I am thinking about building a tuna rod to be used on headboat canyon trips. I am looking at roller guides, prob Aftco, aluminum butt and the blank :) Question is, what size rod would work best for head boat canyon trips? Would a short one around 5' 6" do well or go longer with like an 8' blank? Not sure what the best would be for this type of trip.

I would recommend a shorter rod for lifting tuna from the depths unless you are interested in body building.

This is not my favorite way of fishing, but I built a few rods for myself, and have a few reasons I built them a bit different then you discribed.
The rods I seen seem to be in a couple of powers, 30 - 80 to 50 - 100 lb, they were 5 1/2 to 6 ft. rods and the captains I talked to like regular guides over roller guides, the reason being they have less hangups in the guides with people moving out of each others way with multiple fish on regularly. There isn't near the friction on the line you'd expect fishing other ways.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2019 10:11PM by Spencer Phipps.

Thanks guys. I wasn't sure about the length issue, but it makes sense to use a shorter rod to have a better angle on the fish. I thought that the roller guides would be the way to go. I could see that the line could get pinched in the guide if it slips while moving up and down the boat.

I saw that Fuji has some decent casting guides. Looking at the Fuji HB Not sure about the blank yet...thinking maybe Seeker.

What about the aluminum butt? Does that make sense to use for headboat fishing or just go with the normal eva butts and like a 24 reel seat?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2019 07:34AM by Ken Brown 2.

For rod length on head boats, a longer rod can have the advantage of helping to keep the line from rubbing the hull if a fish goes under the boat. In the gulf of mexico, many of our boats are twin hull and line rubbing the hull is a real risk. Additionally, the longer rod can be potentially leveraged (no pun intended) as a rail rod. I have built and use Rainshadow RCTB and RCJB blanks in the gulf successfully. Most of my rods are 7'. I agree that standard guides would be a better choice than roller guides. Also, these type of rods are excellent candidates for spiral wrapping. I would also skip the aluminum butt and go with a Slick butt or eva.

I thought of maybe a slick butt as well. This should reduce the cost of the rod as well. I thought about 'rail rod' because I would assume fatigue could be a real thing when wrestling a decent size fish. Decisions, decisions...

We’d go with our Rainshadow RCTB70XXH and here’s a blueprint that we have for that rod built with ALPS Heavy HXN guides

Rod Blank Model # RCTB70XXH-CG 7' 1 pc X X Heavy 50-130lb
Butt Cap: BC26B Bulb B/C 26mm ID - Black
Gimbal AXG25-B New design Alum gimbal-Black-ALPS
Rear Grip: BS11-930/875 11" Reargrip Tapered Bore .930/.875" EVA-Black
Reel Seat: CAH24M-B Centra-Lock Alum Machined R/S - Black-ALPS
Reel Seat Trim: TRCAH24-B Alum Trim Ring for CAH24-Black
Fore Grip: Rail Rod Grip BSF16-625/750 16 inch
Fore Grip Cover: PCS50X457 18" Cold Shrink Tube 50mm x 457mm
Winding Check: BH12.5 Hosel .780" I.D.
Tip Top: BSUZT10F12.5 HVY Dty S/W Top 10 'Z' Flanged Rg 12.5 Tube-Blk
1st XBHXNZG10 3.75"
2nd XBHXNZG10 7.75"
3rd XBHXNZG10 11.875"
4th XBHXNZG10 16.25"
5th XBHXNZG12 21.25"
6th XBHXNZG16 27.25"
7th XBHXNZG20 34.5"
8th XBHXNZG25 42.5"

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

Sweet! Thanks.

I would definitely recommend Seeker for any type of heavy fishing as far as the blank is concerned.