JerseyBros

I’ll be finishing it myself, will have a 50 two speed with 80lb topshot.
Will be fished in the northeast canyons and inshore trolling. Max size fish would be mid 100# class bluefin or stray bigeye.
Trolled in the shotgun wwb position most likely a bally, won’t be pulling anything heavy.
Probably will do a spiral wrap.

What is the best blank to look at for building a standup tuna rod with meeting req. above?

handn

Your typical standup rod blank will be glass. I have Seekers, a Penn and Ocean Master. All have similar feels.
I purchased a Seeker Black Steel graphite composite standup for baiting giant tuna and trolling off the corners. It is lighter, has a better feel and stands up to the fight of a gorilla. If I were made of money, I would replace all of my rods with this one.
I pair it with an old International 30s because it is smaller and lighter, a better match would be one of the lightweight super reels like an Avet H/x, Tallica 20 or an accurate. No reason to go with a 50 wide or bigger unless you are pairing it with a chair rod and going after a grander.

Regulator29

Have had great performance from Calstar blanks on all my 50s (80# top shot) & 80s (130 top shot). None are spiral wrap though. Only spiral wrap rods in my arsenal are jigging rods Blackhole 450 Cape Cod special.

swellhunter

Calstar 40-100 mini boomer.

Can def build up a custom spiral wrap jigging blank but best to have experience with guide placement and spacing.

My dd sword rod is on a 450g spiral blank built up by Crafty One. I swap it out for tuna duty all the time. Nice rig.

JerseyBros

Tbh this is the route I was leaning since I won’t be trolling bars or anything heavy. I think the parabolic action is easier on me fighting the fish vs the typical fast action long trolling rod. I built two last year on jigging blanks for my 30’s which I like, wasn’t sure if they’d work when I upsized the reel? One of those was spiral, and I have built a few other spiral rods previously, I was thinking it might help counter the weight of the heavier reel.

What reel do you have on your rod?

Locke N Load

Light trolling with a heavy reel for medium sized fish equals trolling rod in my opinion. A thin, parabolic jigging rod won't support a 50 well. I have a Calstar grafighter stand up rod with rollers that will be getting a 30W for trolling and live/dead bait. I also have a heavy jigging rod spiral wrapped with an Avet HX Raptor that I troll and bait with sometimes in addition to jigging. It works well. Both setups will handle the same fish.

jg125

The best blank is the one you feel good with loaded up there are many options I been building rods for more than 30yrs for my self and friends I do it as a hobby and more now that I am retired most important is guide placement while the rod is loaded up. for grip length and rear butt length is also important. you don't have to spend a lot of money on a big name blank there are many intermediate blanks out there that fish just as good as the expensive ones before you order on line I would go to a local builder and feel some of the blanks he has built and see what feels good for you to be comfortable under load the rod has to fit you makes all the difference in the world when you have a big one on.

marlinlane

seeker black steel or calstar grafighter

JerseyBros

Is there a slower action fiberglass trolling blank that would better support the heavy reel and still allow for more of the pressure to be put on the fish?
I will definitely look into the calstar and the seeker.

Next step is visiting a couple shops to feel out some finished rods and truly get a better idea for what I am going to want.

I’m not a big guy, and felt like the broom stick trolling rods last summer really beat me up just as much as the fish, didn’t lose any fish or anything, just want to make it a little easier on myself.

captpepin

Calstar 50-130 Graphfighter if you think that's too heavy go one size lighter

Locke N Load

Any fishing shows coming up locally? I love the show in RI every March. Lots of opportunities to bend rods.

teezer77

If you guys are in NJ go to Jigging world look for the Giant blanks. They are great stand up tuna blanks. I have 8 of them.

MattyMMA02

There is a show scheduled March 16th. New England Small Business fishing Show- Taunton Holiday Inn

mareagear

Check out United Composite out of Cali.
Making some sick sticks...

luna sea II

I like the Calstar 655xh. It has a slower action than the boomer series or the four number blanks which makes it more forgiving of angler error and less likely to pull hooks. I have a set from Harold at Poseidon Rods and use them with Torsa 40s, Talica 25s. Tiagra 30s, and Tiagra 50ws depending on time of year with 60 to 130lb line. I don't believe a more versatile blank exists.

CNBarron

I'll be the oddball and say a United Composites CX 60XXH.

Dockside69

I prefer parabolic bend rods to stiffer graphite, and fish stand up on long-range tuna trips.
Calstar e glass or Seeker are my preferred blanks. 655 or 660XXH 50-120. I'd def go with an XX for 100# fish.

If you can pull on some rods, bring your ree,l set to the max drag you would use, and tie the weight of drag you'd use and lift the weight. That gives you the true feel of the rod and you can see how much bend is left for head shakes to keep from bottoming out and ripping hooks. I've seen a few rods break on their first use because they weren't tested before going fishing.

sunkcost

jg125

I built a couple of UC 55XXH United Composites great rods they fish anything in the ocean for a great price.

Dockside69

Baby Boomer A/R is 30-80
Boomer Jr (most popular) is 50-100
Baja Boomer is a handful at 80-130 and fishes to 40# of drag with no problem. It still has a parabolic bend and works well at high loads
I also have a Seeker 6455XXXH which is about the same as the Baja boomer, but not parabolic, and hurts more when on a large fish.
Seeker makes a 6463XXXH rail rod that bends pretty well from 20-40# drag, but is a rail rod at 6'3". I've fished it stand up and it works well.