After completing my first ever casting rod, I now realize how top heavy the reel is when on top of the rod. And with the reel's handle, brake, and adjustment knobs onto one side, the rod is always "leaning" to that side while fishing. This could tire out your wrist rather quickly.

Has anyone ever rigged up some kind of counterbalance to help keep the reel dead on top of the rod or do you just roll the rod until it balances and fish with it that way? I measured it as about 2 ozs heavy to one side with my digital scale and was thinking of something coming out of a threaded insert from the butt end and off to one side that might keep the rod more upright. It would be removable for ease of storage.

And with Mark's help from @#$%&, I built it as a spiral wrap and it casts great with no birdsnests.

Tim,
I think that adding weight to a rod is rarely a good idea. Plus the correction for the off center weight is not quite as simple as just adding weight to the opposite side of the rod. The off center weight results in torque in the direction of the weight. The torque is the weight times the moment arm, the moment arm being the distance that the weight is from the center axis. In other words, the amount of torque is a function of not only the weight but also the distance that the weight is from center. If you are going to add weight to offset the torque you will also have to consider how far off of the center axis the weight is added. The closer to the center axis the more weight that will be required.
Also the more weight that is added the more work that will be required to use the rod. Work is force times distance. So as weight is added the amount of force required goes up so the work increases.
And naturally any added weight is also going to reduce the sensitivity of the rod.
If the torque really bothers you I would think in terms of a spiral wrap rather than added weight. This will not really totally eliminate the torque but it will help reduce it.

What reel are you using? I'm assuming a wide SW reel?

I would suggest, after reading Emory's post, that you use a low profile reel (oval shaped) rather than a round reel. And the lightest one you can find.

Thanks Emory, I understand exactly what you're saying about more weight closer to the axis, less weight further away. Because on all of the info I previously read, I put my transition guides on the same side as the reel's handle ( LH retrieve) so that it would "lay in the boat" easier. I tried reversing the reel to see how my lh guides were with the reel's handle on the rh side and it did seem to help some. But I don't think I'm going to strip the guides off and put them on the other side anytime soon. I went out and put a good load on it with the line through the guides and the off balance became a moot point. So I think for now I'll just roll it slightly to the right and move my hand up close like a wedge to help stabilize it.

Bill - Jay, it is a Daiwa Luna 253 LH and was one of the few casting reels I looked at that I thought would be suitable for Steelhead and especially Salmon. And since I've got $240+ invested in this reel, I don't think I'll let it sit on the shelf and go buy another lighter weight reel with a lesser drag and line capacity.

You mention fatigue and the prospect of adding weight at the same time. That seems off.

Further from the centerline you are, the more the weight is leveraged. So you could counter balance off to the other side of the reel, or lighten the existing handle. You could skeletonize reel internals which are likely on that side, albeit at the expense of weakening if you aren't careful, and since they are closer to the center you'd be unlikely to counter the handle.

Take the handle off and check the balance. If that solves it, find a lighter one, make a lighter one, or skeletonize/lighten the existing one..

Frankly, none of my reels are that ballanced, including pricier stuff like Internationals. The fact that the handle sticks out and that the bearing and mechanics are also on that same side naturally weights that side. Might be possible to counter it a little with machining, but to really do it would require some advanced materials usage. Double drag reels can be a little better balanced side to side, just from the extra stuff on the other side, but they usually have larger handles added.

I have no qualms with any of my off balance equipment. Spiral and spinning is the obvious fix. A few ounces I would not notice, but if I did, I'd either be seriously contemplating Gold's Gym or switch to UL and teeny fish..

Man you are correct about the $240.00 + reel,she would not go to the shelf.
Dave has a good idea about taking off the handle and see what difference it made.
It would a simple process to skeltonize the handle. And it would look good too.

Tim,
Assuming your right handed isn't the handle naturally pointing almost down anyway as that is the only position that ergonomically releases the wrist to move during a cast? Thumb up works when fly casting as you want the wrist movement restricted, I roll my wrist into a near horizontal position while baitcasting.

I suggest you look at the Zip carbon handles. I think these are much lighter or should be?? The only problem is that these will tear up a $100 bill! How do you like the 253? I tried to find one for a swimbait reel but they are somewhat hard to get.