I am not an expert at this topic, but I feel that there are some items I've observed that may be of help to other builders. I think a major consideration has been left out of the discussions I've observed over the last few months regarding this topic in several forums, so I wish to raise it. Some anglers need every aspect of their hand and arm facilities for their everyday lives as their jobs or lives depend on it. for example, I'm primarily a violinist. Tendonitis or other such injury in any capacity is the kiss of death to my career or future career. So, in rods, myself and my other violinist/angler buddies are always looking for a rod with the least amount of hand fatigue.

Back in the 80s with the increase in popularity of bass tournaments when I was growing up, I knew it would just be a matter of time before related injuries began to appear and they did. Although not a much discussed topic, for some anglers it is important. For surgeons and musicians, it's our livelihoods at stake.

I began experimenting with inserting weights in the back of rods and although the rod was more balanced, the action became sluggish to the point that it negated any positive effects. I tried all sorts of back weighting and found a system that provides minimal weight while providing balance. I tried the back weighting from BPS and Cabela's. inserting weights into the blank, wrapping weights around the blank, etc. I finally settled on just a fuji mushroom butt cap for my back weighting considering it is so heavy. Although the fatigue is much less than an unbalanced rod, the action is still a touch sluggish. However, something was needed as regular unbalanced rods caused a significant enough amount of fatigue that it was dangerous to my career. When I was experimenting, it was during my four years with the Malaysian Philharmonic, so the spanish mackerel, small giant trevallys, etc., were my test subjects in speed casting scenarios. I got lucky to get introduced to a gentleman from Ukraine who used to make his own rods from scratch (blank and all) from primitive materials such as metal wires, etc. He was detailing how they always wanted the rod balanced so that the bottom was heavy enough to create a pendulum effect during the cast to make the effort less strenuous considering the weight of the finished product! i tried that idea for awhile and found that some customers don't like the idea of a rear grip that is that long in order to facilitate balancing with that minimal amount of weight. Bascially, any weight added caused a change in teh responsiveness of the rod making the action less than its original ability.

However, myself and otehrs still needed an answer to the puzzle of a rod that is balanced enough to reduce arm fatigue siginificantly without sacrificing to much action and lightness. I've found that lightness was a factor but without balance, significant arm fatigue was still there. Even minimalist designs featuring almost nothing holding the guides and almost nothing for the grips caused fatigue by the natural balance of many rod blanks. I've gone the x-tra fast blanks finding they were more suited to the job. However, I've yet to find any definitive answers and perhaps there are none with today's technology..yet. Myself and others have experimented with blanks from loomis, Croix, GUSA, Seeker, Calstar, Lamiglass, Figo, Shikari, Penn as well as several other korean and chinese manufacturers. I may have a system, but it has very much room to improvement.

If there are any rod crafters out there who have significant amounts of experience with the topic here, I am all ears as I am open to any suggestions regarding this that may help myself and others.

Chia-Chen,
In my younger days I used to take four to five day fishing trips where I would wade fish and cast all day. I would take three rods on these trips. I used very small and light casting reels and balanced rods of different lengths. I always came home with tendonitis. My best fishing buddy that I have fished with for over 20 years is a surgeon. And yes, he came home with tendonitis. So I don't know the answer to your question other than to say that when you use a limb in a motion that it is not used to, it is going to get sore.
Cheers, Ellis

Now I have a question for you Chia. Why misspell "the." Does Chia mean Billy in English? Just kidding.