I started building my 15WT Big Game Fly Rod on the weekend. I slipped a Pac Bay A9 chrome reel seat on and it was too small. When I dropped it down, it bottomed out and there was about inch remaining on the blank. Can you suggest a bigger reel seat for a large butt 15Wt that will be used in the Salt?

Thanks.

For such a heavy rod you may have to abandon traditional looks and go with a graphite pipe seat (spinning) and arbors.

You may be able to sand that inch and get the seat all the way down ?? It's not that much Then maybe a little reaming on the seat.

Any of the graphite nylon seats that are large enough in ID to fit will work great. And they'll hold a reel better than any other type seat.

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Ross,
Pac Bay makes the AH series of aluminum saltwater reels seats with IDs of 0.82 inches, 0.95 inches, and 1.02 inches. The A9 reel seat, which you have already tried, has an ID of 0.75 inches. While these seats are made for spinning or casting reels, their extra weight might not be too much for that 15wt. They don't come with a cap so you will have to build a fighting butt which you will want anyway. You might also try American Tackle (Sponsor on the right) to see what their seats are like. Good luck.

Mike Blomme

II would like something a little fancier than a graphite seat if possible. This is nice Lamiglass rod. I will look into the Pac Bay spinnig seats. I have alway used prefab handles and the plug style fighting butts. How tough would it be to make a fighting butt?

I glue and shape several cork rings depending on how large you want it.
After it is done I find a piece of scrap glass blank that fits into the butt nicely. Clean glue into fighting but, let dry. Then glue into the butt of the blank.

You might like the Pac Bay CL9. I.D. is o.75 inches.

The butt of my blank is 0.77 inches....pretty large for a fly rod.