NO longer is chasing pelagics restricted to those with forty-foot game boats or those occasional charter trips you jump on. Small boat anglers right down the east coast of Australia can enjoy some top action on mackerel, tuna and billfish from a boat as small as five metres.
The small black marlin in the 10- to 50-kilo class caught closer to land have attracted a whole new group of anglers as they discover the joys of chasing these spectacular game fish.
A good day and a spread of lures over the billfish grounds, and you have a pretty good chance of hooking up. A little background knowledge and experience does help, but we all have to start some time.
As many may only occasionally participate in this type of fishing, the gear they use may not necessarily be solely dedicated to game-fishing. A reasonable bottom fishing rod and reel can do the job nicely.
The rod we are going to build this month is a good, all round six-foot game/reef rod that lends itself a little bit more to chasing those smaller game fish.
The blank is from the Brisbane-based blank manufacturer, Pacific Composites. It is one of their Fibreforce Fusion series which incorporates woven carbon fibres in the butt section and utilises the sensitivity of uni-glass in the tip section of the rod.
I find that, aside from the slight decrease in weight by using graphite, its strength gives rods such as this a bit more grunt in the lower section. The softer tip gives the desired action for monitoring the movement of baits and lures, and some flex to compensate for fast, hard strikes and the run of fish in the battle. This is a combination that can be hard to achieve, with many rods being too stiff or too soft in the tip and in the butt.
There are three blanks in the LBJ Fibrefusion series. Of these, we have chosen the middle 10 to 15kg blank. It has a nice medium action that is fine for small and mid weight game fish, but has that bit extra in the butt to put the hurt back on a better quality fish.
The blank is 185cm in length, or six-foot, which is a bit longer than traditional short strokers and a bit shorter than many reef rods; hence, it becomes a good all rounder.
Although the blank is rated at 10- to 15- kilo, and it can certainly handle those line classes, we are finding that those chasing the likes of the small black marlin and sailfish are running eight-kilo line off these rods and are more than happy with the combination.
It’s not an ultra light, thin-walled graphite, so it can handle the knocks and bumps a bit better.
We make two versions of this rod: one using Fuji’s popular BLRLG boat guides and another using their new silicon WDBSG guides. These guides have an oval shape guide centre with a frame similar in shape to that of a roller guide.
The profile of the guide is sleek and follows the blank nicely, offering superb strength while not being a heavy guide. As the guides are made for overhead application, the line from the reel comes off the spool in a straight line. The oval shape of the guide centre keeps the line directly above the blank for better control. The oval shape retains this property - where the line angle can change under various loads as it has that lateral movement.
The guides come in a single and a double foot form, but for a rod this length, the double foots are used throughout. Available in a gun smoke or chrome finish, they are quite a smart looking guide.
On this particular rod, we are running with the gunsmoke frame as they blend in nicely with the matt, two-tone grey of the graphite in the lower section of the blank and the black tip section of the blank.
At this stage, the double foots come in three sizes - 6, 8 and 10. Very shortly we will be seeing what will most likely be called a 10H, which is the same centre as the 10, just on a higher frame.
This is for those rods which use a bigger reel, and the line angle can be a bit harsh running from the reel to the first guide. On my own outfit I run a Shimano Calcutta 700 with 8kg line, which is a superb outfit.
The likes of a TLD 20 is as big as you would probably go at present, which is why we will see the introduction of the high frame 10 early this year.
For home rod builders as well as those building rods on a larger scale, these guides are a welcome addition to the Fuji range, offering you and your customers that rod with a little difference.
The butt assembly for the rod is pretty straightforward, with a ten-inch EVA game grip on the butt and a twelve-inch EVA game grip on the foregrip. Game grips are just a bit thicker than standard grips, giving you something decent to hang onto while trying to pull in those stubborn fish and giving you a stronger grip on the rod as the fish tries to pull it one way or the other.
On most of our rods these days, whether they be for game or reef, we tend to use the graphite heavy duty Fuji reel seat (FPSH) as they are light, strong, adhere to the glue better than aluminium and do not present corrosion problems should you leave your reel on the rod.
For trolling purposes and added control over the rod, slip a gimbal onto the butt of the rod as this prevents the rod from twisting in the roof holder and your rod bucket. A soft cap can always be slipped over the gimbal if need be.
A rod of this calibre should be under and double overbound. Can I suggest using Gudebrod’s charcoal grey (regular ‘A’ 441) as your underbind and double black thread as the overbind. Add a few various colours of metallic thread as trims and you will end up with an eye-catching combination of thread, guides and blank with the various shades of black and grey.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Blank: Pacific Composites LBJ 10 - 15kg
Butt: 10” x 5/8” EVA game grip
Winch: Fuji FPSH - 24 (fixed hood up)
Foregrip: 12” x 1/2” EVA game grip
Gimbal: Fuji BCGC25G graphite gimbal
Tip: Fuji UST 10/4.0mm
Guides: Fuji WDBSG (guides measured top side of ring centre to centre)
Tip to 1st guide: #6 - 85mm; #6 - 95mm; #6 - 112mm; #8 - 125mm; #8 - 160mm; #6 - 185mm; #10 - 195mm.
