Hi Everyone!

Planing to Build a Tuna Popping rod for 30"-60" BlueFin Tuna, Fishing in the Northeast. Throwing Poppers, Stickbaits and soft plastics. I think I have settled on a Black Hole Cape Cod Special Nano 7'6" for the Blank. I have built a couple of inshore saltwater rods and used the Guide Placement Software on Anglers Resource to help determine guide height and placemnt. From what I see, the input parameters of that software end below the limit of what i'm trying to build- No Reels above a 5000, and braided line ends at 30lb.

My Question is how do I go about figuring out what Size guides to buy and how far to space them? I am more than happy to read and watch videos, I jsut dont know where to start as the majority of the information I can find is for freshwater and inshore rods. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks so much!

I built two of those exact rods. Get Black Hole to send you the build sheets and replicate that. Really nice rods.

That's a good blank. You didn't say how you were going to be fishing it but I think you will probably be fishing from a boat. Go the online library here and do this--- [www.rodbuilding.org]

Now with a 5000 series reel you might find you cannot easily use the NGC but that's okay. You might have to allow your tiptop to be the choke guide or if you plan to use braid you can choke down quicker. But I think you will be ok with a 7 and 1/2 foot rod.

Mark- I’ll reach out to Black Hole to see what guidance they can provide Great suggestion! I sometimes overlook the obvious solutions!

Mike- yes fishing from a boat. Will likely pair this rod with a Shimano Stella 14000. Will one hollow core braid, either 60 or 80#.


Thanks so much for the help and feedback!