I'm shopping for components for a Lamiglas honey colored fiberglass 8' # 5, 3-pc blank.
I wanted to put a REC CRN reelseat on it, but the but OD of the blank is .510 inch and the reel seat can only be bored out to .400 inch. The wood insert od is .720 and its mortised.

Should I cut of the bottom part of the blank and glue in a dovel/piece of graphite/fiberglass in the right size

What do you suggest that I do ?

Thanks
Peter

You can but I might be afraid of something put together like that. But if you want to use that seat insert then you have no other real choice. With a #5 blank and reasonable sized tipped or leader I doubt you can break the joint though.

I built a 8', 5 wt Lamiglas (the 6 piece blank). I used a Pac bay down locking seat (with a square mortise). I made the insert but you could buy one and drill it out if you don't want to fool with the mortise. This seat will easily drill to accept the blank. It looks and works awful nice on that rod.

I would not cut the blank and use the C and R seat. And I think that little seat will look out of place on a rod with such a large butt. Plus you will want a fairly large diameter reel on that rod and a downlocking screw lock seat will work better. Save the REC seat for a 3 or 4 wt.

Thanks for your advice - I've pretty much decided to to with the 7'6" #4 instead due to the problems with the reel seat and because of the intended use of the rod.
I just thought I could use the same technique which has been described for making a blank longer.

The OD of the CRN reel seat is .720 inch - is that small ?

Peter

In my opinion the 7.5', 4 wt is a much nicer blank than the 8', 5 wt. in that series. Difference in night and day. No, .720 is not small. And it ought to work fine on that rod.

Thanks Bill,
I got REC to bore the insert to .450 which is the OD of the 7'6" blank.

Can you describe the two blanks/rods ?

Peter

Well, the 8' 5 wt is a pretty big rod. It is very slow. I can't say it is heavy, but it has a heavy, big rod, big water, big fish feel.

The 7'6" 4 wt feels lighter in the casting stroke and feels like something good to use on a small stream. If you notice, Lamiglas never offered a completed rod on the 8', 5 wt blank. I don't think they saw a market or a use for it either. If you like to fish an old Montague bamboo then you might like the 8', 5 wt. Without naming any names, somebody at Lamiglas told me that they did not think the 8'5w was a good design but that they are very proud of the 7.5', 4 wt. Of course I had already bought and built the 5 wt before I tried the other rod and talked to people. And there are a few people out there who really like the 8' 5 wt, so I guess it is a matter of use and perception. I think the old Fen glass 8' 5 wts were a little better than the Lamiglas version.

I have a 7', 3 wt factory second blank I picked up a few years ago and it really feels like it will make a good little soft rod.

I would just as soon use my 8'9" graphite 5 wt as the lamiglas 5 wt, on a little stream.

One advantage of going to a rod building show is that you can see a huge range of products before you buy. I cast a lot of the Lamiglas little stream rods at Charollote last year. All nicer than the one I had already built, in my opinion.