The New Offshore Heavyweight

My first offshore trip as a teenager started with a morning of schoolie bluefin tuna. These 30-40# fish built up our confidence, despite our lack of experience as new anglers we had no problems manhandling these fish right up to the boat and into our coolers. Similar to most other times in life, this confidence was quickly humbled. Late afternoon we hooked what started off as another small bluefin. I quickly shed the fighting harness and enjoyed reeling in the fish freestyle. As the fish neared the boat it became very clear this was not what I had expected. About 50 feet from the boat, the fish gained strength, emptying my old 50 wide and pinning me to the rail. The next 20 minutes exposed the weak link in our system, the six and a half foot fiberglass broomstick of a rod tilted the battle of leverage in the fish’s favor. At the end of this battle two things had occurred, my tuna addiction had been triggered, and I started my rod building journey to flip the odds in my favor the next time I went to battle with a large class of bluefin.

Long gone are the years of fiberglass broomsticks. In the past 10 years of rod building graphite and carbon fiber blanks have become more refined. What might have been used for a fluke rod back then is now capable of lifting 20-30# of deadweight. These lightweight carbon blanks have resulted in the ultimate offshore weapon, a “lightweight heavy weight”. No more fighting chair or full harness required.

This photo of freestyle tuna battle is a 450gram jigging blank made by black hole, it’s trimmed to 5’2” with custom length cork handles engineered for the best leverage. Paired up with an Avet 30w and spiral guides we can handle up to 72” bluefin without a full harness and without burning up your back. What started over 10 years ago being put in your place by a real fish, has resulted in the new offshore heavyweight!