I'm going to build a Halibut rod for a friend of mine in Alaska. My question is do they use stand up tuna blanks? If so what is the best one to get. I know that the rods he has now are 5ft 6in and he uses braided line in the 80 to 100lb range. I have built about 35 freshwater rods but no saltwater rods. Do I lay down a size c thread to mount my guides to rod and do I have to double wrap the guides? As you can tell I need some help.

It would probably be helpful if you can provide some specific details about how he fishes.

Bill I captained in homer and Seward for 6 years. I built countless halibut rods. My personal record was 319 pound 6 ounce giant. They are fished in 250 foot plus water and with the current strong where they live Heavy jigs are used like one pound plus usually with a giant rubber grub or the like. Needless to say a broom stick rod is used. First suggestion would be a spiral wrap. The tourque on these rods is tremendous. Second would be not the size of thread. I always use A thread and avoid underwraps. Thread is not as important as the kind of guide used. First the salt water has always had me using titanium guides. I used AT titan guides with great success. Keep in mind casting is never an issue as all fishing is done straight down. I always use a 5 to 6 foot rod as short gives the advantage to you. As far as double wraps go not a bad idea but I never did and never had a problem.

btw Bill I used calstar blanks. Strong cheap and they have what you want.

John my friend fishes Halibut just like billy broderick explains His main passion tho is fishing feeder Kings which I am going to build a down rigger rod which I don't have any questions on but maybe a blank recomendation 9ft 30lb line.
Billy thanks for the info just what I was looking for. My friend lives in Homer he is a retired film maker Brown Bears of Katmai. His name is Derek Stonorov. Very nice man. I fished with him this past August. Nothing over 25lb was caught but we spent most of the day fishing Kings and Silvers.Billy for his down rigger rod I was also going to build a spiral wrap. I didn't know if that would work on the Halibut blank. For the Calstar blank do you recomend the 80lb to 130lb blank range 5ft 6in? Since you captained
a boat I'll go by your recomendation on the a blank. thank you both for your reply.

Our blanks are not only tough, but also over engineered in a great way!!

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For a Halibut rod 2 rods would do nicely for you:

RTCB56XXH - Fast Action
[www.rainshadowrodblanks.com]

FSU56XXH - Mod Action
[www.rainshadowrodblanks.com]

R. McBride

Batson Enterprises
BatsonEnterprises.com | RainShadowRodBlanks.com | ALPSForeCast.com | Build2Fish.com

Billy what ring sizes and how many in the train. I picked out a blank Calstar Grafighter 5.6 60lb to unlimited.

I use 20,16,12 running guides. Get 4 running guides but you will probably have extra one or two. Check out the American Tackle Vertus heavy guides. :You will also need a low frame transition guide if you do spiral like me. For the tip top I prefer a roller tip. Make sure you have a good gimble knock for the but cap and get a cover for it when fighting chicken's. You want to make that handle just as light as you can while keeping in mind it will get some bouncing around in a rod holder on the trips back and forth. Let me know if you have more questions.

An "A" underwrap is fine and I double wrap all my heavy saltwater builds with no issues....just my personal preference.
The round end aluminum gimbals are nice for that type of rod also, I think Perfection makes them. They don't dig into stomach or groin as bad as a normal alum gimbal.

Phenix Megalodon MPX-569-C-B