I have someone looking for a bent butt tuna rod that will go with an Avet 80 reel. I am thinking about the cape cod rod. It's the rod that has the 130 lb butt with the softer 80 tip. Who makes this blank? This customer wants to fight it stand up. I'm not sure if the bent butt is the best option for stand up action. What are your thoughts on blank, guides and butt?
Rob Savino

Boston, MA

I'd highly recommend RodMaker Volume 5 #6 for the most complete and in-depth information on building stand-up rods ever put in print.

Wish I could help on that particular blank, but I have no idea.

............

Thanks Tom. I have that issue I will look at it again. Some guys around here are building this type of rod. I will see if I can find out more about it.
Rob

Boston, MA

I was told that the bent butt gives you more leverage when pulling. If it's the right length of course. The RodMaker Issue like a good thing to read though.

Black Hole has a Cape Cod Special in a 5'8" 450 gr jigging blank and a longer popping blank. I dunno if these are what you are referring to but they are the ones that have Cape Cod in their name.

There are also some other blanks that should work. I would look at the Calstar Baja Boomer or the Grafighter Tuna series GF755XXH, Super Seeker SS-CTSF55XXXH or SS-CTSF63XXXXH, Black Steel CTSF55XXXH or CTSF63XXXXH or their E glass STS59XXXH. The Seekers generally have a softer West Coast style tip and then serious backbone. I have built a couple Super Seekers, Black Steel and some of their E glass blanks and they are all very nice. Seeker has their 2x4 blank, which has the XXH tip and the XXXXH butt section, but it is a 7' rail rod blank, not really a standup type of blank.

The black hole cape cod specials are not what you want for a bent butt build. They are jigging rods (5'8") with a parabolic bend and casting rods aka poppin' rods. Not in the same ball park.

Gabe hit the nail on the head! The bent butt offers the angler more comfort and leverage but the lenght of the rod had to be correct for the type of fishing. "I was told that the bent butt gives you more leverage when pulling. If it's the right length of course. The RodMaker Issue like a good thing to read though."

When building bent butts you gott know what the customer/angler is looking to do: standup, fighting chair, or gunnel mounted swivel rod holder. They all may require differnt style/length blanks. When fighting from a chair you have to give the angler enough length in the rod to keep the line up and out over the transom, 7' or 7'6" rated 60-100 or 80-130. Standup would obviously require a much shorter rod for more leverage on the fish (4'10" or 5'6" or 6" rated ~50-100lb more or less).

Talk with the customer/angler and see what they plan to do with the rod. What line is gonna be used? Are they trolling? Chunking? There are a lot of blanks out there to choose from Seeker, Calstar, Lami among many others

I'm not an expert on this but I've got enough tuna fishing under my belt to know you definitly do not want to build a bent butt with a jigging blank. Maybe some others will join in...

What I am talking about is not the Black hole jigging stick or putting a bent butt on a jigging blank. It's not the cape cod rod, they are calling them the Chatham Special. It's a blank that has the 80# shaft tapering to a 130# butt. I was wondering if anyone heard of this blank.
Rob

Greg, You hit it on the mark. The blank is soft at the tip and heavy at the bottom. There isn't a special blank with this name on it. It's a marketing idea that some builders are using. Longer softer tips with heavy tuna butt. So true, definitely not a stand up rod. Calstar and Seeker are some of the blanks they are using.

Boston, MA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/27/2011 03:38PM by Rob Savino.

The Chatham Special rod is an IGFA RT80 blank, with a #6 curved handle. Charlie Ponte and his crew at CMS Tackle, started building these set ups years ago, and other builders have also done this type of set up. It is an effective way to land fish, as with fishing the lighter gear as the fishery has changed so much over the past decade.
This is the wrong choice for a stand up type application.
CMS is now making what they call a Stellwagon Special, which is a heavy stand up style rod, and would be much more inline with what you seem to be looking for!

Andrew that is what I thought originally, but a friend of mine was telling me he thought it was a a 130 blank at the butt. How do the make the 80 blank fit nice and tight to the #6 butt? The diameter of the 80 is a lot smaller than the #6 unibutt.
Rob

Boston, MA

I would go with a hardwood bushing, or a drywall tape bushing to fill that gap. But that is essentially what you are looking for! But I would really advise your friend to not even consider this type of a set up with a belt, someone will get hurt, over taken overboard.

No I understand. I am not suggesting this set up to him. I am going to have him come over a discuss what it is he is doing. Try both straight and bent butt rods that I have and see which one he likes.
The Chatham special came up in another conversation I had not with the customer that wants the stand up rod. I have to do a little bit of educating with this customer as this is his first rod for the offshore game.
Rob

Boston, MA

Rob,
130 butt with an 80 IFGA blank, 6 rollers and a tip top. I highly recommend the Winthrop tool rollers either Express or Excel. I build quite a few of these a year and always use Drywall tape to form the bushing. If you have any questions or need the rollers, email me. The blank I find to be best is the Calstar IGFA 80.

It has a nice tip and the action is perfect.

Most of the guys up there are fishing them from the gunnels and what I find is that the winthrop rollers accept the 300 spro swivel nicely and it just flows through the rollers.

Kevin

Rob Savino Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
This customer wants to fight it stand
> up.



You say the customer wants stand up, but keep referring to rods that are built for chair/gunnel fishing. I can tell you one thing...and IGFA blank is not made for stand up fishing...nor is an AFTCO UB6 or even a standard UB4 curved butt. These are dangerous on large fish and heavy tackle (Avet 80).

If it's stand up your customer wants, there are a plethera of blanks built for that purpose...as well as good "short" bent butts.

I understand you're looking for something they are making there locally...and with that I can not help.

Andrew,

We received a request for an order. The email address that we replied to comes back as failed message. Please feel free to contact me by phone. 931-436-5021. Thank you Chuck or Debbie Brown
Decal Connection