Bent Butt vs. Straight Butt

[Trojan Joe]

I currently have in my arsenal all straight butt rods 20-50# class, 30-80#, and 50-100# class paired up with Shimano 25TLDs and Penn 30 and 50s. All fishing is trolling and stand-up. Target is early season inshore bluefin and than offshore yellowfin, whites, mahi,....I run a 7 line spread.

I am planning on purchasing a few more rods this winter. I see more and more bent butt rods in everyone elses arsenal. Should I add 1 or 2 to my spread?

What are the benefits?

Where do you run yours (flatlines)?

[paul708]

if all you have is straight.. add a few bent. give it a try.

[pitch bait]

If you dont have a chair then dont buy any bent but rods unless you are planning on using it in a swivel rod holder. The stand up bent butts are good for drift fishing like chunking or sharking but are no good for trolling. I would stick with the straight but unless you plan of giant tuna (blue finn over 300) or blue marlin fishing.

[Captain Fred Archer]

TJ,

The pro's and con's of bent butts are pretty clear. As far as pro's go...

Bent butts give a lower line angle to the lures than straight butts without the use of flatline clips and such. This applies to flat lines only, which on most boats are the short corners. Once you go to riggers, this benefit is lost.

Many feel that bents set the hook harder and faster than upright straights on tough-mouthed fish because the line runs directly off the reel to the lure and hook/hooks. I sure agree.

Lures, especially short ones, generally run better off of bents than they do upright straights because the "spring" in a staight butt, especially standup styles with their light tips, can have a major negative effect on how many lures, especially those that dive, then pop and smoke, run. Many a lure is considered "a bad runner" when the actual fault was that light tip, flexing and unflexing and jerking it around. Not many fishermen consider that one.

Finally, many believe that truly big fish can be fought harder with less effort on a bent butt - out of a chair - than on straights. I concur.

Bent butts are mighty cool looking too.

That's about it on the pro's, though. Here are some of the con's...

First and foremost, quality bent butts are EXPENSIVE!

Second, they were created to be fished out of chairs, so if you don't have one, it's probably a good idea to forget bents. Furthermore, if they are used to fish for their originally intended targets, big fish, the chair should be a subsantial one. For example, I fished six Accurate 130's on bents during the big marlin time down in Cabo. My chair at those times was an unlimited Release Marine model. (At other times of the year I replaced it with a "little" Pompanette 80 that was mostly for people who got pooped out standup fighting and for those who wanted a chair, period. I used straight butt standups in that chair.)

Big marlin are basically "one at a time" fish, so when we hooked one up, there were no traffic jams down in the 'pit and the fish was fought from the chair.

Bents are excellent for true high speed trolling, but all of the cost and other negatives still apply.

Finally, you can fish bents standup style, but it requires special, expensive belts and harnesses that restrict angler movement around the 'pit considerably compared to simpler standup rig belts and harnesses (if you need them). And God forbid you hook up four or five school fish like nice tunas and you have a couple of guys in shorty bent butt harnesses mixed in with a couple or several using conventional belts! We're talking a major cluster duck if that happens and people start moving around down there.

You want to have your cake and eat it too? Now, we sell these, but that doesn't matter here. UpRiggers are a wonderful way of getting better than bent butt performance out of your existing standup gear, belts and whatever. They simply can't be beat for that AND they allow you to run two extra outfits without drilling any holes in your gunnels.

[Innovator]

Joe,

Which style are you looking to switch to? There are now two styles of bent butts. The old standard bent butt that are longer ans definately need to be used in a chair or swivel rod holder. Then there are the new style "shorty bent butt". I had the chance this summer to fish a boat which used both styles of stand up rods, standard 5'6" strait butts and the shorty bent butts.

I liked the shorty bent butts alot, I like the way they fished especially on the flat lines, they helped make a more streamlined set up in the cockpit when running a 9 rod spread.

Fred made some excellent points, a heavy duty belt is needed for the shorty bent butts, when properly adjusted to the angler, I believe the shorty bent butts definately give the angler an advantage on larger fish.

