Most of the innovations in rod building I've seen seem to be on the bass rod and fly rod end of things. I'm getting ready to build a pair of boat/pier rods for mostly bottom fishing. I've built some in the last year and settled on the Simple Spiral which has done great by me. But other than that, everything for boat and pier rods seems to be based on 1950's designs. I still see hickory butts and aluminum seats and short foregrips. What should I be looking at for an up to date design?

Since these won't be in rod holders I assume EVA is fine for the butt grips. Right? A longer fore grip maybe so I can get a little more leverage on the bottom huggers? Will a Fuji nylon seat in the HD version be okay?

I'm looking at the Seeker Black Steel selection of blanks for candidates there. Any comments on their ruggedness? Something better, maybe?

Just doesn't seem to be a lot going on with boat/pier rods and I'd think that considering the real heavy denziens of the deep that you fight on these things there might be some updates going on out and around that style of rod.

I build mostly bass rods but when I'm not building them it's the pier and small boat rods that I end up working on the most. Guys do a lot of that thing here and I've learned a little about it over the years.

The single best thing you can do for any rod where you're going to be pulling on things like sea bass and groupers is to do a spiral wrap. I think you're already on to the best modern improvement to these rods right there because big bottom feeders really put conventional rods to the test when it comes to rod twist. The spiral shines here more than anywhere else IMO. The Simple Spiral works perfect for this too. Only thing I'd mention is that on these heavier rods where you have slower actions and which you know are going to flex deep into the butt area you want to put the Bumper guide on at about 100 to 110 degrees so that when you have that maximum load you don't end up with any side pressure on the Bumper guide. On most freshwater rods you don't have to worry about this because they're faster action and don't flex much if at all in the lower butt area. The heavier and slower action bottom rods are different. This is all covered in the article I did if you have it on hand.

The Fuji seat is perfect but if you have a reel with a clamp then you need to run a full length arbor inside the seat. DON'T USE CORK. It will flex and the clamp will crush the seat anyway. I use PacBay brick foam arbors stacked end to end to make a full length arbor. PacBay makes the arbors in larger sizes than Fuji does so you can fit just about any size seat up through a 26. I end up using about a 22 or 24 seat most of the time though. Takes 3 or 4 arbors per seat though because the PacBay arbors are shorter than Fuji's.

I can't see using the old heavy wood butts on these rods. It won't hurt anything but EVA is fine IMO. A longer foregrip helps too. The older factory boat and pier rods all seemed to have just 4" or 5" foregrips. I never understood that. I make mine about 7" to 8" long.

Find out if the guy is using a fighting belt and plan for a gimbal if he is. Or are these for you? Most people don't use fighting belts from the piers so you don't need one in that case.

Take a look at the Batson Enterprises - Rainshadow - "RCLB "series or the Forecast "FSU "series. I am sure you can find something in either or both of those series for the application you desire. I would match it up with the new ALPS series of Guides & reel seats.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

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