Hi all, I have questions regarding two specific blanks for blackfish. One is the hercules inshore lite and the other is the calstar gfx700l. I talked my buddy who wants a rod built out of a rouge sw706 blank which he loved because its so lite.. It seems everyone us obsessed with a stiff blank and I can't understand why. Any way this guy is a maniac and I could easily see him high sticking this rogue blank till it explodes. Therefore i recommended the inshore light it has what I feel would be a more appropriate action. Then I think maybe I'm forcing what I like on him and in the end it won't be happy. I don't see how anyone can blackfish with the rogue blank but maybe that's just my ignorance. I have heard of people fishing with a bend in the line but I don't understand that at all. So anyway if someone who does this type of fishing could chime in their opinion I would greatly appreciate it.

I've built and fished both, and I have fished a GUSA MEga Mag for several years which is a 20-40# graphote rod which is pretty stiff. My opinion is biased towards the Inshore Lite. I did not like the GFX Calstar, btu a lot of guys do. THe problem with that rod is going from a graphite rod, to a rod with a pretty soft tip is he will have a hard time with the way he sets the hook and how the bites feel. I had a difficult time determining when to swing, and how hard to swing becaus eI was so used to teh stiffer rod. Enter the Lite, which is not so soft and is closer to a graphite rod, but teh tip does have a bit of cushion to it. My selling point on the Lite to people is that it is the closest composite rod to feeling like a graphite rod that you'll find. I don't know the weight of the ROgue, but the Lite is 5.25oz with a thinner profile that the 700L, which is almost 7oz, and is fairly thick.

I just got a rush of Blackfish orders the past 2 weeks, all Inshore Lites and Inshore HEavies. I wish eople would plan to order rods more than a few weeks before the season starts, lol.

Look, I don't know anything about blackfish/tog. However when I frst heard of them I thought it was applicable to my muttton snapper fishing. My fish run up to about 20#'s. Depths run from 60 to 200 foot and the lead required might range upwards of 8+ ounces. The fish are sensitive to hearing a sinker bounce off the sea floor. So you want a blank capable of detecting a sensitive bite yet able to fish the weight neeeded. In the end I decided to give a st croix musky blank a try. I didn't need the raw power of a lami gcbt trimmed.

IMHO a gfx700l would be a poor choice. Too soft in the tip, but I love them and use them, for top water live bait, which is a mainstay in my area. Billy can advise WRT to the hercules line as they were developed with his help for the NE party boat fishery.

FWIW I'm quite sure I would "explode" my musky blank if fished near it's rating......I just don't plan on fishing it anywhere near that.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

I have built a few inshore lites for people fishing for blacks and fish with the same blank myself...really like the feel and plenty of power to get them out of the rocks or wrecks....

Russ, it's a lot different than Mutton fishing. Mutton's pull a lot harder, and the way we fish sounds crazy but we need reels capable of fishing a drag almost locked down, with a rod capable of handling 6-12oz. The GFX is fine, there are a lot of people catchign fish with them. For a long time the most popular Calstar ws the 800L cut down, the Ocean Eagle "discovered" the blank over 10 years ago and by far have killed more Blackfish than anyone else with the 800L. THey hat the GFX though, it's a preference. FWIW, the captain broke th eNY State record using a rod I built him, too bad it was a GUSA and not the Inshore Lite or Super Tog

The Musky blanks do tend to break. They are very stiff and are allergic to high sticking and YANKING so hard you cannot beleive when people get stuck in the bottom. It's not the blanks fault the people using them abuse them. Personally, I do not like a very stiff graphite rod for Blackfishing although I used one and caught a lot of fish using one.

HArry - hope to see you this Fall/Winter. hope everythign is good with you.

Maybe I'm getting the model number wrong....isn't it the 7 foot live bait garfighter blank rated for around 15-30#? I just noticed he said GFX700L...not GF700L...my bad.

Not to thread steal too badly but Billy, what blank(s) would you take with you on your next dry tortugas trip? Don't know what all you caught but go ahead and give me your suggestions for whatever you did.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

When I was there I fished a small charter boat that my commercial fishing buddies ran. For that I would use a 7' 30-60# rod, I used a GUSA MOnster Mag and I got my ass kicked, it was too stiff with no give at all. I had a 30# JAck Crevalle (I know it's an oddball catch out there, and it's pretty big to boot) that wiped me out. I'd use the Hercules Inshore HEavy, it's light, and has enough power to handle big Snapper & Grouper, but it's got a soft enough tip and action that it won't beat you up to much. Other rods on that trip that were popular with teh Calstar 700M & H.

