNSGs. I would NOT put USGs, LRSGs or RSGs on the under side of the blank. They don't flex enough.

I JUST SPIRAL WRAPPED A STANDUP ROD FOR SOMEONE USING THE TURBO GUIDES. THE GUY LOVED THE ROD . THE FIRST FISH HE HAD ON THE ROD WAS A 300LB BIGEYE AND THE ROD PERFORMED GREAT.
MIKE