I am in the process of looking to replace my 50's at the moment, what I going to do is build 5'6" stand-up with aftco butts and buy both strait and short-bent butts, so I have the option to fish either one, It is more expensive but I like having both options at my disposal

[paul708]

I am in the process of looking to replace my 50's at the moment, what I going to do is build 5'6" stand-up with aftco butts and buy both strait and short-bent butts, so I have the option to fish either one, It is more expensive but I like having both options at my disposal

thats what we usually do make a straight and add a extra bent butt. alot of guys are doing that. the short bent are SWEET

[pitch bait]

Short bent buts are easly pulled fron the rod holders when trolled. Ask Dennis Braid.

[Trojan Joe]

Excellent stuff Capt. Fred! Thanks for you detailed insight!

Innovator, probably would consider the "shorty bent butt", I dont have a chair. I have seen most guys running the bent butts on the flat lines. I know Marty uses one on his planer rod. I would than think a bent butt will be the way to go if you run a planer vs. straight butt?

I usually pull ballyhoo/witches/ilanders (and maybe 2 bars when targeting yellowfin). Only started to experiment with the planer this year, when the Hoos were showing up on a regular basis.

[paul708]

if you are using 50,s you will like the bent..you can add the rings and run the flats off of that .another new thing the guys are starting

[Captain Fred Archer]

No question that the bents are the way to go for planer fishing. If the rod is left in the holder while the fish is fought like a lot of people do, it's no prob.

I've used the shorties and they are better for standup fishing, but again, at least as far as I'm concerned, bents are a lot better for big, "one at a time" troll fish, but I still consider them a liability in a cockpit full of anglers hooked up to say, big dorados. The difference in the rod attitudes between fighting fish like that on regulation butt standups and the bents (lower versus higher) makes moving around cleanly and easily a lot tougher with the bents, shorties or no shorties.

Still, I love the way my short corner lures and bars run off of bent butts and I love them for sticking it to the likes of sharks, billfish and wahoos, all of which are good corner fish on any boat that I have ever fished on. If I had a client who wanted to stand up on a big marlin, I would have no problem whatsoever having him take on the fish on a bent, preferably a shorty. Again, the big girls are, from my experience at least, almost all "one at a time" fish, so rod angles off of harnesses are not an issue. But again, for most of the pelagics that most of us catch, I consider the bents, short or regular, expensive overkill.

That's why I think those UpRiggers are so sweet. Myself and a lot of others love the fact that you can present your lures/baits absolute bent butt style, but they become conventional outfits when you pick them up and fight fish on them. That simply obviates the need for bents for the average guy, saves him a ton of money, yet gives him the kind of trolling performance he wants. It's a no brainer as far as I'm concerned!

Innovater. I agree, bents are better for fighting BIG fish, whether you're in a chair or standing up. Your idea of having both bents and straights for each rod isn't a bad one...it's kinda like me having both bents and straights for some of my rods, but the 130's all had bent butts only on them because they were reserved for and only fished during big marlin time - no need for staights up in that line class - not for me, at least.

But nine bents are gonna cost a considerable pile of coinage. And in my eyes at least, once you go to the riggers, it doesn't matter whether you are running bents or straights - unless you are running a pure big fish spread and only want to catch fish on big guns. In that case, the fighting of the fish being paramount, I would definately opt for the bents. (I also wouldn't be running nine lures when it comes to big marlin spreads, but that's me, of course.) If most of my fishing was for the average pelagics, no way...except for the short corner stuff and I'd have bents there more for the improved lure running and riveting hook sets. Take a look at those UpRiggers again...they might make sense for what you are doing and save you a bunch of moola to boot.

TJ...No chair? Put the planer rod in a center transom rod holder (you might have to make one) and plan on fighting the fish out of the holder. Fish an UpRigger in each corner and you too will save a bundle and get more rod holders and improved trolling performance without buying new rods, other than the planer one.

Good, interesting thread. Thanks for getting it started, TJ.