I'm using a pac bay uplocking fly reel seat with aluminum hardware. I glued the reel seat to the blank last night. The hood is already glued inside the inlet in the grip.

I just slid the grip down to the reel seat to check the fit. There's an uneven gap between the insert and the hood. I'm not talking about where the reel foot is supposed to go. It doesn't seem perfectly centered.

Should I try to fill that gap with epoxy or leave it open? Is there a way that I can get it centered? I was thinking about using pieces of toothpick as a shim.

Anybody out there?

The hood should have been glued to the seat, not to the inside of the grip.

Does the hood make good contact with the seat barrel at most points?


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No wonder nobody answered my question. It was stupid. I've only done cork and ring seats before, so excuse my ignorance.

The hood almost touches the insert on one side and has a 2mm gap at the widest point.

Now I'm thinking of filling the space with a layer of fiberglass tape and epoxy. I would leave a gap where the reel foot goes, of course.

I would do something like that, trying to be as neat as possible, of course. Typically you'd assemble the seat first and then slide the grip down over the seat and forward hood. If the seat is mounted concentrically to the blank, and the inlet is concentric inside the grip, the fit should be very close. Something is awry here.

But, if this is what you have to work with, I'd try shimming with something just to make the fit a little closer. If you'll keep the shim up just a tad, you may be able to then fill the last bit of opening with some cork paste and blend it so that it will look like part of the cork grip.

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Sacrifice the cork and do it over the right way.

If you try to shim it and force it to work you will only end up redoing it later on. Believe me I know from experience. The fact that it doesn't fit right will eat away at you every time you look at the rod. Just cut the hood out and try again.

After doing some investigation, I figured out that the insert was for some other brand of reel seat hardware. In addition to not fitting the hood correctly, it was also too short. Buyer beware on @#$%&! I got the correct insert and removed the old seat. Now, it looks like I can slide the grip down and get it to fit perfectly. I really didn't want to cut up the grip after all the work and exotic burl that went into it.