Well, you learn something every day. And I learned yesterday that I am not beyond making stupid rookie mistakes.

I'm building a medium inshore spinning boat rod, and when I put together the components I wanted, I picked a Fuji Deluxe Spinning reel seat. I picked Size 18 because it seemed like it would go well with my rod.

Well, the components came, and I eagerly reamed the cork and assembled and glued up the butt section. The next day, when everything was dry, it looked great. But when I went to snap in my Penn 500ssg - the reel I planned to use with it -- l learned (and felt incredibly stupid in the process) that the reel feet are too thick to fit completely into the reel seat. I can get about a third of an inch of the feet tips into it, but I can't slide the reel all the way into the reel seat.

I realize now, of course, that I should have tested the fit before I epoxied everything together. But in building a dozen saltwater rods, I had never experienced this before; the reel always fit into the reel seat with room to spare. Needless to say, I won't make this mistake again, but now I'm wondering what my options are (removing the reel seat is not something I'm willing to do).

I could use it as is. If so, will the reel be mated to the rod firmly enough if there's only a third or perhaps a half an inch of each foot in the reel seat? This rod will be used mostly for smaller inshore mid-Atlantic fish (tailor blues, weakfish, schoolie stripers), but there is a chance it could meet something bigger, like a slammer blue or a 30-lb. striper. Will the reel seat break if I use it as it's presently configured?

Another, perhaps better, option, is to bring the finished rod to my local tackle shop and find a suitable spinning reel that will suit my purposes, but has narrow enough feet that it will fit completely in the reel seet housing. But as I just shelled out some dough for a new reel, I'd prefer not to do this, at least right away.

Any help/opinions will be appreciated. Thanks.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2006 10:37AM by Chris Garrity.

another option.
Take a dremel tool and grind some off the sides of the feet. Just like you would do with a guide. then recoat with a rust inhibiting agent.

IMO Two choices!

One, go buy a new reel, never can have enough.

Two, redue the reel seat, cut the old one of put on a new one that will fit your reel. This is the less expensive way.

Grinding anything except guide feet is, IMO, a bad way to tackel the problem, one main reason is that most people that grind things grind to hard and to fast i.e. over grinding. Extra heat build up looses the temper in the metal and you may end up with a loose fit.

or...take the dremel and cut the reel seat off the rod-being careful of course!. The area will be covered over again with a new seat anyway. This will take some time and careful work but it'll be "right" once your done.

DR

Must be a beasty reel not to fit in a size 18 seat.

My vote would be to cut the reel seat and blank off just behind the fore grip and rebuild on an extension.

This is way easier than trying to cut off the old seat and rear grip.

Good luck!

Terry

I'd cut straight through the middle of the seat and the blank and remove the seat, arbor and all bonding agent redsidue. Then, using Rod Bond, I'd affix a close fitting metal tube as a sleeve to reconnect the blank.. and cover that with a brick foam arbor to fit the new seat in place at the same time.

You can glue up the new seat, arbor and metal sleeve after checking for fit. Then simply bond the two parts of the blank into the metal sleeve. The result will be very strong and any added weight will be little and, since it is located precisely where you hold the rod, have little to no effect on performance. The goal is to fit the parts with just enough room for a low glue line. This yields the strongest bonding.

Mount the reel you have now on the existing seat and tighten down hard.
Loosen and repeat several times. This will sometimes expand the seat
hoods and the reel will seat much better. Weather the hoods expand or
not then string the rod up and putt it and the reel to a test.

I would bet that the reel will NOT pull out of the seat and the seat will NOT
break and all will be fine.

Should you decide to switch-out the seat Dave G. gave you the method
I would use to do that.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2006 02:40AM by Raymond_Adams.

Thanks, guys. I monkeyed around with it a bit last night, and while the feet are not seated completely in the reel seat, it seems stable enough to fish with. I don't think that the reel would slip or anything would break under the load of a big fish, partly because the nature of spinning reels is such that your hand is going to be helping in holding the reel tight to the rod.

After experimenting with a conventional reel with narrow feet last night, I found that to be completely seated, the reel feet would be about a half inch into the reel seat. I don't think that the fact that the feet are only about halfway there is going to make it unworkable. I would prefer, of course, that the reel seated completely, but I showed it to my wife, who fishes quite a bit, and she didn't even notice anything strange about it -- it seemed normal to her.

Ray, I will try your tightening and loosening trick. It might help. But I think that the smartest thing to do is to get another reel. If I bring the rod to a tackle shop, I'll be able to find a reel that will work for me and will fit comfortably into the reel seat in about 30 seconds. And in all probability, I'll be building another spinning rod in the not-too-distant future, and for that one I can use the reel I have now, and make sure that I get a reel seat that can accommodate it. And in the meantime, it's always good to have a backup. Thanks again.