Blank for overhead rod?

[Damned67]

Hi All,
I'm really keen on making a spiral wrap rod for my TLD20 reel. It'd be basic trolling/bottom bashing/live baiting, but I have no idea where to start. The only overheads I currently have are two cheap ($50-60) Beast Masters, so they're not much good.
Was almost considering taking an NV9 and shortening it to build a 15-24kg OH rod, but I doubt that the NV9 has the appropriate action, being a jigging rod?

Any suggestions?

Edit: ideally this rod would be suitable for targeting spanish macks, amberjack, king fish etc...

Cheers

[Stuart]

It seems people think a slow action jigging rod is the way to go because everyone else uses them, must be right. A slow action jig rod will help wear you and your arm out much faster and you will behind the 8 ball right from the get go. A slow action rod will give the fish more time and distance to turn its head and tie you up around the bottom. I will have a look at what I have laying around, I know I have a few blanks that would be perfect for what you want. One of the first blanks I ever designed and rolled years ago was a live bait jig blank. It had a soft fold away tip that was line rated and locked up at around 1/3 section. Yes it sounds like a million other blanks but this weapone never bent past the top 1/3 and you could dead lift 28kg of the floor. I have seen a few blank manufacturers and suppliers promote theres doing the same, but look how far the blank is bending, what a usless peice of crap. It reminds me of the ugly stick add wherew the tip is touching the butt, thats good if your chassing goldfish.

Stu

[Stuart]

Opps, yers the blank will handle most of the above but spanish macks might be a hard one because they need a much softyer tip rod, one that is a bit more forgiving than a rod designed for large and hard pulling fish like Amberjack and kingfish.

[trymyluck]

Hows it going mate, both Steve (Apollo) and I built spiral wrap's on similar blanks, nothing flash but they both survived the Swains trip earlier this year. Steve landed a GT that was estimated by the skipper at being 30kg, not a bad effort. Both were from mud hole.
Steves - CBSW54XH
Mine - CBSW72XH

Stu, not sure if I agree with your theory about spanish and softer tip blanks but then what I know about building rods is not worth mentioning. Only going on what we have experianced over the last couple of years of trolling for macs. One of the rods we use is what I can only discribe as a broomstick but it would have a sucess rate of near on 100% on hookup and landing macs plus a stray marlin. We were talking about it earlier in the year and can not explain why. Mayby just dumb luck.......

Mark

[Stuart]

Not a theory mate just what I know from experiance from working on pro mack boats. Macks have a hard and very bony mouth and what I and many others found was a soft tip rod menat a far better hook up rate which in tern meant boated fish. If the rod works for you then there is no need to change. I know many of my pro mates use to use the Snyder 5-4120 blanks which gave the nice soft tip and a smooth mid section. Its a bit like fishing for whitting with a 10-15kg rated rod.

Stu

[trymyluck]

Not a theory mate just what I know from experiance from working on pro mack boats. Macks have a hard and very bony mouth and what I and many others found was a soft tip rod menat a far better hook up rate which in tern meant boated fish. If the rod works for you then there is no need to change. I know many of my pro mates use to use the Snyder 5-4120 blanks which gave the nice soft tip and a smooth mid section. Its a bit like fishing for whitting with a 10-15kg rated rod.

Stu

Would that be with live/dead baits or with lures Stuart? We really are beginners as far as trolling goes, mainly troll when the going is rough getting from point A to B.

Mark

[Daintreeboy]

I'm keen to know people thoughts here too. I'm looking at maybe buying a Phenix Titan Jigging TJX564M. It's rated 20 to 60 lbs which is a big range but my guess is it will work well with 50 pound braid. Anyone have any experience with the Titan range?

Hey Stu my bottom bashing experience with braid suggests the slower taper rods are a better option with heavy line, say 50lb and up. You are right in what you say but the fast taper rods actually put the lever point further away from you. While this suits fine for lighter lines with heavier gear it really takes it out of you. Also fish like Red Emperor bang their heads a lot and a slow action rod really helps here. In the old days of mono slow action rods didn't really work but with braid they are great for the above application.

[Willo]

Not a theory mate just what I know from experiance from working on pro mack boats. Macks have a hard and very bony mouth and what I and many others found was a soft tip rod menat a far better hook up rate which in tern meant boated fish. If the rod works for you then there is no need to change. I know many of my pro mates use to use the Snyder 5-4120 blanks which gave the nice soft tip and a smooth mid section. Its a bit like fishing for whitting with a 10-15kg rated rod.

Stu

Stu right on the money here ...The last rod I built for live baiting spanish Mac is just how he described.....10-15 KG whiting rod..LOL
But I get a lot better hook up rate with this type of rod
Spanairds dont fight dirty ...a couple of Big runs ...work them to to back of ya boat then they muck up a bit ....and have another short run
There not chargin around the bottom tryin to bust ya off
But the guys who tow fast pullin big Lures might prefer a tad stiffer rod ..its all personal choice ...Thats the good part of building ya own custom rods ..

Willo

[Stuart]

I'm keen to know people thoughts here too. I'm looking at maybe buying a Phenix Titan Jigging TJX564M. It's rated 20 to 60 lbs which is a big range but my guess is it will work well with 50 pound braid. Anyone have any experience with the Titan range?

Hey Stu my bottom bashing experience with braid suggests the slower taper rods are a better option with heavy line, say 50lb and up. You are right in what you say but the fast taper rods actually put the lever point further away from you. While this suits fine for lighter lines with heavier gear it really takes it out of you. Also fish like Red Emperor bang their heads a lot and a slow action rod really helps here. In the old days of mono slow action rods didn't really work but with braid they are great for the above application.

I hate braid for offshore fishing. I tried it for a while but lost more fish than I hooked. Maybe it’s due to my tongue being in the wrong side of my mouth. The issue was more problematic in deeper water and while I hooked more fish I also lost as many. There simply isn’t enough stretch in the system to compensate for headshakes and what ever else the fish may throw your way. I still see guys using braid and stiff rods and wonder why they loose fish, I tell them but they don’t believe me, who cares. I use Penn 10X which are great, very low stretch and tough as nails. When I chase snapper I use a very soft tipped rod that begins to load around mid blank. When I get a run I lean back on the rod and the fish is hooked, no striking, just gentle. The whole fast action to slow action debate has been going on for ever and I all I hear is opinions and no actual tests with hard results to show for it. I did plenty of testing over the years; I wanted to know what and why.

What I found goes against everything most people seem to understand. A slow action rod requires more effort on the angle than a fast action rod, its simple really. Commen sense would dictate that a fast action rod with thew lock up point some 5 feet away from you will mean its going to take more effort, wrong. A slow action rod will put the lock up closer to you therefore requiring less effort, wrong. In fact the opposite is true. It takes almost 50% more effort to hold a fast action rod in a fixed position for the same time with a slow action rod. The softer the rod the more effort is needed to load the rod to a point that it then becomes a lever. A fast action rod requires far less effort to before it becomes a lever. It all about effort, time and leverage. The faster these three things happen the faster you will land your fish. Yes there is a fair bit of math involved and I’m no mathematician but I know the equations to work out a well performing blank.

Stu