Best Rod Blank for Ulua Shorefishing

[oc1]

I use an American Tackle AXSU110M-2 for three to four ounces.  Eleven feet, medium fact action, medium power, 40 lb braid on a Squidder.  It loads and casts nicely but that's about all I can handle these days.

We have an old no-name fiberglass rod spliced to a four foot aluminum extension.  Thirteen plus feet, good for eight or ten ounces, 50 lb mono on Senator 3/0.  It's been hanging in the rafters for over a decade.  Made for ulua but never caught anything noteworthy.

As I recall the Talon and Tica received the most votes on another board.  Not much participation though.
-steve

[steelfish]

Hi Alex, if you are casting bait, 75 yards is good. Slide bait, 75 to 150 yards. But fish roam around so you never know.

well I was asking because I didnt get this comment too clear

If you cast a mega-bait 100 yards around most of Hawaii you will feed the reef a lot of Mega-Baits.
Ron

so, 100yds are you still casting on the shore rocks but not much into the fish zone?






BTW, i need to try Slide bait someday, there are few zones here that could use slide bait technique

[Cor]

I use an American Tackle AXSU110M-2 for three to four ounces.  Eleven feet, medium fact action, medium power, 40 lb braid on a Squidder.  It loads and casts nicely but that's about all I can handle these days.

We have an old no-name fiberglass rod spliced to a four foot aluminum extension.  Thirteen plus feet, good for eight or ten ounces, 50 lb mono on Senator 3/0.  It's been hanging in the rafters for over a decade.  Made for ulua but never caught anything noteworthy.

As I recall the Talon and Tica received the most votes on another board.  Not much participation though.
-steve

Well we've something in Common, I had a friend of mine bring me two blanks, during a visit to the US in December 2011.
AXSU100M-2   10'   2   MEDIUM   MOD-FAST   15-30 lb
AXSU110H-2   11'   2   HEAVY   MOD-FAST   20-40 lb

The lighter one I made in to a very successful light casting boat rod, and the heavier one in to a shore casting rod.

I fish with my conventional reel situated 15 cm from the rear, on my back hand and had to beef up the rear section of both rods as I don't want them to bend much in the Butt part.
The lighter one is an extremely versatile caster and can happily cast as light as 50 gr and up to 110 gr using a Pen Fathom 25n and 0.45mm mono. 

The heavier one I find slightly underpowered on the cast, but nevertheless a very easy forgiving rod to play with and comfortably casts 110 grams.

Both have caught many Yellowtail.

BTW, despite the name tag on the blank, the one had a sticker on it "product of ROC".....  

[cbar45]

Hi Alex, if you are casting bait, 75 yards is good. Slide bait, 75 to 150 yards. But fish roam around so you never know.

well I was asking because I didnt get this comment too clear

If you cast a mega-bait 100 yards around most of Hawaii you will feed the reef a lot of Mega-Baits.
Ron

so, 100yds are you still casting on the shore rocks but not much into the fish zone?






BTW, i need to try Slide bait someday, there are few zones here that could use slide bait technique

On some islands the reef can extend far out, which is what Ron is probably referring to when saying that a distance cast in that spot will end up with the entire rig getting caught up on the reef. Likewise in deeper waters, if you cast too far, your line will end up going over the drop-off--an almost vertical underwater cliff as the Hawaiian Islands have no gently sloping shelf, but are rather mountain-tops rising thousands of feet from the seafloor.  

The sandy pockets and channels that are spaced throughout the reef are better spots to cast to--if one knows where they happen to be. Diving a spot (if possible) really helps as it shows you the underwater terrain and where to best locate your line so it isnt crossing over the reef, or getting caught up on it.

A 100 yd. cast using Hawaiian-style ulua fishing gear is very good and well into the "fishable" zone for most spots here. Even so, not all areas will afford the luxury of simply aiming for the horizon and letting it fly. Some are too dangerous to use a full-on power cast. i.e, the uneven rocky terrain high above the water does not allow one the right footing and balance in order to do so.

[oc1]

Cor, Americans are not allowed to make stuff any more.

Thanks to input here from your fellow countrymen, I tried the lower-hand reel position.  Actually, it was when I was figuring out what to do with the aforementioned Amer Tackle blank.  I thought the hand positions were going to feel weird but they did not.  However, it was surprising to learn how dumb and slow to respond my left thumb is.  It has no idea what to feel for or what to do.  The cast control knob had to be turned down to avoid a third epic birds nest.  One really good thing about the lower-hand reel position is that the rod balances easily and very nicely without an extra long handle or adding weight at the butt cap.  It would be worth learning how to cast all over again..... but not right now.

I like a rod that bends all the way into the butt.  With a deck hand type cord handle and reel seat you feel it all.
-steve

[Jeri]

Hi Guys,

A couple of points.

First, have found that whenever folks reach the shoreline, and have sand between their toes, or rocks inthe case of Hawaii - they always want 'more distance'. This quest for distance is not just restricted to launching baits to the horizon, but an indication of what can be achieved with the right blanks. As we can all cast with slightly less enthusiasm to reduce the distances cast with a longer distance casting rod, but try and gaina  few extra years with a shorted distance casting rod is really difficult.

Secondly, and I hate generalisations, but here goes - American styles of surf blanks tend to be very through action, right down to the bottom, which is what they seem to prefer. European styles of blanks tend to have very stiff bottom sections with nearly all the bend in the top half. While southern African styles tended to be somewhere between the two, until a couple of years ago, when there was a change in style that allowed for slightly stiffer bottom half or third of the rod blanks.

