Top-Notch Rod and Reel Key to Success

Commercial blue n tuna shermen rely on high-end precision gear

BY PAUL MOLYNEAUX

On commercial shing vessels, winches and booms are important for bringing products aboard. On the most basic level, a reel is a winch, and a rod is a boom, and that’s all blue n tuna shermen use when landing sh that can weigh more than half a ton.

With valuable sh on the line, literally, the equipment needs to be the best, and the choice of many champions these days are the Reel Easy, Trident 80130 rod, and the Alutec- nos, Albacore 130 2-speed reel.

Je Fontes and his father started building Reel Easy rods around 15 years ago, and as Fontes explains, the rods they make are the latest stage in a constant evolution.

“Starting in the ‘30s, tuna was mostly a sport sh, people were chasing giants, but in the 1980s there was a group called the Moonies, they had a whole eet catching tuna to sell, and they would buy tuna from other commercial shermen.”

According to Fontes, handlining was popular into the 1980s, and that’s how he started, but when the action really started in the 1990s, many commercial shermen used the Penn International 130 reel and the Penn 130 rod.

“It was 5-foot, 6-inches long, very sti . e short rods gave you more leverage, but they had to be sti . ese sh hit like a freight train, they hit at 60-miles an hour, they feel the hook, and then one of two things happen, they either break something, or you’re hooked and o to the races.”

A close-up the Alutecnos 50, little cousin of the 130, shows some of the features found in both, including a push-button 2-speed on the crank, a lever to set the drag on the side of the reel, and a button to allow full free spooling. Alutecnos photo.

Fontes notes that at this point, the reels began to change.

“Penn came out with the 130st, a two-speed reel—a high speed for when the sh is coming at you, and a low speed for when you need to lift the sh,” he says. “ en Shimano came out with the Tiagra 130, which was smoother, it had a better drag system, and the two-speed was push button.” New reels also came from makers such as Okuma, and an American Company, Accurate. Fontes notes, however, that an Italian-made reel, the Alutecnos, is nding favor with many New England tuna shermen.

As the reels changed the rods too changed too, and that’s where Reel Easy created its niche.

“ e sh got smarter,” says Fontes. “People found they were getting more bites on lighter gear and started to switch to 80-pound rods. ese are longer, and they have a lot more ex.” e problem, as Fontes describes it, is that the 80-pound rods have not been the best for getting sh aboard.

“ ey were seeing a lot of boatside losses after ghting a sh for hours.

We were just coming into our own at the time, and we started talking to guys like Dave Carrera of tuna. com, and asking, what do you guys need? What can we do to get our rods on your boats?” e answer turned out to be simple. Fishermen want the best of both. “So, my dad came up with the idea of a rod with the soft tip action of an 80 and the strong backbone and power of a 130,” says Fontes. “ e rods start with blanks that we buy from a number of manufacturers. We went to a couple of them and told them what we needed. We told them these rods are going to be on TV on ‘Wicked Tuna’, and they absolutely cannot break. ey have to be able to deadlift 100 pounds. at’s the drag pressure, and no reel out there can create 100 pounds of drag.”

According to Fontes, one of the companies came through with a prototype, and when they tested it, it withstood 194 pounds without breaking.

“We started building it, people started using it, and then word got out.

If you want a rod with a soft tip but able to bring an 800-pound sh alongside the boat, the Trident 80-130 is it,” says Fontes.

He and his father make the rods with several butts, from straight to bent to adjustable. “We got paired up with a company called Winthrop Tool in Connecticut, and they make guides a little bigger, so you can pass a swivel through them,” he says. “We use six of those plus the tip. ey have exibility built in, they come with roller or bearings, and they come in di erent colors.”

If the Trident 80-130 is the prime rod for the pros, the Alutecnos, Alabacore 130 2-speed is the reel. According to Mason Featherston, national sales manager for Alutecnos, most of the Wicked Tuna shermen have Alutecnos reels.

“ ey like the quality of the machining, the quality of the gearing, and the simplicity of the design,” says Featherston. “ e precision tolerances give you consistent breaking power when you have the big sh on.”.

Manufactured in Monselice, a small city in northern Italy, the Albacore 130 2s, has a push button two speed on the crank handle, a lever drag adjuster, and other features.

“We use the best materials we can get,” Featherston says. “ e bearings are made of German stainless steel. e gears are made of 3-16 stainless steel, which is hard and durable. e aluminum is 60-82 airplane-grade aluminum, and we’re very proud of our anodizing. You don’t see pitting or discoloring on our reels.”

Along with everything else these days, the price of the Alutecnos reel has gone up; it now costs almost $2,000. But for commercial blue n tuna shermen, it’s worth paying for top-end equipment if it means more sh at the end of the day, or season.

Photos

Wicked Tuna shermen. Alutecnos photo.