I love watching the show Wicked Tuna. On the last show they showed the Hard Merchandise sunk. He lost everything rods reels. What type of rods do they use. I thought about us at the forum building a couple rods for him. I have some Pac Bay blanks here and was wondering if anyone else knows about the equipment they use?

Lone Wolf Rods
"Keep your powder dry and your lines wet"
God Bless

Forrest,
Figure that the average weight of those Tuna is 350 lbs.
They also commonly use very large line with roller guides.
Since they are commercial fisherman, they have no interest in playing the fish. The longer the fish fight, the lower the quality of the fish and the poorer the market price.

So, they want a sturdy stick that will never break, and be able to handle the rigors of day in and day out salt water fishing.

Yes, I agree, that we also really like the Hard Merchandise and crew.

But, even though his boat sunk, with all of the rods and reels, there really will be no damage to either the rods or the reels in the shallow harbor waters.

After the boat is raised, the rods and reels will be washed and dried. The reels will be disassembled, cleaned, relubricated and the rods and reels put back together.
A day of underwater immersion in salt water really hurts nothing.

Pretty much the same is true for the rest of the things on the boat.

Raise the boat, wash everything down - including the engine.
Drain all of the fluids, Pull the spark plugs. put flushing oil in the engine and spin over the engine to blow out the oil. Put the plugs back in, fill the engine with fluids and you will be good to go.

The big issue with the boat will be the electronics, and the wiring. The salt water will play havoc with all of the wiring and connections. Quite likely that all of the electronics will have to be replaced.

Of course, the big question of the day, is whether the boat will be raised and repaired or simply replaced with a newer rig. This boat is one of the oldest in the fleet and has seen a huge amount of use.
Sometimes it is just better to move on.


Of course, that is why all of these boats carry insurance. Not good, but his insurance should cover about 90% of his losses.

However, if someone were willing to step up to the plate and give him another Tuna rod, I am sure that he would be very thankful.

Be safe

like Roger said

Plus I would think he has Insurance so it is all paid for ??

Bill - willierods.com

[www.gloucestertimes.com]

boat is afloat and probably already fishing

There are customs on most of the boats. Pretty cool a westcoast builder is on deck of the Hard Merchandise though. ;)

Side note but I laugh everytime they show a fish bite on a certain combo then during the fight cut to video of other combos. Like wait, wasnt that a silver reel with green line that hooked up, now its a gold reel with red line and back to the silver one. LOL. I'm sure many of you have noticed this too.

I would imagine a good number of the blanks are calstar and seeker. If I was tuna fishing for money they would be on my very short list.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

The rods are most likely rated for 80-130# test line. I have seen Aftco Big Foot guides on a number of the rods, Tycoon Fin-Nor on others, and some newer make rollers on still others. The reels mainly seem to be Penn Internationals, and the curved butts appear to be mainly Aftco. A number of the fore-grips appear to be leather wrapped, and one or two looked like they might be hypalon. Adam is right, I have seen them hook a fish on one set-up and in the next scene they are playing the fish on an entirely different set up. I would also be that the producers of the show will pick up whatever isn't covered by insurance. They may be using unlimited class rod blanks, but I have a couple of them and I couldn't bend them for the life of me. I even braced one and both of my daughters (about 150#'s total) didn't bend it one inch!!

also they get paid for being on the show along with their insurance so i doubt they are paying any money out of pocket at all even if they were to get a newer boat...but still good to think about them

Forrest,
Several years ago, I was fishing with a friend on his boat. We came in after a day of fishing and tied the boat up to the dock. Normally, I would take my gear up to the cabin, but since we were going out early in the morning. I left my gear on the boat.
Imagine my surprise when I went down the next morning and found the boat sunk at the dock.

Basically the same thing had happened to my friends boat as was the case with the Hard Merchandise. A fitting on the livewell pump had broken, allowing the boat to flood and sink. We had a4 whee drive truck, so took the truck down the lawn at the resort with the trailer on it, backed the trailer up to the boat. As we began to winch, we were also pumping out water - courtesy of a big sump pump from the resort.
After the boat was back on the trailer, we pulled it up to the parking lot, where we dried out things. I pulled out the broken livewell pump, my friend had gone into town to purchase a new pump. We put in the pump and went fishing that afternoon and evening.

It turned out that the boat sunk level with the gunnels on the boat, but the power head of the motor remained above water.
Also, none of the electronic instruments got wet.

So, always be prepared for the unexpected.

By the way, do you know the pain that is caused by having to go through your tackle box, taking everything out, drying everything, taking the reels apart, cleaning and lubing them, and washing and drying all of the rods.

We were just happy, as the Captain of Hard Merchandise was, that it didn't happen when fishing. I imagine that the fitting broke on the way back to the resort. As long as speed is kept up, the livewell inlet is out of the water. But as soon as the boat slows, the water begins to pour into the boat through the bottom hole in the hull.

It was just a thought. I know that if I was in that situation it would be nice to have a little help if any. He had a lot of bad luck this past year.

Lone Wolf Rods
"Keep your powder dry and your lines wet"
God Bless

It was an excellent thought Forrest!!If everyone had such thoughts the world would be a much better place!!

X10 on your thoughtfulness Forrest.

The HM is fishing and he has plenty of rods. My rods were in Seasons 1 and 2 and will be in season 3 also. In talking to a couple of the guys up there, there is definitely no shortage of rod builders that are throwing their rods at them to fish. They are throwing rods at all of the boats in the hopes that they will get some business from it, yet they never talk about the rods or the builders. One guy up there threw 4 rods to every boat at an expense of about 5-7K, and when he wanted them talked about on the show, they said "Well, we (National Geographic) don't really care about what arrangement you have with the boats, if you want them on the show, you need to pay us our licensing fee, which is in excess of $75,000.

As for the blanks, the fishery has definitely changed over the last 5 years. It used to be simply 130's, but now has evolved into exotic blanks with characteristics that are more suited to the demands of the fishery and the conditions that they experience. Very few serious tunamen use the 130's anymore, but a couple still do.

Kevin Knox
ANGLER'S ENVY CUSTOM RODS
QUEEN ANNE, MD 21657
#_#_#_#_#
www.anglersenvy.com

I have a Fisher #13072 up in my rafters . Would that fit the build?

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

Dennis, will try to find my old Ffisher catalog, but if I am not mistaken that is a 6 foot rod blank rated for 130# test line. Back then it would have been a blank made for chair fishing after the hook up. Possibly with a wood butt and a chrome/brass HD reel seat made by Varmac. Made for tuna and Marlin fishing. Could be wrong, but that is my bet.

Randy, Your right about those specs. Thats what the label says. There is also a price tag on the blank of $284.
Was that the going price when that blank was available?

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

Dennis, I found the 1988 catalog, and it lists the following:

Boat (IGFA)
line wt. 130lb
length 6'
Model # X13072
Tip size 64ths 26
butt size 64ths 71
blank wt. 24 ozs
sugg retail $ 474.39

Hope this helps
Forgot to say it is listed as a stand up rod.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2013 08:49PM by Randolph Ruwe.

Dennis, delete the stand up part, my eyes skipped to a different page. sorry for that.

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rod built by Raptor Rods

Hard Merchandise is using, Seeker Wicked Tuna Blanks, built by Sato Rods. Wicked Tuna Blanks are available from Merrick Tackle if you are interested.