None of these designs are wrong per se, but the Europeans have found that for better distance their design style does generate more power during the cast. However, with the sothern African style needing by design to handle bigger fish or sharks, the through action concept is too soft, so their designs were a compromise between pure distance, and the ability to fight bigger fish. A case for designing to suit the prevailing conditions of the general masses, rather than specilist designs.

We have built a number of surf rods on American style blanks, but always found then to be quite 'soft' in casting, and reluctant to really load, maybe it is just our casting style? That said we are now seeinga lot of inquiries for our style of blanks/rods for American customers that are looking to challenge bigger fish and sharks from the shore.

Cheers from sunny Africa.

Jeri

[CapeFish]

What I find interesting is that US fly rods in all the big brands are cutting edge technology and usually lightning fast, especially the saltwater fly rods which are paired with ultra modern large arbor fly reels, but it seems others facets of shore based angling still prefer to use floppy rods with not the best casting reels and would even still consider using fiber glass rods instead of carbon? Why is this? Or do the folks on AT just generally prefer older tackle and I am getting a warped view?

[cbar45]

For slide-bait ulua blanks we use mostly Talons and IRW's, both having extremely fast and powerful options in their lineup--especially Talon.

Check out their BCYO69, BCYO64, and BCYO71 blanks...The 71 in particular is a bear of a rod--shutting off in the upper third--but you better have spent a lot of time in the gym if you're going to cast that.

I prefer something more mellow along the lines of the Big Island Special (IRW), and BCYO69.

[steelfish]

how do you guys on hawaii or sudafrica consider the rainshador  SUR1505?

[cbar45]

I have never built on the SUR1505, but the catalog specs look a lot similar to the older SU1418's. Too light for slide-bait imho, but they excelled at throwing 6-7oz.of lead and a small chunk of bait--although the length is a little on the shorter side for the guys in HI. It's too bad that both the SU and SUR series have since been discontinued.

Chad

[steelfish]

It's too bad that both the SU and SUR series have since been discontinued.

Chad

yep thats too bad, I have one SUR1505 that I was thinking to sell and get me different brand like the AFAW or CTS rod blank but naah, I better keep it and buying another model later on, although surf fishing is not that good here locally to have 2 long rods.

I can trow 6oz lead with a small chunk of meat really far, never passed the 100mts mark (112 yds) using a saltist 20h

[cbar45]

steelfish,

I'm curious as to what type of fish you plan on targeting via slide-bait?

The reason I ask is because slide-baiting--when used to fish for shark or GT--is usually reserved for heavy tackle using very large baits of 2-3lbs. or more that can't otherwise be cast.

But there is no reason the technique can't be scaled down to suit your SUR1505 and Saltist 20h in order to target smaller fish.

I've slid a few smaller live-baits on surf-spinning rods for omilu, (bluefin trevally) up to 10lbs, and it worked really well. There was no danger of the the delicate bait tearing off the hook or bridle during the cast. I was also able to fish the live-bait a bit further out then I normally would--were I to cast it.

[steelfish]

steelfish,

I'm curious as to what type of fish you plan on targeting via slide-bait?

The reason I ask is because slide-baiting--when used to fish for shark or GT--is usually reserved for heavy tackle using very large baits of 2-3lbs. or more that can't otherwise be cast.

well in my case its just as to try a new technique that has its advantages over the normal surfcasting rig.

after asking in other Surf fishing forum we agree that you will never reach the same distance if casting ONLY a 6oz / 8oz lead like when you go training powercast, OTG, etc, against a real fishing day when casting a 6oz lead + 4oz fishhead or chunk, the aerodinamic law hit you there and lower your distance considerably.

considering that I normally fish from rocks (not high riffs or high rocks like some places in hawaii) I have on my list to try casting 6oz lead and slide a big chunk of meat and see how it works or try live bait too.

my go to rod its a fenwick 10ft 3oz lure, with that rod I can get any of the fish that you can catch on the surf here, not shark or big rays, tho.
the RS rod was bought to go after roosterfish on summer but they not always come to this zones on the north of Baja, the nearest sure zone to go after roosterfish is at 12hrs drive south at La Paz, Baja sur so, not much action for the RS rod lately, I want to try new techniques to keep it busy.

[Cor]

Cor, Americans are not allowed to make stuff any more.

Thanks to input here from your fellow countrymen, I tried the lower-hand reel position.  Actually, it was when I was figuring out what to do with the aforementioned Amer Tackle blank.  I thought the hand positions were going to feel weird but they did not.  However, it was surprising to learn how dumb and slow to respond my left thumb is.  It has no idea what to feel for or what to do.  The cast control knob had to be turned down to avoid a third epic birds nest.  One really good thing about the lower-hand reel position is that the rod balances easily and very nicely without an extra long handle or adding weight at the butt cap.  It would be worth learning how to cast all over again..... but not right now.

I like a rod that bends all the way into the butt.  With a deck hand type cord handle and reel seat you feel it all.
-steve

Balance is precisely the reason why a rod with the reel at the back is much easier to work with and lighter to cast.    The reel counterbalances the weight of the rod.   If you mount your reel in front of you forward hand position, you are not only having to contend with the weight of the rod and bait when casting, but also the reel.

Once you understand how to control your reel it does not take too long to get accustomed to it.
It took me 2 days to learn to cast ambidextrously and that seems impossible the first time you try it!

The only people that have reels in the forward position here are those using spinning reels, however if I ever were to use a reel like that I would adapt my rod to also have it at the rear.   I experimented with this once and found no good reason why it can not be positioned like that, but perhaps there is a reason

If only we had the choice of tackle and blanks that you have in the USA in this end of the world, I would probably have been a hell of a lot poorer

[oc1]

Cor, my first impression was that everything you say is correct.  I just need to devote the time to it.  Can't cast left handed either.

Jeri, that sounds like a business opportunity for someone.

-steve