Hi All,

I'm rebuilding, up dating a 10' tubular fiber glass surf rod. I want to put some lead weight in butt as a counter weight , I'd like to hear from others out there who has done the same.
I also have some tube fiberglass 8' and 9' blanks, want to try the same, weight in the butt. Pros ---- Cons on this subject would be help full, Thanx

Dave von Doehren
PRRODS......If man built it , man can fix it.and if man built it man can break it !

I'm amazed that someone would want to permanently add weight to a rod, whether in the butt or the tip? Would it help to add weight to a shovel to get better balance?

David,
I know that there are a lot of people that like to add weight to the butt of a rod so that it balances better. But with a 10" glass rod you will have to add a lot of weight to get it to balance. I assume that you want it to balance at the reel seat. This added weight is going to add a lot of inertia to overcome when you are casting so I think that it is a mistake. Instead of adding weight to the butt when rebuilding it I would try to minimize the weight that I added to the tip section of the blank and let it go at that. You will not be able to get the rod to balance at the reel seat this way but I think that you will end up with a better performing rod when you are finished.

I can see that Philip never thinks " outside the box " , I wonder if he has ever used a shovel as much as I have ???, or went Surf Fishing as much as I have ???

Emory, I'm not trying to balance the rod's static weight, at the reel, but get some use from the Kinetic energy that is going on. If the rod has alittle more weight behind the seat, it will help the rotating forces at your wrist, Just think about 11' out from your hand position you are putting 3 oz. to 5 oz on the line, do the math!!

Dave von Doehren
PRRODS......If man built it , man can fix it.and if man built it man can break it !

Phil,

Stick around here and you'll probably find a lot of things that amaze you so cut people a little slack! A LOT of people add weight to the butt of a rod for balance which, although it may be a minimal amount heavier, may greatly reduce fatigue, etc over a days fishing. IMO, weight distribution is far more important than total weight when you are talking about minimal amounts

Mike

BTW if I were casting with a shovel, I might add weight for balance and leverage

David,
I do not think that there is much math necessary. The distance that you cast is primarily a function of the velocity that you can generate at the tip of the rod. I will conceed that there is more POTENTIAL energy with more weight. But the KINETIC energy is not just a function of the weight, actually the mass, but also a function of the velocity. In fact the formula is E= 1/2mv^2 (mass times velocity SQUARED). Can you generate as high a velocity with that rod tip if you have added extra weight to the butt? I do not think that it takes much math to prove that you can not.