Looking for information from anyone who has experience or first hand knowledge on fly rodding tarpon (primarily sight casting to larger fish) and sailfish (brought up with teasers) in Florida or anywhere else.

What would you recommend for fly rod Wt and Length? If you have suggestions on a specific blank that's fine but not critical.
Would to keep to a single handed rod or go to a spey type rod?

This is a "project of love" & a giveaway to a good friend.

Definitely NOT Spey nor switch nor any 2 handed rod.
7'6" - 8.0" is recommended.
The CTS Revo Salt is protocol in a 16 wt.
I may still have pictures of rod for tuna I built for customer. let me know if you want pix.
I used two legged Fuji Titanium SiC K guides all the way with Ti and SiC tip top.
He wanted fighting butt longer to be accepted into a socket in a fighting belt. He specified 3 pieces for travel.
Herb
Distrib CTS Rod Blanks

Thanks Herb - much appreciated. I don't think I would have gone up to a 16 but certainly understand keeping the rod short from a leverage point of view

I use a 12wt 9ft for large Tarpon. it still has enough flex to allow for decent casting, heavier becomes a problem unless the caster is extremely proficient. I also agree....no two handed!

That would certainly work well for lobbing the fly to the teased fish, but needs to be a whole different setup for site casting of any distance to something like a tarpon

I would be going for a 12wt 9ft this is what is commonly used here in Australia for Sailfish and Marlin


while I am only just now building my first rod I have fished a bit. Blank wise I would look at the Sage Salt series or if you can find one an old Xi3 blank. these have heaps of backbone to muscle these fish. Personally I would steer clear of the Sage One and the TFO BVK as I have found these dont have the lifting power required.

If you dont like sage or its too expensive for the intended project pop down to a local shop and put a bend in a Sage salt to at least give you an idea of the power you want in the rod.

just built a 9', 12 weight, TFO TiCrX for a gulf coast charter captain. He specified a 12 weight and TFO. His thinking was a 12 weight is about all most folks can handle for a day's fly casting, and the TFO blank was more affordable. 14 weight and above is a serious challenge to cast and not something you want to do all day repetitively.

Check out Thomas & Thomas Bluewater blanks. I believe all are 8'6" and 12-16 wts. Good luck.

Yeah - Ron is on the right track and I have to change my recommendation. For some reason when I read the original message I "saw" bigger fish.
But you don't need anything heavier than a 11-12 wt for tarpon.
And depending on size of sailfish probably the same weight.
The CTS Revo Salt in an 11 wt would be perfect in a 8'9"-9'0" blank.
Herb

The guys talking about casting are doing so in relation to the Tarpon. Yes, you'll be casting alot. A more conventional rod is warranted in that situation. I agree that a 9', 12wt would probably fit the bill.

As to the shorter rod recommendation...I think that was probably directed toward the billfish side of the equation. You will not be casting all day for these fish...likely, you'll be casting rather infrequently.

I have zero experience with either of the fish species mentioned...except conventional trolling for billfish. So I am not the expert you need for real recommendations.

I fish Batson 10wt rods in Alaska. I have an RX-7 and an RX-6 and I love them both. If they will do a silver salmon in the swift water of the Kenai they will do just fin on the ocean. Our whole group fishes batson that I built for them. I made up a few of the newer ones this winter and cant wait to try them out this summer

Kevin Gross
Many men will spend their whole life wondering if they made a difference. Marines dont have that problem - Ronald Regan

I built many of these when I was in the business. I used back bouncing blanks in 4-power (about a 15 to 16 weight) and in 8 foot length. They worked quite well.

In those days you didn't have the selection of fly blanks you did now so there may be something taylor made that would be better. But again, I would not go beyond 8 feet in length. If you're bringing them up to teasers then you won't have to cast very far.

.............

Thank you all - I will look for a 9' 12wt 3 or 4 piece (since he has told me he wants to travel with this rod). Also many thanks for steering me away from the two-handers. Now to start calling the suppliers! Looking on line I'm not seeing (m)any 9' 12 wt 3 or 4 piece blanks... the search continues



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/2017 07:01AM by Ken Preston.

IMHO you need two outfits.

For both you are in the 10-12 weight range.

For the tarpon I might lean towards the 11 weight as some areas require a lot of casting. Besides, there are few 11 weights and most of them are purpose built for such fish. A good one should fish 10-12 weight lines depending on wind conditions.

Sailfish is quite different. Casts typically amount to little more than a roll cast (in Pacific waters). While a fly rod blank is a viable choice so could a back bounce or live bait blank. I once tried a hot shot blank with a fly reel and found myself thinking it would work (if I needed some distance in the cast). People often fish a heavier blank (14-16 weight) than they need as there is little penalty. Sailfish are very fast but tire quickly so battles are quite short compared to the ones with a tarpon. I wouldn't feel the need for as pricey a blank for the sailfish.

Not that you asked but for both fish I would want a very high quality reel. Tibor comes to mind and the old Abel's have a proven track record.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

If you're teasing the fish up behind the boat, you won't be doing a tremendous amount of casting, at least not like you would on a day's blind casting on a flat. Large fish are best fought from shorter rods and since fish teased up and close to the boat don't require longer casts, a shorter rod really has no disadvantages.

Tarpon can easily be caught on 12-weight outfits, but in the event that you have water where they, or a large sailfish, can sound, a little heavier rod won't hurt.

Russel's advice is for two rods is probably best, if your client will go for it. If not, then you'll have to compromise somewhere. Which fish is going to be targeting most often?

...........

In case anyone missed it, it sounds as though Ken is giving this rod away to a friend. I doubt he wants two rods (although that would be ideal).

The sailfish in Florida aren't typically the largest...so a 12wt. would most likely pass muster. I personally would just stick with a 9', 12wt and enjoy the smile my friend had on his face when handing it over.

MHX makes a 4-piece 12wt. I'm sure there are others.

I'm going to go with the 9' 12wt. The rod is a give-away & will mostly be used for casting to tarpon so that's the route I'll go. If I had more time to get this done I'd probably break down and make a rod splitting bamboo & fabricating it for him. I'd just be 'flying blind" on a taper - not a lot of info out there on heavier wt / short bamboo fly rods (who woulda thought!).

Hello Ken.

I have some old split cane, but they are LARGE the smallest Tip is a 13, the largest 18, butts from .906 too .672 and some are coming un-glued so I don't know if you would be interested.
If you want to look at them I can drop by and show them to you?

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

It's convenient being "jus cross da river" isn't it? LoL

yyeeesss!

Bob,

New Bern, NC.