Looking for blanks similiar to the daiwa saltiga jigging blanks (5'-10"ish). Used one recently with a Daiwa Saltist 20H w/ braid and was blown away at the power and light weightness. It handled 30-40 lb fish with ease in 130' of water. I could not believe the slimness, weight, and power of the saltiga rod that cost $130. Problem is I want mine spiral wrapped.

I just got in a shipment of 6' jigging blanks from Seeker called The Hercules. The blanks come in 6'3 lengths so that I can modify them as needed - if you wanted a 5'10 rod to jig 4-10oz, just cut 5" off the butt, if you needed a rod to jig 6-16oz, cut 3" off the tip adn 2" of the butt. The blank is a Compiosite with more graphite in the tip than any other composite I have seen, this is what gives the blanks the stiffness in teh tip while being extremely light. The blank weighs 5.5oz, here is a photo array from one of the NERBs Gatherings where we tried to break teh blank. We only had 50# line, so we were unable to put enough weight into teh bucket to succesfully break the blanks:
[www.noreast.com]

The rod is rated 40-60#, and can be fished comfortably with 25#'s of drag, and obviously if you need to push it up to 30#'s you'd have no problem doing that.

Thanks - very impressive photos. That should do the job. Where can I order some and get prices? Also, how is that rod in the photo wrapped? Is there not a 0 degree guide and transition guide?

Hi Ben,

I am not sure exactly what kind of jigging blanks you need. We have many standard standup style jigging rods (old school) in e-glass and graphite composites. We also have a line of "Vertical Jigging" blanks and their specifications are below:

AXVJ5810 5'8" 1 50-100 lb. 500g (8-18 oz) Moderate .602 11 5.6 oz

AXVJ58150 5'8" 1 80-150 lb. 600g (10-22 oz) Moderate .61 12 6.0 oz

AXVJ6030 6' 1 15-30 lb. 112g (2-4 oz) Moderate .534 9 4.0 oz

AXVJ6040 6' 1 20-40 lb. 165g (3-6 oz) Moderate .56 9 4.8 oz

AXVJ6050 6' 1 30-50 lb. 250g (4-9 oz) Moderate .548 9 4.9 oz

AXVJ6060 6' 1 40-60 lb. 325g (6-12 oz) Moderate .572 11 6.5 oz

AXVJ6650 6'6" 1 30-50 lb. 250g (4-9 oz) Moderate .575 9 5.8 oz.

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

Ben, they are only available from me at this time, I have them in Blue and Grey. My e-mail addy is xlrods@yahoo.com, I havent' updated my site yet as I'm waiting for 3 more blanks Seeker is making for me to arrive - this same blank in 7', a heavier power one in 6', and 2 Inshore blanks in 7' 15-30# & 25-50#.

The rod in the photo had guides temporarily wrapped on with no CP or epoxy. I just wrapped it really quickly for testing, so they all rotated. The foregrip wasn't even glued on, and the reel is held on by a taped on plate seat.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/2009 04:15PM by Billy Vivona.

While I havent done Billy's "superman test" with the American tackle offerings, I do have a few in being used on both the east and west coast of Florida for large grouper and amberjack. So far they are well liked, although I think the 50-100 american tackle on par with the 40-60 seeker pictured above. I believe these style rods should never have even come close to having a line rating, but simply a lure range and fishable max drag rating. The reason being is just like what we have here. In picture here, a "40-60" is actually capable of holding onto a 65# weight, and with the amount of 5'8" 50-100 american tackles I have built, I believe its a very similar blank. UNLESS....

Billy were those designed as rail rods, or simply used because there is no way any human can physically hold something like that? The reason I ask is that I am fairly sure the AmTaks were not designed for use with a rail and if the seekers were, that may be a huge difference worth looking into based on specific applications.

The original idea was for teh 6'ers to be used on private boats and charters, and teh 7'ers to be used on teh rail. TEhy are pretty much teh same blank, the 7' has material added to teh butt so the action is a bit faster in teh 7', but you can put the rod on teh rail and keep the line away from teh edge of the boat. I am not a strong person, once I did the 30# deadlift and my back and shoulders were angry at me, I figured the smart thing to do would be to use the rail. I was really trying to break teh blank, obviously you are not going to ever fish 65#'s of drag with teh rod in your hands, but it was really funny sinc ethere were 15 rodbuilders standing around lagughing and waiting for the rod to explode which would have sent me flying head over heels down a flight of stairs, lol.

