Which of the three Calstar blanks do you guys suggest and why for a 5ft 6inch all roller unibutt 30/40lb stand up rod for targeting striped marlin sailfish wahoo tuna up to 100lb etc

Regards Gary

On a stand-up I'd go no longer than 6' overall length. The whole point is to reduce the leverage the fish has against you. I think you're on the right track with the 5'6" length.

I would personally choose the 655 or 655H in your situation, if you're decided on a stand-up type rod.

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the rods will be 5ft 6- 5ft 8 inch with unibuts , i like the look and feel of the graphiters(i own several) i may cut the 760l to 5ft 8inch or 5ft 6 inch

You can certainly do that. My preference is not to cut blanks more than an inch or two. Cutting the graphiter is going to require either several inches off the butt (loss of power) or the tip. Both ways make the rod even slower in action. Just keep that in mind.

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All are good choices for your line and application. Because you're using a uni-butt you will have to cut the blank to get the desired final length (from the butt). I build a lot of these type rods for use here in Baja's East Cape, so I may have some suggestions for you. First of all, unless tuna will be the primary target species I'd recommend a 6 foot overall length. That works better for the trolling applications as well as the fish fighting (marlin, dorado, sails). The idea of the short length is for the vertical lifting, which is not really the case for these other species. Also, you might consider using "tuff-butt" or "hard-butt" instead of the uni-butt. This option lets you easily remove the rod from a rod holder when under pressure (from the hook-up), but does not add the extra weight of the uni-butt, which is a benefit when stand-up fishing. Also this option keeps the cost down. Lastly, I feel the grafighters are worth the extra cost.

Gary are you sure you need rollers? LRSG or HBSG should do the trick and I'm thinking would flex alot more. Tuff butt is a good move, if you want the two piece functionality, Lakeland makes a saltwater aluminum reel seat that is ferruled....or take the wallet hit and pick up the Storabutt and have everything.

I am going to go with unibuts because Iam a traveling angler and anything that keeps transport length down is a good thing

My 50s and 80s are on grafighter 755h and 755xxh blanks and I really like them (they are 5ft 6 and 5ft 4 respectivly) which is why I lean towards the 760L blank which from the specs is nice and slim like my other grafighters, my main concern is I have not had the 760l blank in my hand (I live in england) and worried that cutting the blank from the but end to give an overall length of 5ft 8 will make the action too slow as in toms post

i do have nice 20/30 rods on ( cut to 5ft 8inch) grafighter600m blanks (with fugi oval guides) and am looking to for something in between these and the 755h

I feel that rollers are more durable and give less line wear, but nice sic guides would make the rod lighter and more usable for other aplications- I am leaning towards rollers

regards Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2009 02:42AM by gary chesters.

Gary,
I often cut these blanks for use with uni-butts. Basically you're just replacing the lower section of the blank with a different one. So, it really doesn't affect the action too much.

Bill have you ever cut a 760L down to 5ft 8inch overall length and was the action still fairly fast, looking at the taper on this blank 9/64 tip to 0.84inch but I am worried that it might be quite a slow action and cutting from the butt might make it too slow for a 5ft 8 stand up

I have looked at the 7460L blanks but they are way too stiff in the lower section for what I am after I think they are aimed at long range rail/tuna fishing.

Regards gary