Hi All,
I want to build a rod for trolling a Bunker Spoon and from what I understand you need a rod that allows the spoon to work to it's full potential. We'll be pulling Tony Maja's 9 oz. Bunker Spoons on wire line and I was wondering if anyone who pulls these large spoons would have a suggestion on a good blank to use.

Thanks

With a bunker spoon rod, you want a long, limber blank that will allow the spoon to "pulse." The pulsing gives the spoon the right action. I didn't realize this until after I'd built a spoon rod, but evidently a bunker spoon moves A LOT when it's being trolled -- one spoon sharpie told me that while dancing, fluttering, and otherwise driving the fish crazy, a spoon can move as much as 6 or 8 feet from side to side. A rod that's overly stiff will retard this action, resulting in fewer hookups.

What this means in practical terms is that you want an 8 or 9 foot fiberglass blank with a noodly tip and a stout butt. Seeker evidently makes a couple, but the ones I researched were from Lami's Fiberglass Boat & Trolling series. BT96-3M-B is 8 feet; BT108-3M-B is 9 feet. They're both one-piece, and evidently both are similar except for the length. I went with the 8-footer, mostly because of shipping, but if you can get the nine-footer, I'd probably recommend it, as most bunker spoon sharpies seem to like that length more than the eight-footers.

Once you have the blank, the rest is easy. You'll need a brass-over-chrome spool, to withstand the crushing forces of the wire, but also to prevent corrosion (wire, remember, is metal, and in a marine environment, metal-upon-metal contact results in corrosion). The standard wire line trolling rod is the Penn Senator 113HSP.

For guides, you'll need either carbaloy or titanium nitride. Some recommend roller guides, too. If you use ceramic guides, a spiral wrap on a rod like this makes a lot of sense.

A slick butt on a trolling rod like this is a natural -- I very much like Stuart's Tuff Butt system, which is very attractive and very strong, but is also a bit heavier than a slick butt-reel seat combo (because this is heavy tackle, and it's a trolling rod that won't be held except when fighting a fish, the weight penalty doesn't bother me much). But a slick butt paired with a graphite saltwater seat will hold up just fine.

I hope this helps. I also suggest doing a search here -- this issue has been brought up a few times before. Here are a few threads to get you started:

[rodbuilding.org]

[rodbuilding.org]

Chris,
Thanks for the very helpful information. I have an American Tackle 7' Live Bait blank that I had thought of using but I did not want to put out the cash to build it for spoon trolling and find out it doesn't work well. I had thought of a slick butt because of the pressure the spoon will create against the rod holder and now it will happen.

Thanks Again