Tuna Rod Build Start to Finish

[shoefish]

Originally Posted by captkev1

Cant wait lets just hope mine come out as well as his did!

They will dude, and then we'll break them in on some swordies next season

[KnotGolfin']

Originally Posted by shoefish

Good idea Chum, and I'll combine it with Dunn's request to have the part numbers included as well.

When Kevin and I were talking about putting these rods together, we were setting out to make some rods that could be used for chunking or trolling. We wanted them to be stand up rods that were capable of taking a giant class fish, while not completely taking the fun out of a 60# football or a shark from time to time. We wanted rods that we had the option of fishing 30s, 50s, or even 80s. Light graphite tips were not needed as these wouldn't be used to toss live bait or be used for pitch baiting the occasional marlin in the canyons- rather we wanted to have rugged, no nonsense tuna sticks capable of putting the hurt on fish of virtually any size.

The components we chose were:

Pac Bay Tuna short blank XST56XXHSB ($20): this is a straight fiberglass short blank (48") with a lot of power, that when paired with the bent butt, is the perfect short stick for extended fights with big fish.

Pac Bay aluminum butt AB2SC ($60): this is a short aluminum bent butt. There are many kinds (aftco, american tackle, etc) and they are all the same, but this one is the least expensive. Because there is no real differences, we went with these.

Aftco Wind On Roller Guides W066 ($65): these guides will allow us to use loop to loop wind ons, or to make long wind ons with wind on swivels for trolling with extra long leaders for shy fish while not needing to have a person dedicated to leadering the fish.

Aftco Big Foot Tip Top SHD ($20): this is the matching tip top to the roller guides.

EVA pre-formed Foregrips F14- 14" ($6): foregrips can be made of everything from wood to cork to eva to leather, and beyond. Because of how it holds up and for comfort reasons we chose to use these grips.

Those are the basic components that are needed. From there it's deciding what thread size, color, style to use, choosing the epoxy for the ferrule and grip, and the epoxy that you will use to coat the thread wrap.

I use flex cote lite for the wraps. There are others out there, but I haven't been motivated to use anything else as I started with this and haven't had a problem.

Tomorrow I'll be mocking up the guides and starting to get the abalone ready to mount for the butt wrap.

Until next time, I hope that everyone has a happy, healthy memorial day weekend.

Shoe

Shoe,

$171 per rod plus your time? Is that accurate? That is a pretty good deal to get exactly what you want. Where did you go for most of your guidance and questions as you went along?

-Knot

[shoefish]

Originally Posted by KnotGolfin'

Shoe,

$171 per rod plus your time? Is that accurate? That is a pretty good deal to get exactly what you want. Where did you go for most of your guidance and questions as you went along?

-Knot

Knot-
Yeah, they really aren't that expensive to build and you can customize it to whatever you want. Plus you get the reward of catching a fish on something that you built yourself- a truly unique feeling. I learned to build rods from a buddy that I fish with, then as I got into it I met other guys who did it and also got some good advice from the pros on rodbuilding.org. The folks at Surfland are good too, especially for the lighter spinning gear. Be warned though, I started by building a spinner, then another spinner, then a stand up rod for tuna, then it went on from there. It might be as addictive as tuna fishing...maybe

I tell you one thing though- it's a great way to pass the time over the winters.
Shoe

[Finesse]

Shoe ...crazy question

Are the handles hitting the gunwales ? I take it you're using the short butts plus I would guess the boat has the longer/deeper HD holders?

[shoefish]

The rod in the background there is a straight butt #2 and I run it either on a tower leg or in the rod holder just forward of the one it's in in the picture. Because it's at more of an angle, it doesn't hit the gunnels. I don't run a rod in the one that you see it in (we set it there temporarily so we could bring the fish on). In the corner swivel rod holder you see the extention for the #2 bent butt sticking up.

Good eyes.

[Agitated88]

Probably one of the most informative threads I've ever read!! Thanks for sharing SHOE!!!!

[Finesse]

Thanks Shoe

I assume you only build with the shorter butts?

[clt_capt]

I've had the opportunity to experiment some with the Abalone Shell a bit.

The "Shoe" Technique is great - No cracking, and as mentioned, low stress...

I have found that once you get the shell on the blank - Especially if you are not going to put a diamond type wrap over the shell, Take the time to Wrap the shell with rigging thread - TIGHT, and let it sit overnight. It will really tighten up the whole shell and will reduce the bulges.

If you use waxed thread, just make sure to wipe down the shell with acetone or alchohol after you remove the rigging thread and before applying your finish

[shoefish]

Aggitated- thank you for the kind words, it was a fun thread

Finesse- that's all I've built to date. If the giants come back in big numbers up here I might build some rods to be fought out of rod holders.

clt- that's an awesome tip! So you put in on and then wrap completely over it? That makes a ton of sense....I can't wait to try it...damn it, now I need to build another rod

Thanks again for the comments all!

Shoe

[Satans_Chariot]

shoe, you need to build a 10ft popping stick for chucking sluggos to the bluefin that only eat spreaderbars.