[sandybottoms]

Anybody know where I could find light composite rod for making spreader bars for tuna?

Just made up some daisy chains and would like to build my own spreader bars after watching Fred Archer on YouTube. Fred was able to tie his spreader bar in a knot with no damage or tangles while trolling. Archer on Mulitiple Lures Part III: New vs. Old - YouTube

Another option would be making the bars out of stainless steel spring wire a little $$$. Has anybody made them out of stainless steel rod? with no tangles while trolling.

Cheers Don.

I made some out of SS a few years ago, I was pretty precise with my layout and I can tell you the SS bar dug in and my archer setup went right then left all of a sudden and took out my spread on both sides of it. I tweaked it a bit with the same results, gave up. Try the composite as I don’t think they would dig in as bed and possibly you can get them to run straight without taking out everything in its path. I ran mine down the middle and unless you reset your spread every time and put it out first, I see a lot of tweaking to get them to run straight.

 

[sandybottoms]

Archer style bars run differently than other bars the bar itself is up out of the water and all the rigs trail behind it they run well off of either a long rod that sits up high or an out rigger but the bar itself does not ride in the water.

Which would be pretty good, unfortunately my replica copycat fred archer bars didn’t like to ride on top, they liked to dig in and cause destruction. I guess I could try them with a 20ft surf rod sitting in the rocket launchers. I think the composite bars would still work better then the SS ones. Doubtful I will revisit them, lots of other things to use instead.