When I look at the various rear spinning grips, I notice 10", 12", 14", and 15" lengths. Is there a standard guideline somewhere to determine which length to use based on the blank length?

My Gloomis 8'6" GL2 has a measley 9 3/4" (10 1/2" thru to the butt cap) and a 2" foregrip. I had to get a variable butt weight attachment to balance it. If it had a longer rear grip, it wouild have need less or maybe no weight at all to balance it. If I build with either the Forecast 1025 - 8'6", 1085 - 9', or the 1264 - 10'6" blank, is there a hint of what length rear grip each of these would work best on?

A 50 mm spool diameter appears to be the norm, so I would think ordering guides for the Concept System would be 25mm, 16mm, 12mm, 10mm, and 8mm the rest of the way on a spinning rod heavy enough for Salmon. Thanks for any help.

When your holding the reel in your hand the grip should not extend much past your elbow. Past a 14 inch rear grip and you start snagging you clothing all the time. If you use the Concept and static guide placement systems in the library above to size your guides it will help the balance a bunch.

The only way to get the correct guide sizes for the New Guide Concept, is to set it up per the article on the online library page. You cannot pre-select these guides and hope for them to be correct. 90% of the rods I see on the various sporting goods store racks that advertise having the New Guide Concept, do not have the New Guide Concept - they only have New Concept Guides. The line travels a roller coaster path, not a straight line.

The rear grip should be sized based on the needs of you or your customer. There is not standard size - we're talking about a custom rod and you'll want to taylor the grip length to what you intend to do with the rod.

Grab the blank as if it was a finished rod. Hold it and mimic the casting motion, retrieve motion, etc. After a few minutes of doing this notice where your reel seat hand is. The seat goes there, the rear grip length should be whatever it takes to reach from the butt of the blank to the seat location. Buy the length you need or longer, and trim to fit.

.............

Other considerations for the length of you rear grip may include how you like to hold the rod or place your hands during the cast. Or if you ever rest the end of your butt cap flat against, say your hip: if that distance is too far or short. Possibly some consideration of final reel seat position relative to the blank ferrule or overall rod balance (as Tim noted). This is a "what works for you."

Spencer's point - the length of your forearm below the reel seat (to the back of your upper arm) - would be the chief determinant for most set-ups. That is gonna be at least 12 inches for most preferences and 14 - 15 inches for guys over 6 feet tall. Grab an existing rod and see how long you like it, when in a casting mode or retrieving mode or a fish-on mode. Keep your ruler handy. One size will fit most of those conditions. Good Luck, Tim. -Cliff Hall+++

P.S. - Sorry for the redundancy. TK's Reply was not up yet when I decided to answer. I didn't check for other Replies first, in the meanwhile that it takes me to (very slowly) type my response. - And I never do, once I've decided to go for it. - -CMH+++



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/2005 01:35PM by Cliff Hall.

I built a six foot light action spinning rod this summer and find now that the rear grip is too long. It's only seven inches, with a two inch foregrip, but it's constantly catching on my fishing vest. This rear grip causes me to swing the rod out away from my body when casting, and when retrieving/working the lure I have to hold the butt section between the front panels of my vest. I'm afraid to see how it casts out of kayak.

So I will be installing a shorter rear grip this winter. Gear up with what you will likely wear while fishing and try rods with varying rear grip lengths.

Jeff Shafer

One of the points or actually THE point that I think you are asking is "balance".. unless I am miss-reading your question. And balance is acheived with the reel in place, (or moving it along the blank to find a balance point)also, having the reel while placement of the guides is of utmost importance in my building of a rod. (old school I guess) but the cone of the line that comes off the reel really determines where and what size guide I use for the 1st. choker, butt guide, which ever you wish to call it. It also tells me the right size reel seat to use.. I have had way too many rods come back with the complaint that they're reels fits loose in the reel seat !! (and they picked the seat out) so I now demand that I have the reel before I build a custom rod.(or they are responsible for the problem, should it arrise) Which brings to mind a question of my own.... why don't the manufacturers of reel seats and the manufacturers of reels get together and have some sort of uniform sizing ????? I have seen very large spinning reels with a foot smaller that a ultralite reel foot, I just checked out a large arbor fly reel and it's foot is smaller than that of a regular reel??? The other thing is the length of the leg supporting the foot of the reel, all different lengths????????
In any case, I have plugged in my 2 cents in..

Good day..

With the longer rods to keep from having to add weight to the rod, to balance it, you can install a Skamania type grip assembly( kind of looks like a spey rod grip assembly) and use the reel and other rod components as the offsetting balance weight. Very comfortable to fish, but something you have to get used to.