Blank and grip advice for Large Yellow fin

[rodwinder]

Greeting form the east coast. Looking to see what you guys recommend for Large yellow fin that are caught on the long range trips. Something in the 5' range to be used with a harness also what butt and forgrips do you guys use to take the abuse from the rails??

[The Bushman]

OK, I'll take a stab at this one. Lots of variables to pick from here. If you're going to use a 5' er, they are usually made with a XXH or XXXH blank. Typical blanks include the Seeker Super Seekers or Black Steel (composites) or the Calstar Graphiters. I have seen some rods made with all glass blanks. More often than not, I've seen 6 and 6.5 footers for a rail rod. The longer length allows you to keep the line further out from the boat when the tuna is doing his "death circle". Its really user preference as far as length goes. If its specifically a rail rod, the rear grip may be longer than on a traditional stand up rod, given the fact it needs the extra length to tuck under your armpit (some guys even straddle the rod ??). Typical rear grips are the standard hypalon, but I've seen them with slick butts, cord grips, and other materials. Reel seats are usually heavy aluminum, along with the gimbals. Some rail rods are even built without a gimbal.

As for the foregrip, some make them with Hypalon (yes they'll get thrashed quickly) and others use cold shrink wrap, or a "rail rod grip" like that developed by Scott Throop (and copied by others). Its good material, more or less a rubberized cork composite.

Hope this helps!!

[graya]

on the lengths of the grips is all about personal preferences for the grips i use hypalon on the for grip i use a slick butt and hypalon combination and have tried covering the slick butt with x tube and also have wrapped the slick but with cord which i haven't tried yet hopefully i will get a chance on 2009 on a long range trip i like to experiment with new things and see which one works best for me i will love to use Scott's rail grips if he makes them available again.

[swordswizzle]

Sounds good Ken, Ralph one more thing, if your going to use a harness make sure you get plenty of practice unharnessing quickly, especially when your on the ancor, you might have to or should I say most likely will have to get aroung the ancor line if you get a big boy on. You don't want to piss off the crew dicking with the harness when things get busy

[The Bushman]

Ralph, heres what the rail rod grips look like.

sorry for the sideways pic.

Guadalupe, thats a cool idea, using a slick butt as part of the foregrip! Bet it works great.

[rodwinder]

Thanks for the input guys!