Blank RPK78

Butt measure: 19mm (Butt joint).
Tip measure : 4.5mm
Weight : 270g
Recommended Tip Top guide : 16-4.5
Verified lure power (Rodhouse) : 60-200g
Length of butt : 81.5cm
Max Drag : 30kg à 45°
PE : 8-12
Folded length : 1,61m

Disclaimer: All blanks may have slight deviations in measurement. Please let us know your butt/PM distance so that we can adjust the size of your guides.

THE MANUFACTURER'S OPINION ON THE PRODUCT

Our RPK blank was designed by Al Jackson and Khiem Nguyen at North Fork Composites, according to Rodhouse’s specifications. It’s the product of 3 crazy years of hard team work.

The blank’s purpose is to target the biggest fish lurking in the oceans, and especially giant bluefin tunas. If you want to cast a lure at those fish, a very powerful blank is not enough. You also need to cast far and make your poppers work correctly, you need good striking power and preferably something that wont break your back during the fight. It’s a real design challenge.

After several prototypes tests, Alex Maslov (North Fork’s CEO) came to visit us in Nantes’ Expo in 2020 with a first operational version. It was built using a nickel charged resin system, know for its failure prevention properties. Associated with carbon fibers, it gives them bending abilities close to what you’d expect from fiberglass. This prototype got the enthusiastic approval of the whole team, and in the following month several copies were sent for test, everywhere from Tahiti to the coats of Britanny.

Meanwhile, NFC moved to a new technology in blank fibers. Abandonning the dogma of carbon fibers’ parallelism, they used a new material, featuring randomly oriented fibers, yielding blanks with a power to weight ratio out of this world. We crash tested a 67g slow jig blank from the SLJ series at 16kg at 45°, something far beyond anything we had ever seen in the blank world.

It was immediately obvious for us that the RPK blanks had to be build using this fantastic technology. It meant a deep change in the design, but it was well worth the wait. The final RPK design features a nickel-charged carbon fiber in the grip section, while the tip part is build with « Air Carbon ». The result is an amazing 272g blank, taking without flinching 30kg at 45° on our test machine.

Now, of course, new and out of the box projects attract gossip. Some will probably ask why one would ever need that much power when they already struggle at 10kg of drag. But this blank is not design for merely big fish. It’s meant for huge fish. Fish requiring very high drags, which you need to fight using a harness and the techniques usually seen in trolling. And you’ll never win this kind of fight without a flawless system, swiwels, line, reel and fisherman.

It’s a F1 situation, and we did our part: this blank delivers at the highest, most uncompromising standards.

OUR OPINION ON THIS PRODUCT

RPK blanks are designed to catch the biggest sea monsters. They mainly target big bluefin tuna, giant yellowfin tuna, big GT and any other predator that fits the popper's, on lines of over 80lb. These blanks are light that allow anglers to popper without tiring and fish with peace of mind. You won't be afraid to put a lot of drag on and run into giants weighing over 200lb. The RPK78 is the longest of the three RPK versions. It allows you to cast at very long distances and to have a very good range of animation for poppers. With its 19mm butt diameter, there is no need to reamer with the recommended EVA grips. Building a tuna rod handle has never been easier.

Frequently asked questions