Calstar Grafighter 30-60lb Spinning Rod 8ft Black

This is a 8 foot 30-60 lb Calstar Grafighter spinning rod built on a GF 800 h blank. The ultimate in big game spinning rods.

The idea for this rod was to try to find a way to make these rods more affordable.  The price of the blank is the price .. the price of the reel seat, the foam and the guides is the price .. no way to change these prices  ....

Labor is the only thing that is left .. 

I figured i spend about 1/3 of my time building rods doing the fancy wrap and the trim around the guides ... if i could get away from those two things i could cut the cost of the rods labor at least 1/3 ... 

So, that's what i did ...  no wraps and no trim  ... it's the most angler friendly rod with the best components i could find at a very reasonable price  ..

I wish everyone could pick this thing up feel the grips .. fire a big popper to a 80 lb yft .. Then you'd know what i know .. It's one sweet rod .. 

This is the rod ::::::  It is a gf 800 h 30-60lb blank .. I used a newer rubber mushroom style cap/gimbal .. it has a pretty good mushroom style cap on it, so you can put it in your belly with out the sharp parts of and aluminum gimbal digging in.. and it still has slots cut for your fighting belt. 

I used a newer ribbed EVA foam for the rear grip from Mooseskin .. it has a lot of the same qualities as the shark skin rear grips we use .. but it is softer ..  it's ribbed .. so easy to grip .. it's light and has a very good feel. 

The reel seat is the Fuji heavy duty saltwater boat rod reel seat .. more then strong enough for this rod. We find the graphite reel seats to be a little more user friendly then the aluminum .. it wont get slick when it's wet and it doesn't get cold or hot like the aluminum reel seats will .....

 Over the past several years,  the fishing reel manufactures have made awesome improvements in the spinning reels that are now being manufactured, they now have the capacity to hold 500 to 1000 yards of braided line and they have the ability to produce amazing amounts of drag .. What we have not seen are many spinning rods built to use with these reels  .... until now .. and this reel seat is perfect for the big reels.

The fore grip is a triangular shaped grip we have manufactured for us. It is molded to have a great transition from the reel seat and too the blank, I got tired of trying to custom shape the fore grips. So i had one molded to my specifications. 

On my last tuna trip, the one improvement to the spinning rods, that everyone who caught tuna was in total agreement with,  was putting the triangular grips on the spinning rods .... When you are 45 minutes into fighting a 100 lb YFT on this spinning rod, and he rips off a couple hundred yards of line ... please remember to drop me a thank you note for the triangular fore grip when you get back ......   

The 8 guides plus the tip are custom manufactured for us .. they are built with a 316 stainless steel frame with 2X black chrome plating .. the rings are Zirconium plated with titanium .. The Titanium plating is what gives the rings there gold color. These guides are hard, smooth and dissipate heat well .. manufactured for braided line. I start this rod and all the rods 50 lbs and up .. that are using these guides .. with a 50mm first guide ... that is considerably over sized ... I believe the bigger guide lets the line neck down as it come off the reels with the bigger spools a little easier  .. so it will help you add a little distance to your cast. 

Note ::::: these guides may be upgraded to the Fuji SiC guides for the difference in my cost .. about $35 .. please write for exact pricing .. The Fuji SiC guides are  gun smoke in color they are the very best guide Fuji manufactures .....

Each guide is under wrapped with black thread to insure no guide to blank contact, then each guide is attached with 4 layers of C sized thread for maximum strength.

I had a custom rod builder/critic come out of a closet this week to tell me it was "way over kill" using 4 over wraps of thread ..  that 2 wraps was more then enough ... that i was wasting time and money using 4 wraps ..

Just for you to know, these rods are built way over the top .. "cause we use 4 over wraps of thread to secure the guides to the blank on these big spinners."   

I'm building this same spartan style of spinning and casting rod in most of the Calstar Grafighter sizes. From the 10-25 lb to the 40-100 lb ...  I'll try to keep at least one of each in stock for faster delivery time. 

If I'm out of a particular rod we stock most of these rod blanks, the gimbals, reel seats, and guides the vast majority of the time  .. if not in stock most rods can be crafted and shipped in around 10 days ... 

 This rod is crafted right here in the USA by BaR-BaR Tackle,  additional rods are available and special orders are always welcome. If you are the winning bidder of this rod we will place your name one it at no additional charge.