G'day Guys,

I have been asked to build a couple of chair rods, 1 at 80lb and one at 130lb.

I have done a search here and gleaned some good information so far but probably need a little more help.

I am assuming that for the 80 I will need an Aftco (or equivalent) size 4 unibutt and for the 130 a size 6. Is that correct? I am also assuming that I don't want the short versions of the unibutt (there is no short version in a size 6 anyway).

The other issue is rod length. A couple of the other posts I saw allude to the rod length being matched to the boat. The boat in question is not built yet but will be an outboard powered cat, 2.5m beam. So if I can work out the distance from chair to back of outboards, how do I relate that rod length? Should the rod be long enough to clear the outboards or should the rod just be long enough to allow the wire man to leader the fish over the side of the boat, which is where you really need to work on a cat anyway as the outboards are a long way back.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers

Jason

It is doubtful you could manage a rod long enough to completely clear the outboards. But you don't want the line all over them when fighting a fish, either. Most offshore trolling rods used from a fighting chair wind up being around 7 feet in length. The super short unibutts aren't really suited for chair use, but you can gain some additional leverage with a bent butt. It keeps overall rod length the same but puts more actual distance between the gimbal and your point of effort. There is definitely some benefit to be had with these on larger rods going after the bigger fish species.

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G'day Tom,

Thanks for the input. I suspect that if, as you say, these rods end up around the 7" mark I reckon they will be fine. I had intended to use the Aftco or equivalent size 4 & 6 bent butt.

Cheers

Jason

It's a proven set up. You won't likely go wrong. But these type rods won't work well for stand-up type work.

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G'day Tom,

I have explained to my customer that chair rods can't be used for anything other than in the chair. He is comfortable with that. He also has quite a few standup type rods, some of which I have built for him and I know he understands the difference and realises that trying to use a chair rod standup will achieve very little other than to cause him all sorts of pain!

Thanks again for your assistance.

Cheers

Jason