I was wondering what the smallest o.d. casting exposed reel seat is. I'm trying to get pieces together for my 4yo sons casting rod. Obviously his hands are small and I want the cork to be small enough for him.
I doubt he would notice the difference between the acs (which is what I wish I could use) and a smaller one but surely it would help.

Thanks guys.

The smallest seats are pretty much standard size 16, with the only variation being the bore to accept the rod blank in the exposed area. The rear of almost all these seats, when flush to the rear grip, is about 1" diameter, so making the cork any smaller would leave a step in the diameter difference. You could probably take a TCS 16, and with a steady hand and eye, cut the recess off behind the trigger, and then shave some plastic off the pocket hood to make it more concentric. A bit of work there though.

Thanks Ted. I was hoping something was available under 1". I guess their isn't a huge market for child size casting seat. :)

You may find that that's actually a good size for him. If you read the article on rod grip ergonomics in the Volume 10 #3 RodMaker, you might recall that most seats and grips we use on fishing rods are actually far too small for good comfort and applied force. Your son may do just fine with a 1 inch OD seat. It will be less tiring than a smaller grip would be, even with his small hands.


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I do have that back issue and thought it was a great, very interesting article. I'm sure you're right that he can handle a 1" grip fine and he won't really out grow it.

My hope was to make a scaled down adult sized rod. What I'll do is let him cast with one of mine in the back yard for a while and see how he does. I'm very close to buying him his own baitcaster because of the poor market of reels suitable for children.

What will help him somewhat, is to build him a shorter rod than an adult version.

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I think I'm going to use a 5'6" mudhole custom builder blank. I might end up with the 6' to just in case the 5'6" is to light on power.