Swordfish Rod

[NoSlack]

I took a crack at wrapping a bent butt Swordfish rod. Thanks to UPS busting a rod I ordered last month, I had the most expensive components on hand. With a little drilling and sanding I was able to pull the broken blank out of the ALPS #4 bent but and used that as my base to start the build with.

For the blank I went with a Calstar 6455XH in black. The blank is a 5' 6" extra fast tapper stand up tuna rod that I cut down to 5', to give me a finished rod length of 6' 8".

The guilds are Fuji LXR super duty boat guilds in black, with Aluminum Oxide rings. I'm still waiting for the Winthrop roller tip to arrive.

Wrapped everything in black, with silver/black twist thread for the trim bands and under wrap.

I have a Calstar Boomer JR blank on order for the next build. It's another extra fast tapper stand up tuna class blank with a #12 tip and a little thicker butt section. I plan on cutting that one down to 52" for an finished rod length of 6'.

[NoSlack]

After finishing up the BOOMER JR rod, I gave them a little load test to see how they would handle 5, 10, 15 and 20 pounds of pull.

5 pounds of lead in the bucket


10 pounds



15 pounds



20 pounds on the 6455XH



20 pounds on the BOOMER JR

[Old Blue]

The rods look nice Mike. Now that you've had a chance to use them on several fish, how do you like the way they work?

What changes do you think you would make if any?

I've never used a bent butt rod before. They don't look like they are too practical to take out of the rod holder to work on a fish - would you go with the bent butt design again?

[NoSlack]

I'm really happy with the rods and don't think I would change a thing. My buddy took my component list and build a rod on the 6455xh blank. The only difference between the rods is the butts. He ordered an Alps #4 trolling bent butt. I salvaged my butts off some rods I bought and didn't like. They are Alps #4 standup butts. The standup butts are shorter and would let you get into a harness if you chose to. The standup butts are very hard to find on the internet. Aftco makes a #4 short curved that I've seen on a few rod component sites. Part #UBSC4

The only time we pick the rod up is to move it to the starboard mid rod holder. That's our preferred spot for the angler when the work starts.