Sean, based on the pics and teh wall thickness of teh blank, I wouldn't have a problem telling someone they can use the 6'er on teh rail. I totally agree with your statements regarding the ratings, but it's difficult to cater to everyone - you pretty much need to have ALL teh ratings, max drag, lure weight, adn line ratings, becasue 90% of the fishermen can relate to the line ratings (even though they are extremely subjective - the ratings I posted on teh Seekers were made up.figured out by me, based on other blanks).

I know where you are coming from with the line rating issue. For those jig fisherman who would like customs from me, I generally only ask what line they are fishing (usually ends up being 80# powerpro which is horrible, but thats a whole other issue) as well as the reel. If its a saltist (example off the top of my head) or similar which I know cannot put out more than 25# of drag without upgrades, I dont even worry about it as the blanks will almost always withstand that. I generally do not go lighter than the 40-60# American Tackle blank as down here you are then in light tackle territory and cannot fight a grouper out of his hole.

An idea I just came up with >> a digital scale (capable of showing average and maximum) could be connected to a blank and then manually simulate a fish fighting experience as best you can. Since the only connection between you and the other person would be the blank and the scale, I would think it would be fairly easy to determine that persons physical ability in terms of fighting a fish. Something to ponder and maybe figure out a way to do this may or may not help in overall determination of the proper blank for the application that is within the physical limitations of the person. IE, a person who will not use the rail and unharnessed simply cannot withstand more than 25-30# of drag for any length of time even on a short stand up stick, so a rod that can withstand 70# of drag is useless in this case as it isnt even being halfway tested when hooked up.

30#'s of drag is a LOT. Most of the guys jigging with that much drag are using rods quite a bit shorter than 6'. It's only a matter of time before one of these guys sneezes while fishign and they get yanked overboard. BUT...that is the "benchmark" for jig fishermen, everyoen wants to fish a rod with 30#'s of drag, when 90% of the time 18#'s is sufficient. I guarantee more fish have been lost the past few years due to all this 30#'s of drag, braided line, adn very stiff rods that are being touted on all these jiggign forums.

Billy, you and I and many guys who build these rods know that, but you try to convince the average guy of it and good luck. Basically you get "30#, I can lift that easy with any rod as long as the rod wont break." I finally got my fishing club to realize how incorrect this was, and took a 30# dumbell to the meeting and said ok, if one of you can lift it with a 8' rod (these are guys who like long rods for grouper) I've got $50 right here. No one could get it one side more than a few inches off the ground (expected by me). I then took the 6' stand up tuna blank and said ok who wants to lift it. ONE guy finally had the decency to try it and its like a light bulb goes off in their head. Now my club is SLOWLY starting to understand shorter is better for personal boats.

I fish 25-28# for YFT during the initial run, but after that back off to around 20-22# usually as I cant withstand that sort of torture. Then again I'm a light tackle guy who would prefer to fish 15-20# test for 30+ grouper and catch one in a week rather than fill the box with locked down drags. I did that long ago, then decided its more fun when you can actually fight the fish. Most also dont realize that knob or lever for the drag is there for a reason. USE IT when fighting a fish depending on the scenario. Initially its up to about 30-40% of line, then back it off for the fight, then when you got em beat, put the heat to em. Most just set it and leave it alone.

And yes, I've seen jigging rods as short as 4'10". How anyone fishes with something like that is unknown to me as I havent tried it. I wont knock it because I havent tried it, but do realize there would be a tremendous amount of lifting power there when compared to a 7' rod, so that is likely the reason for the shorter rod.

Sorry for derail there.

I dont think you can go wrong with either Billy's Seeker or the American Tackle jigging blanks. If you want to spend the money....jigging master, hots, smith, carpenter, but they also have no warranty and cost much more than I could ever imagine spending on a blank.

OTI is another blank to look at and not too horribly priced. I believe they only are offered in 300g and 600g models however

I've bent the SS's Billy has in 6'. They are pretty impressive. He had the blanks w/ no guides and we had those things bent in more than a 90 and the blank had more. Again, w/o guides; just him holding onto the tip. It's impressive when you are shaking from the stress you are putting on the blank and the blank is saying it has more. These blanks were light too.

I want one.

I love to jig 16-24 oz baits for Halibut up here in Ak and have been looking for a blank like that. Light enough to fish all day, and strong enough to put a whipping on a big butt. Billy, please let me know when I can order one.