I felt the need to post this, both as information to inform builders and to really commend Bill Stevens and CastAway on follow up with an issue I recently experienced.

I was building on a CastAway MB845 with the CastAway reel seat. After getting the rod built and doing some testing, I kept feeling a ticking in the reel (palming the reel) when reeling in. After examination, I found the reel foot of my Pflueger Trion (low profile) was slipping sideways about 1mm in the back of the reel seat. Not a lot, but enough to notice.

I dropped Bill Stevens an email that evening. I had a reply within 20 minutes that he would figure out and test himself what was going on. He also brought one of the CastAway engineers into the discussion looking for resolution. I had an answer from Bill and CastAway directly in less than 1 business day (the next morning). Now that is some unique customer service. I led a customer service training organization for the past 6 years and I rarely saw organizations provide that type of response and attention to an issue.

It's not CastAway's fault or Pflueger's really. But I have to find a work around or use a different brand reel (Bill offered some ideas - Thanks again!). From the information I learned here's where it stands:

- Fuji reel seats don't have this slip, but the rear reel seat cutout is not as deep as CastAway's. Sometimes reels can pop out on Fuji's at hookset. You're not going to have this happen on a CastAway due to the depth of the cutout. The depth of the CastAway contributes to the reel foot being able to slip (on a Pflueger).

- Casting and spinning reels have no standard like fly reels for reel foot dimensions. This makes a uniform fit impossible. Pflueger has a narrower reel foot (than shimano, etc), resulting in side slip in the CastAway seat.

- Reel foots on the same model can even vary due to where/what factory they were manufactured in.

- The engineer acknowledged the issue, but also due to non uniform sizing, it really is impossible to accomodate all reels with one reel seat design.

While my issue still is going to occur for now, I am a very satisfied customer. I don't mind changing up my reels and putting my Shimano on this rod and moving the Pflueger to another. Great attention to the issue and I never felt left out or wondering. Very fast response. This just goes to show that even when the outcome isn't the most favorable, you can still walk away feeling good about it with upfront, honest answers and the appropriate attention to the issue.

I welcome Bill to make any additions in the event I got something confused or inaccurate (been known to do that!). Thanks again Bill!

Sorry that your Pflueger isn't working on that particular rod. These "mis-fits" sometimes crop up and as you were told, it's almost impossible to build a reel seat that will fit all the different models.

I suppose you could use a different seat, if you really that reel on the blank. Not much of a solution, but one you could consider anyway.

Just for the record, fly reels don't have foot standards (at least none that most will adhere to) - they're more helter skelter than casting and spinning rods by a wide, wide margin.


.........

Can't you wrap some thread (or even electrical tape) on the foot of the reel to take up the extra space?

This is what I have to do to use a Penn 525mag on the fugi plate type seats.

I learned the hard way that you have to test the reel in the reel seat BEFORE you epoxy everything together. One of the rods I built a year or two ago was going to be paired with a Penn 550 ssg, until, after I finished the rod, I learned that the 550's reel feet were too big for the size 18 reel seat I used. This stuff happens.

I measured the reel feet on three different reels in the current Pflueger line and none of them are identical in the SAME product line.

The provided links listed below are to standards that do EXIST for fly reel seats. I was quite surprised when Mr Howarth, with REC, provided me with the telephone number of a governmental agency in Washington, DC to call for contact with a trade association which is involved in fishing equipment and standards.

Conformance to existing standards is another thing -

Maybe this time pressure can be brought on the reel manufacturers that will benefit fishermen worldwide and simplify the task of rodbuilders -

That sure would be a switch!

After getting involved in the problem noted by Alex it sure would be appropriate to adopt similar standards for casting and spinning reel feet to insure proper fit.

It would also help out if importers decided to follow these guidelines by including the standards in their specification when setting up foreign factories to build specialty items.

[affta.com]

[affta.com]

Tom, I guess this is kinda like "spine" and it will never go away - Where is that Trade Goup you mention?

Bill Stevens



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2008 02:34PM by Bill Stevens.

I used a size 20 spinning seat on a casting rod for bass fishing. I knew the reel wasn't going to fit tight in the seat, but was able to wedge it with a couple wraps on tape of the reel foot. Its been this way since I put it in over a year ago with no problems

Alex,

Hi,

If that was my personal problem here is what I would do. If I understand the problem correctly and that the depth under the hood is loo long and if it is the stationary hood I would push some epoxy way back under the hood and reduce the length under the hood.

Capt Neil Faulkner

Capt Neil, you saved my typing fingers, I have done exactly as you stated and it's worked VERY well everytime. Over time the reel fot even creates it's own personal "valley" if you will, in the epoxy and the seat NEVER moves period. Great fix!

DR

Alex, are you saying that Bill, Lance and Swampland gave you "VALUE" for your money? Shame on you boyz, oh I mean good for you guys. Jeez, just when I thought that issue was put to bed.

Another good reason why it's important to support "our' sponsors and that value means more more than low cost, low quality.

Mike

I think my point got missed here. Mike touched on it. I was really just trying to say Bill, Swampland, AND CastAway really went out of their way to address an issue that is pretty common on reel seats.

When is the last time you gave your vendor a question about a "Company X" seat and heard back from the engineer at "Company X" in an email explaining their take on it? Just above what I expect in customer service these days. You hear "Those guys are great" of so many of our sponsors, but I wanted to give a great concrete example of why.

Also ended up with good thoughts on fitting a reel to a reel seat! So thanks!

Neil... it's not under the hood. It's the rear portion of the reel seat that is deeper to eliminate the foot from coming out. What it boils down to is the Pflueger foot is too narrow so it shifts. I'm sure a little epoxy or shims would fix it. I'd prefer to just throw that Trion on another rod and put a shimano or a Pflueger that doesn't slide to eliminate the need for shims/tape/etc. Just more stuff to fail when I got a money fish on.