I'm looking to make up a teaser rod to tease in billfish for a saltwater fly situation.

Can anyone please explain what are the merits (action etc) of a good teaser blank. What length range are they.

Thanks in advance

Any good heavy spinning rod or casting rod will do the trick! The Ugly Stick heavy, two-hand 7 1/2' or 8' spinners are heavily used in Florida. Make sure to use a high ratio FAST retrieve reel because the trick is to get the fish fired up and bring him in close, not to let him eat the teaser! They get real excited when the bait keeps getting yanked away. :-)

Stephen,

Myself and most of the folks I know off the coast of North Carolina don't use rods to tow teasers. Reels are installed on the frame work of the bridge and the lines are ran through the riggers.

When a billfish comes to the teasers the teaser is reeled in and a bait/plug/fly is cast to the excited fish. The teaser will end up hanging on the out riggers ready for the next time they will be needed.I'm sure a rod would work, but I'm not sure it is needed. I have also seen this kind of set up on a boat without a bridge, just done on the hard top structure. If fishing from a smaller boat, a rod would be the only answer, which any rod would work. The trick would be to use a rod heavy enough to tow the teaser you are using without skipping the teaser too much. Some of those big bird teasers would take a broom handle for a rod to tow them.

Larry Tysinger

Thanks very much for you inputs. I have a guy whom specifically wants a rod for the maneuvering around the boat, and I can see that a broom stick type rod may be the answer.
Cheers.