A friend of mine wants me to build him a 7foot unlimited rod for his 130 Tiagra. I have looked and found a couple but not sure which one to go with.

Cal star grafighter gf770-4xh
United Composites cx invictus
Phenix Black Diamond Hybrid phd 700x4h

I have no experience with rods this heavy so any input on these blanks or any others is more than welcome.

I have had one of these rods through my hands in the late '90's.

The blank and rod was made by ITALCANA of Italy and was approx 180-200lb class, lined with 600lb braid it would easily hold my 140lb body weight off the deck, bending 25-30% as it did so.
I would suggest you email the factory in Italy, they work in English so nothing to worry about.

I cannot say if the blank was hollow or solid but it was certainly heavy, which doesn't matter if its only going to be fished in a rod holder, from memory it was around 3/8" at the tip and 1" at the butt ferrule.
It was rigged with AFTCO top of the range ball bearing rollers throughout and had the biggest straight alloy butt I have ever seen, probably a custom job from the manufacturers.

It went to a Pro tuna fisherman in Maderia which is an island in the Eastern Atlantic off the coast of Africa.

Hope this gives you some help.

The Grafighter is designed to be used as a rail rod, if he's not using the rod that way there are better choices. That said when new tecniques come out, or stigmas are broken in the case of putting your rod on the rail, Calstar seems to be all over it first it seems.
It's been 2 years since my last long range trip so things may have changed, but I personally preferred the Phenix Axis rods in that weight class, and so did many others, over the Hybrids though the Hybrids were a bit lighter in weight. Not sure how important that would be on the rail, wasn't for me.
Haven't any experience with the mentioned United Composites, the old company before they changed hands made some nice sticks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2017 04:14PM by Spencer Phipps.

As far as I know he will be using the rod off of a pier shark fishing at night. To me it is overkill but it is what he wants so I can't really argue too much since he already has the 130 to go on the rod.

I'll check out the axis line from phenix too.

Thanks for the help so far I appreciate it.

A 7ft unlimited must be one heck of a workout.better than Bow Flex.

You're not planning on using an aluminum butt are you? If so, the rod will end up being around 9' long! LoL