Hi Chaps, Anyone have any views on cork reel seats with sliding bands vs traditional NS or Aluminium reel seats for ultra light rods like teh TXL?

The sliding rings or Tennessee handle tend to come loose. Most put tape to hold the seat on. They are adjustable. The graphite seats hold the seat better. With the cushioned hoods.
Personal preference.

Bill - willierods.com

Hi Bill, thanks. You probably are right, I too have heard that the slide bands can be a pain in the @#$. I spoke to Dan at REC yesterday and he suggested that I try teh AUSL aluminium reel seat. Insofar as weight is concerned I weighed -

1. Bellenger UTLB660NS - 31grams;
2. REC PLRN - 15grams; and
3. REC ABGS - 23grams.

Having used an AUSL on a previous build i know it is smaller and lighter than the ABGS, which means there will be hardly any difference, if any between the AUSL and the PLRN. In a nutshell I doubt anyone would notice any difference from a weight perspective if I used teh AUSL rather than a cork insert with sliding bands.

Then maybe Titanium framed guides. If ya go the American tackel Ti guides use a fuji Ti Sic tip top. American don't make a Ti top.

Bill - willierods.com

Bill, would you use AmTac Ti guides over REC lite?

I am a belive that the ceramic rings will give better performance. Slicker surface, less friction, longer distance.
But that's me.

Bill - willierods.com

Bill is correct in saying that we do not offer a titanium tip top as of now, but we will be introducing them this year, and They should be in stock before the Big Show in High Point.

Chase Foster
American Tackle
www.americantackle.us

Regarding sliding bands I have had relatively good success with the graphite bands from Mudhole with a St. Croix Tennesee handle mounted on a 5' ultrlight spinning rod (Sage blank). Admittedly I have to feel that adequate pressure is applied and accept a ghost impression in the cork from my Mitchell Garcia 300 is a given.

I also have original aluminum bands on an old JC Higgins spin/fly combo that I rebuilt. This is a bigger rod and the impression is more than a ghost image; it seems to be getting deeper with time....

I'll get out on the limb and suggest sliding bands on cork are best suited for really light setups. Sliding bands were quite common on early rods of all types but almost always with a metal reelseat. Regarding fly rods, Divine used sliding bands on wood reelseats in the 30's, E. F. Payne also used sliding bands with a wood reelseat on light rods in the 30's and the Orvis Wes Jordan light bamboo rods of the 40's used sliding bands on cork. View a contemporary version of the Wes Jordan sliding bands on cork reelseat here: [www.orvis.com]

I myself do think the graphite rings are better. They seem to flex and conform to the feet of the reel. I do coat my cork and give a light sanding to the inside of the graphite rings just to try to give them a gripping surface. It seems to work.

Bill - willierods.com

I have used cork handles with sliding rings a lot. Contrary to what the other posters have said, I have found the graphite rings to be almost totally worthless and the metal rings over hard cork to be only fair at holding the reel on very light rods and not good at all on medium rods. My experience has been that the rings hold fine until I hook a fish large enough to flex the rod down in the grip area, then the rings come loose and the reel falls off. Last spinning rod I built was a 7', medium light Allstar blank. I put on a nice sliding band seat. I hooked a couple of small stripers or hybrids and the reel fell off both times. I gave up and scraped it all off and put on a Fuji locking seat. I took the rod to Alaska this summer and caught some really big fish on it. Humpbacks and Silvers. No problems, and it is nice not to have to check the reel while fighting a fish. Never will use the slip bands again. I do have 2 ultralight rods that I sometimes fish and love the old slip ring handles on them. But I spend a lot of time checking and retighting them and seldom catch a large fish.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/2009 02:46PM by Bill Moschler.

I have a cork handle with graphite slip rings that I use for cold weather vertical walleye jigging. If you wrap a 4" piece of filament strapping tape on each end of the reel foot and then cram your slip rings over that it will hold much better. Mine didn't budge this last season.

Chuck

I use slide band seats on all my shorter 4wt fly rods and under and love them.Honestly,I can't imagine using a screw lock seat for these shorter,lighter rods.I have never had an issue with a reel slipping from them and I have close to a dozen personal rods with these seats on.

Most of the slide band seats I use are of uplocking design(personal preference when it comes to cosmetics) and are either Bellinger or Venneri(not sure if these are available any more).The ULSB models from each are both gorgeous to look at and function perfectly.I also have a REC PLRN double slide band nickel silver seat on a 0wt Sage SLT and find that it too holds a reel fine,although I have to admit that it isn't my favorite seat.

I use either a Danielsson Midge,which has a larger than normal foot,or a Marryat Baby 1,which has a smaller foot with the PLRN seat and both hold fine.The only thing I don't like about seats like the PLRN is that it can be a bit "fiddly" when it comes to fastening the reel down.It takes longer to get it properly aligned than a standard single slide band seat or screw lock seat,and while I haven't had a reel fall out yet,I think that there is a greater chance of that happening with the double slide band model than the single slide band or screw lock model.