Hi guys,

First of all- great forum! I'm so glad I stumbled upon this.

I have a question about split reel seats that I'm hoping you guys might be able to help me answer.

I am planning on building 2 rods with Pac Bay Minima Blank Exposed Trigger Reel Seats
1st one up on this page: []

I am wondering if they will be strong enough for a 20-40lb class rod which I will be using for snapper and grouper down in the keys. Does anyone have experience with them? Or with reel seats breaking for that matter?

-JJ

You can't break what isn't there. In general, seats don't need to be strong - they only need to hold the reel. But there are some differences in the criteria necessary for seats on light freshwater rods and much heavier saltwater rods.

Many saltwater reels require a solid surface in order to use their reel foot clamps. I wouldn't advise running such a thing up on the blank itself. And then you need to ascertain how much pressure you're going to put on the rod and if the rod will flex deeply into the seat area. You can have a seat actually flip out of such a seat if that area flexes enough.

My gut feeling is that these seats weren't really intended for rods of such a heavy class. You can always mock one up and try it, but before I'd install it on the rod and take it fishing I'd do my homework and make sure it's going to be okay for what you're asking it to do.

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I have ZERO experience with that reel seat. However, I would be willing to state that there isn't a chance of it surviving the type of pressure you are considering. I have seen MUCH heavier and more secure reel seats than that get ripped. In addition, there is nothing to secure the reel to. I am even a bit surprised that they make them big enough to fit the blank you would need for the fishing you are considering.

If it were me, I'd get a Castaway seat from Swampland and cut it myself. You can leave a little more seat there for the reel foot to sit on and make it totally arborless right to the blank. Once you get the castaway in your hand, you may decide that the lengthy open-ness of the bottom of the castaway is what you wanted to start with? Have you looked at those? Cutting one of the Castaways is easy as pie and it ends up being a really nice seat mated right to the blank when you're done.

DR

Rich Forhan is the guy to ask. I remember reading about his failure tests on heavy rods w/ split seats years ago....If I remember the rod had a tendancy to break in the split....which I think led him to develop the RF-Lite seat....could be wrong though.

Scott Sheets
www.smsrods.com

This is a snapper!

[www.rodbuilding.org]

This is a split reel seat!

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Both are tops in quality

One is more than a match for the other

I hope you can tell from the pictures which one will give up first!

Fuji DPSH or an american tackle AG-MB (graphite with aluminum hoods) seat. For lighter weight, the DPSH, for extra durability, the AG-MB. This is what I use on the majority of my rods, most of which are offshore bottom and trolling rods

Thanks a lot for all the advise guys. I just bought new aluminum Perfection seats to replace those split ones.