I have seen a few rods where the rods have been built such that there is essentially no rod length behind the reel seat. Most of these rods were built for basserrs who palmed their reels all of the time, never took their hands off the reel and didn't want anything behind the reel to get in their way.

I am just curious if anyone has built such a rod, and if so - what has been the customers long term reaction?

Especially on a bass casting rod of considerable power, it would seem that the rod would be very very very tip heavy with no rod length or butt grip behind the reel seat to balance out the rest of the rod and its associated guides, etc.

Appreciate any thought or comments on either building, seeing or using such a rod.

Thanks for your help.

Roger

p.s.
One of the reasons that I ask, was that a year ago, I build a very nice St. Croix Tournament bass casting rod for myself. I had ended up with a 6 inch back grip on this rod.
After using it on about 4 outings, I came to the conclusion that although I loved the rod, and its performance, I hated the lack of an offsetting back grip on the rod. So, I took off the butt tip, added 4 inches to the butt of the rod, turned down the cork, and glued the new butt cap back on the rod.

Now the rod is exactly what I want with excellent balance, and the right fit and feel for a long day of fishing.

--------
As I posted in the earlier comment, I would appreciate any other comments on rods, that - after having been built have really not worked as expected and needed a change to make them a good rod.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Roger

Roger I took in a couple of repairs for a Tournament Bass Fisherman the other day and he was asking me about building him a rod with a short rear grip. I was totally in the dark on this type of rod. I asked him if he was thinking about a pistol grip handle. He said no, a straight grip handle. We are to discuss it more when he picks up the repairs. I am still in the dark on what he is talking about.
I hope you get some responses from someone in the know. Is this a new trend or what ? I am like you, I cant see the functional benefits of a rod like this, too much out of balance.

There is one advantage to a short grip rod that I am aware of and that is in a twitching rod or (jerk bait rod) as some times called.
When using this type of rod the hand is used to twitch or jerk the bait over and over again. Depending on how the angler holds his rod, (for me reel palmed).
The effect is that the rods handle repeatedly smacks the arm right behind the wrist, which over a days fishing becomes annoying to down right painful.
To eliminate this there are a few options,
Change how you twitch.
Eliminate or greatly shorten the handle.
Install the rear grim so that it is at an offset to the blank which moves the grip further away from the arm. This is my personal preference on eliminating the problem as I don’t feel comfortable with out the grip.

As far as balance with this type of retrieve the rod is used with the tip in a downward position, so having a light tip is not as important as having a little rod overall.

Most of my rods (casting & spinning) are med/hvy and have relatively short rear grips (5-7”). For me, they offer more agility (for lack of a better word). Since I prefer rods of 5’8” to 5’10” for most of my (Bass) fishing, I don’t need as much leverage and a longer rear grip is less of a factor for balancing.

I have a few rods with shorter grips in the 6-8" range... Like steve mentioned I use them for either topwater/jerbait rods, or my close quarters spinnerbait rod. I have a pistol grip also....nice rod. I have lately had a few guys request heavy action rods with 9" grips.....whatever is comfortable for them.

Scott Sheets
www.smsrods.com

Steve has sort of explained a "Twitch" handle to a tee of a oldie that I have from the 60's I beleive....behind the reel seat ,which is of pot metal , is a adjustable 7" cork grip that is adjustable to either the right or the left at about 20 to 30 degrees. It has a clamp down type nut where the fore grip should be so that you insert the blank into the nut collar and tighten down. A customer dropped a couple rods off for repairs and seen this
beastie and fell in love with the way it operates and said he would use it for "Twitching" and being as he is ambidexrius {spelling} could fish all day long with both hands and never get tired from the handle slapping his forearm all the time as it is angled away from his forearm. This puppy is pretty heavy from the pot metal as I see it but maybe in some ingenious way can be adapted to todays world....who knows....

Tight Lines
Tight Wraps
Fishin'Stix by Fred

short grips are good for the type of casting called "underhand roll". A long grip can get in the way if you do it a lot - that said, a 6"-8" grip is sufficient for jerkbaits as well and underhand roll. I can't see any benefit to have a casting rod where the reel seat has zero grip behind it.

Regards,
-Justin

Fred;
I love the thought of that rod handle, Is there anyway you could post some pictures of it? Maybe even with the handle taken done I would, like to try and rebuild it with today’s materials.

A handle like this could perhaps be constructed like the swiveling joint in depth finder or antenna mounts that can be repositioned, tightened and kept from moving by the "toothed" faces of the mating surfaces. A nylon bolt and nut could be used to secure them without adding significant weight. Handle could be moved left or right depending on which hand they are being held in. Angle could be changed to match technique-shorter twitches with smaller jerk type baits or more angled to make more aggressive walking retrieves. My forearm takes a pounding when aggressively fishing a spook.

Edit



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/09/2008 09:37PM by Bill Stevens.

Roger, if a customer wants a shorter rear grip because of technique and hand position - build it. However, be prepared for some comments at a later date - like - tip heavy, and wrist fatigue when catching numbers of 3lb plus Smallmouth . It comes with the territory.

In my travels, I saw a rod grip much as Chris describes. It was a 'homemade custom' affair. being held in place with friction tape. The rod was a three piece with a rod, handle, then the grip. You could adjust the entire rod to make it a complete custom. JMHO C2

Just a thought, but what about some thing similar to a removable fighting butt. Threaded tube into the seat, threaded rod ( bent ) with two locking nuts - thin - onto that, then put into the seat. A strong piece of blank glued onto the threaded rod. Handle fit and glued onto that. The handle could be turned and fixed in place with the locking nuts ????

The setup that I saw had three sections: The first was the rod which plugged into a ferrule on the handle, The handle then plugged via ferrule into the grip. You could adjust the rod, handle or grip to suit any taste.

I always thought that different length grip sections could be plugged into the handle sections. Just a thought. C2