I'm gearing up to build a 9wt fly rod and plan to turn the grip myself. I would like to turn a custom fighting butt for the rod. I'm still a newbie at this and have not built a heavy rod with a fighting butt before. Does anyone have any advice on how to best secure the fighting butt to the reel seat? It does not have to be removeable, I was thinking a permanant fighting butt would suffice. Can this be glued directly to the blank? Thanks for the help.

Scott,

Just glue one on the butt of the reel seat. Its my preffered way. I have one rod I built with a removable butt (8wt), but I never end up removing it... You can never lose it if its epoxied right on there.

To turn one, I used a mini mandrel (I used a 3" piece of 3/8" steel bar). Glue up your rings and end cap (rubber cork or EVA) and epoxy together over the mandrel (waxed). Try to get it pretty close to perpendicular to the rings. I used a grizzley lathe, but you could also use a hand drill. Shape to how you want it to be. Bore to blank butt size. Really pretty easy.

Barret