Back to my wacky rig rod, I decided on the idea of making two rods for the same presentation, why not fisherman always need more rods and reels. For the most part I am finesse fishing these rigs on little or no weight. I like the idea of both the St. Croix 3C69MLXF and the ISB822.5 from Baston. Any suggestion on the reel seat, I want to attempt to keep this rod light, a split grip is a must... I would also like to lean towards a reel seat that will allow my fore finger to stay in contact with the rod (Kistler does this on many of their rods)... EVA or cork, not a big deal. Any suggestions would be awesome, I looked into the FUJI site and saw a few different grips that were interesting, but figured I should pick your knowledge in this field. I can try a couple different grips...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2009 04:57PM by Jay Burns.

Rod Maker Mag Vol.10 issue # 4 covers what I believe to be one of the lightest and most sensitive handle setups you could choose.

Jay i personally like the Fuji Vss reel seats as they are very light and look good. Haven't seen any in the US but in Australia we get the camo grips to match.

Try this for an idea.
[www.fujitackle.com.au]

Then click on 'Click here for update PDF...' link

Stu Klose

Jay, I just posted two pics in Grips, Handles and Reel Seats that might interest you. These are very light and comfortable.

My choice for a finesse rod is to build a conical ramp from the front of the reel seat,or from one cork ring in front of the reel seat, to the blank. Make it out of Batson or other foam reel seat shims and it will weigh almost nothing. Very comfortable and ergonomic. Be sure to keep your hook keeper out of the way.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

The lightest possible system is a foam core-carbon skinned Tennessee handle, but if you want a screw down reel seat this is what is on my favorite finesse rod. It may look different but it is very comfortable to fish all day in this application, where you are holding the rod in a relaxed grip and want to have maximum contact with the blank.

[www.rodbuilding.org]
[www.rodbuilding.org]

The most comfortable seat, IMO, is an all-cork seat:
[www.rodbuilding.org]

I'm not sure it would be as light as Steve Gardner's or Mike Harris', but using all cork keeps it pretty light. I think this set-up has all the nice things about a Tennessee handle, but without the problems of tape or trying to keep reel foot in the right place.

The one in the picture is actually mounted on a 3C69MLXF, I think. The foregrip is a 1" piece of cork that slopes down to the blank. For those folks who like to have a forefinger actually on the bare blank, I move the inscription/hook-keeper area further up the blank an inch or two. The actual seat is a Fuji SKM17 (but you could do it with any size seat you wanted). The front threads have been trimmed so that only the hoods show when the reel is mounted. The foregrip has an o.d. that allows the front hood to screw on/off over it. The picture doesn't show this, but the cork insert between the hoods has a flattened area on the bottom to accomodate the reel foot. Depending on how the angler holds the rod, the cork behind the reel could be shortened up to 1" or 1.5".

Before I started using the all-cork grip set-up, I used Fuji NPS seats mounted down-locking (especially the sz. 18). I used the flex-coat full-length yellow arbors, which made the NPS seats super-easy to construct and mount on the blank. I still have a number of rods in my boat that have the NPS seats on them, and I really like them a lot.

Andrew, I think you gave me detailed instructions on how to build that reel seat, and I built it into a really light, wonderfully responsive, panfish rod. That rod seat you advocate is really wonderful. Only thing I would add is to go big. Because the only penalty in going big is a little cork, it doesn't cost much weight, but the ergonomic advantage in going 17, or bigger, is significant.

Glad the seat worked out for you!

Unless a person just has really small hands, a size 17 is a minimum. Because the all cork seat keeps the o.d. of the cork insert the same as the o.d. of the hoods, it "feels" a bit larger than most 17s I've used. I recently built one with a sz. 20 seat, and I liked the feel, as did the owner; however, most of his fishing buddies (who see/fish the rod when they're on his boat) said that a sz. 20 was just a little too large for comfort. So, when I have to guess, I'm sticking with 17s and 18s now.