One thing that bugs me on my fishing rods is having to put my hand on reel seat threads and lock nuts. Ok, ok, I know: "So, don't put your hand there." But that seems the most convient place to grab the rod.

So, I have some rods in catalogs where the foregrip covers the downlocking mechanism. And then I see that Fuji and another company makes some items for building these quick lock reel seats or foregrips. And others have used em for fly rod butt grips that I saw in the archives from searching this topic.

Do these Quick Lock items work well in practice? I would think that they would have issues with the various outside diameters of the blanks. They dont seem to be offered in a wide variety of sizes and I build musky rods and that means fairly large blanks.

Any comments on how well they work when you fish them (ie do they work loose and you are constantly tightening them) or how they are when you build the rod - fit the blanks well or have issues?

Thanks!

I think the largest they come in is a 17 mm ID model. They don't come loose, they fit and perform just like the other Fuji reelseats. I've replaced a lot of knock off reelseat hoods, but not a Fuji.

They work great. You can mix and match hoods, leave hoods off and just butt them against the standard hood (fly seat fighting butts) or a host of other combinations. They're tough and hold a reel just as well as the standard cushioned hood.

Your only real challenge will be in determining how and what you want to finish the body with. There are some ready made pieces but depending on what you're planning on using them for you may decide to bore and turn your own cork or EVA grip to cover the Quick-Lock body. There was a fairly in-depth tutorial on this in a past issue of RodMaker. It's not hard to do. I suspect you can figure something out once you get the pieces there in your hands.

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The only problem I have had is with the quick loock forgrio WITHOUT the stainless locking nut. I am not familiar with teh model number, sorry. I have 2 of these foregrips, one I built the othe rwas on an (uh-oh) Ugly Stick from 10 years ago (lol, I swear I don't use ugly sticks anymore!).

What happens with that seat is you twist it to lock the reel feet, and teh entire graphite foregrip piece shapes to teh reel foot - giving it a nice tight fit. However, both had a very thin piece of cork on there, and after a lot of hours fishing with them, the cork began to tear. It didn't fall apart, or anything, but there it does have a small "crack" when the reel is in the grip.

I believe that the locking grip WITH the locking nut, I believe teh KPS (please correct me if I'm wrong) will not have this problem since the reel foot is held by the nut, not by the body of the grip.

James-

In my opinion, what you are describing is by far the most comfortable configuration you can build (short of an NPS seat mounted downlocking with a hood but no foregrip maybe). If you use a skeleton seat with one of these hoods it also gives you a broad range of options for inserts.

I agree with everything Tom said above except for one thing...I'm not fond of ANY of the premade pieces for use with the Quik Lock foregrips. I highly recommend you make your own. And don't be afraid to cut them down so they fit the way you like them. They are very long from the factory.

I have been able to get these Quik Lock foregrips in sizes 16, 17 and 18 from Custom Tackle Supply. I believe all these sizes are currently imported into the US and we probably have Mr. Kirkman to thank for that. The demand for these things was ZERO before he started putting photos and articles of what he was tinkering with in RodMaker.

Please email me directly if you have questions. I hope this helps. Good luck!

Bill

If it feels better - turn the seat around depending where you grab the rod.

I like having a good sized (length) foregrip - what I hate is grabbing on to the threads above the reel seat as I tend to do.

Next rod, I will try either the quick locks from Custom Tackle or mount my reel, cut it flush, and then turn the foregrip down so that the locking nut can slide over the foregrip enough to get the reel on and off. I am a little leary of going without a foregrip on a musky rod (casting rod - lots and lots of casting.)

Thanks for the good ideas.