Topwater Caranx Ignobilis: Giant Trevally (GT) > Tackle & Techniques

Anyone with experience with T-Russell and Seed GT blanks?

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Andrew Colefax:
I'm looking to build a few GT rods and wondering if anyone has any experience with the above mentioned brands of blanks.

I can source T-Russell Grit Tale GT blanks through my japanese rod building supplier but have never heard of them. On paper they seem the goods (eg the GT-K 7.7XH kevlar reinforced PE8 250gr cast weight mod-fast action 210gr blank weight)

i've been told that the Seed blanks are too fast in action and consequently place undue strain on the angler. I am 196cm (6'5") around a 100kg so would like to think i can exert my fair of leverage when needed!

Realistically I am looking at putting together 3 rods to start with (PE5, PE8 and PE10+) for use mainly on the reefs off Cairns. if anyone has knowledge of the above ranges of blanks recommendations would be greatly appreciated alternatively i can post the specs of the various blanks here for further comment
cheers
Andrew

67er:
A mate of mine built 7.7 T russell Kevlar before. Accordingly, you need the heaviest of poppers to load the blank. He complained that this was too stiff for his 6 feet and 108kg body and sold it away. Apparently this was the second blank he got, the first blank broke while he tried to locate the spine. All this happened many years ago and things might have changed since. Just thought you will find this info helpful. Let us know whatever you got.

Personally I like 7 1/2 feet too.

Brandon Khoo:
Andrew, I have some familiarity wth SEED but I've only ever heard of the T Russells - never seen one. Can I say that a PE8 rod that can cast 250g sounds a bit odd to me though. A rod that can cast 250g would more likely be a PE10 rod.

The reality is that the top blanks are incredibly hard to come by unless you are very well connected. Honestly, I don't rate SEED highly and I certainly do not regard them among the premium producers. Their popping rods are heavy for what they are and appear a little stone age in comparison to a Carpenter. If any of you own a SEED, my apologies but it is my honest opinion.

I do not find the SEED rods particularly fast in action and certainly they would not be as fast as some of the rods in the Carpenter SP range. GT fishing places undue strain on the angler any way you look at it! I think the heaviest SEED blank is only good for up to PE8 and about 10-12kgs of drag.

If you're prepared to go with a one piece blank, some of the Calstars appear to be suitable. I can't give you much of an opinion on these as I don't use them myself but a number of our members here do.

Personally, popping rods are the one rod where you won't go wrong buying off the rack.

Andrew Colefax:
Hi Brandon,
thanks for the response. As a custom rod builder (mainly lighter rods like barra and bass stuff) I would like to roll up a few popping sticks and depending on the outcome may look to integrate it with my upcoming business venture. I can source all the high end components through my japanese supplier and have confidence in my workmanship to produce a good end product.

I asked about Seed as the blanks are easy to obtain here thanks to a local distributor (who also happens to be the Hastings and Calstar distributor as well) I exclusively use Hastings blanks for my rods and visited the distributor a few weeks ago, they are working on a range of Hastings offset 2-piece popping blanks I saw a few samples they are looking good. I feel the technology, materials and design philosophy used in Hastings blanks make them ideally suited to popping blanks, so long as they do their research

I asked about T-Russell as I cannot read my japanese catalogue from my supplier but the specs are printed in english...i may bite the bullet and get a few in to see what they are about
cheers
Andrew

Brandon Khoo:
Hastings don't have a spinning blank (as far as I am aware) that is even close to the rating of heavy GT rod.

I do understand the desire to build your own rods but you will to balance this off against the blanks you have access to. The top Japanese companies simply do not make their super premium blanks available.

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