The other trip I did was on the Yankee CApts, so an 8' rod, again rated 30-60#. The Hercules Inshore Heavy 8', the Seeker CSB 909, the CAlstar 800H, 800M, 850M cut back. I am not very experianced AT ALL when it comes to this type of fishing, I've done 3 trips total, 2 of them were really successful and the other I had an ailment which prevented me from fishing much...although I did dip net 16 flying fish a tone time. They were spawning and all around the boat lights, we had a ball one night getting a cooler full of them. One of the first Muttons I caught I was upset it was so small, it was 15#'s. All the other fish the more experianced FLorida commercial guys were catchign were in the upper teen to low 20 pound range. It was INSANE. I figured it was normal, I dind't realize how rare it was to catch fish like that sinc eit was my first trip. I screwed the bite up breaking off fish with my stiff graphite rod and setting the hook instead of cranking. Totally different type of fishing than I was used to.

Thanks!
I actually used my hercules 70h in Florida and caught a small mutton snapper, yellow tail snapper and triggerfish. Wow those things fight hard! And they taste even better... Especially the trigger fish that won the blind taste test.
Anyway I love my rogue 706 for striper drifting live stuff but I think this guy will get hung up in a wreck and try and pull the cork out of the ocean. I have the calstar gfx700l and the hercules 70l. I prefer the seeker. With it being lighter and thinner maybe this guy will take it easier on this stick. Plus moderate action is better IMO... Thanks again!

Mike, glad to know it added value to your thread. Now I won't feel quite as guilty:)

Funny, here I was thinking my bottom fish were rather low on the totem pole in terms of fighting ability (but they are great eating). However I will put any member of the jack family near the top, perhaps only below tuna and some billfish. And Mike, don't talk about triggerfish. They are a secert. Many here consider them trash fish. BTW, use a small, 1/32 ounce jig head to protect from their dentures, and you can usually catch all you want on most any reef on 8# class spinning/baitcasting gear (if you like epic battles).

It has been more years than I care to admit since I have been to dry tortugas. Clearly there is a trend towards fishing much heavier gear. Then again I suppose that is why I chartered boats with friends as I like to fish lighter tackle. Yellowtail (daytime flat lining) were normally taken on 8 to 12# spinning gear. Mutton was caught on 15-20# spinning or small conventionals like abu 6500/newell p220. I always liked to fish live bait on the top for kingfish/cobia/whatever( catch your goggle eys just before sunrise). Again I mostly fished 15-20# class....often with bait runner reels. Too bad you guys didn't get any big kingfish/barracuda(40-60# plus). They were my fun fish and capable of spooling your biggest surf casting spinning reel in a couple of seconds. I was there for the fight and not the meat. Because we chartered we could troll as we went from place to place and this is where the conventional 30# stuff came into play. You would generally luck into some dolphin and/or wahoo.

The only rod we fished that was as heavy as what seems to now be the norm....was the rod we put down with an 8 ounce egg sinker and a longgggg heavy mono leader. That is where many of the yellowtail snapper went. Typical outfit was along the line of a low ratio 4/0 to 6/0 senator and an IFGA blank with 40-50# mono. Other than that mainstay was a good spin/jig type blank...one in 15-30# and another in 8-15#....and a nice live bait blank....typically one around 12-25# and another around 20-40#.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

Russ, we had 1 6' Kingfish that they said was 50#'s, caught flat lining with a CAlcutta 400. And we had a 50#+ AJ. Each small boat trip we had a 30-40# Grouper, and Mutton over 15#'s were more common than smaller. WE also caught more than enough 3-5# Flags, and the same size Grovers...my second trip we fished the Mangrove spawn, we had them eating the chumbag hanging over the side of the boat, it ws insane, it wsa like I envision Pirahna's eating a calf, lol.

Here are a few pics: [www.facebook.com]
[www.facebook.com]

And for good measure...when I was in Aruba in January I caught this 8.5Kilo Mutton on a FW Bass rod with an Abu low profile reel and 8 pound mono. [www.facebook.com]

Oh, one thing does anybody know what he is talking about when he says he is fishing with a belly in the line? I have heard of this for cod fish but no idea what this means for blackfish.

The line isn't straight up and down tight from the rod to the sinker. The current pushes the line and forms a belly between the sinker and rod. If you want to catch more and larger Blackfish, learn how to fish like that. No @#$%&.