IF you don’t own a tackle shop or build a swag of fishing rods up, it’s near impossible to keep track of all the fishing rods and blanks that are available. Even if you do, it’s quite a handful!
Many anglers try to go for an all-rounder in their particular field, be it surf, estuary, baitcast, reef, spin or troll. The cost of having a rod for everything continues to grow daily, however, as a result of the poor Aussie dollar performance over the past six months.
With the summer months providing a bit of a mixed bag of available fish, I thought we should look at a good quality offshore rod suitable for live baiting, float lining, a mid-weight bottom basher, and a spin rod. This 6-10kg stick has been primarily designed as a live bait and floater rod, but the other tasks we’ve set it don’t seem to be a problem.
The fish targeted here can be anything from a spotty mackerel or snapper to small billfish or tuna, so it is important that the blank and the hardware have the capacity to handle a decent fish, during what may be an extended battle.
In the past, we’ve built up a 10-15kg offshore troll/bottom rod on one of Pacific Composites LBJ 10-15kg blanks. These blanks feature woven carbon fibres in the butt section of the rod to deliver power and a slight reduction in weight, while the tip is made of softer fibreglass. These versatile blanks have proven themselves over time, and the track record for this range certainly gets the thumbs up. This range of blanks isn’t just restricted to troll rods; there are also a few game, spin, and baitcast blanks available.
I’ve chosen the heaviest of the spin blanks, which is the SPW 216-8. At 2.16 metres (just over seven feet), it is more than capable of handling the six to 10kg line class that it is rated to. As the rod will often be left sitting in a rod holder with a live bait on the end of it, or tucked under the arm floating a bait out the back of the boat, we’ve built a long 14 inch butt on it. At this length, when in the rod holder, the larger reels used are kept clear from resting on the side decks of the boat.
When feeding the line out, you will find that the butt of the rod can be tucked under the arm, with the reel at a comfortable position where the line can be fed off the spool with the run of the tide or current. A typical reel used in the application is the Shimano 6500 Bait Runner.
We also added a small gimbal to the rod, which prevents the rod spinning around in the rod holder. When a gimbal belt is used, the reel can lock into position while fighting a fish. If you don’t like that idea, simply use a butt cap, or find a butt cap that will fit over the gimbal, giving you both options.
Because we use large spinning reels on this rod and hope to tangle with a few decent fish, the last thing we want is for the reel to move around in the reel seat. To prevent this, we use a heavy-duty Fuji FPSH 22. These heavy-duty graphite seats are light and strong and, most importantly, they hold the foot of these big reels firmly in position. There is no wobble or movement from side to side during casting or fighting a fish.
The foregrip of the rod is a little on the long side as well. At 10 inches, it gives you a good stretched out arm length to hang on while the fish surges away below.
This rod suits Fuji’s new Alconite guides down to the bone. The strong, lightweight, deep-pressed frames with their Alconite centres have improved heat dissipation, and are 1.8 times stronger than the Hardloy guides you would normally use on this type of rod. The rings aren’t quite the quality of silicon, but they aren’t as expensive either, and they provide a substantially superior guide for this type of application.
While there are a couple of styles in the Alconite range, the one used here is the BMNAG, which is available in sizes eight through to 40. It is the big 40 we use as a stripping guide here. The new shape of the frame - no hard edges or corners - promotes efficient transfer of the line through the ring, guiding it towards the centre as the line spirals forward under the load of a cast. Those that fish with doubles will notice the reduction of the double catching on the guide frame when casting.
I’ve opted to stick to a heavy-duty Fuji silicon tip (UST 10/3.0) here, because the tip is one of the hardest-wearing sections of the rod. The line is continually stressed over this point when under the load of a good fish. Although the rod isn’t my idea of a perfect casting stick for the likes of mackerel and tuna, you will find that it does the job quite well.
The matt grey/black finish of the blank lends itself to be bound in a number of contrasting colours. I always find it is hard to go past the cosmetics of black under and over binding, with some nice metallic colours used on the end and centres for trim work.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Blank - Pacific Composites SPW 216-8
Butt - 14" x 5/8" eva
Winch - Fuji FPSH 22
Foregrip - 10" x 5/8"
Cap - Fuji BCRGC 22
Tip - Fuji UST 10/3.0
Guides - Fuji BMNAG 10-110mm; 12-130mm; 16-150mm; 20-165mm; 25-230mm; 40-290mm.
