I'm in the process of building my first fly rod. It is a 9' Rainshadow F908-4. Prior to buying the blank I found a reel seat that I really liked. I ordered the blank & got all of my components.

Well then I realized that the reel seat I got was sugested for lighter wieghts (6wgt). I had to ream a little (had to go from .40 to .420 it has a burl inlay), but the real seat fits the blank.

But before I epoxied this I thought that maybe an 8 wieght reel wouldn't fit on this seat. Maybe the feet of the reel would be to big. I haven't ordered the reel yet. Are the feet on a 8wgt reel the same size as a 6wgt?

Can I use this real seat or should I get a larger real seat?

By the way I am doing a lot of first's on this build. First time fly rod. First time multi piece rod. First time feather inlays. First time turning cork. It's been fun.

Other than old style Metalist reels, nearly all reputable fly reels use a standard reel foot dimension, with the possible exception of some varience in length of the foot. If, for example you compare a Teton #6 to a Teton #8, there is no difference, but the Teton foot IS slightly longer than an older English made Orvis CFO, but is EXACTLY the same length as a modern Hardy that I have. Just check the reel on the seat to see if the seat is long enough, some of the newer light weight seats are shorter than the seats of old.

I have a pfleugar reel that has a foot that is significantly larger than another reel that I have. Both reels are for 5 weight lines. If you are unsure, test the reel and the reel seat before attaching the reelseat to the rod. If there is a mismatch, you could modify the reel foot to fit into the seat.

Chris Richer
Iroquois ON

The feet on modern reels are fairly standard and should fit, however, I would mount the reel on the reel seat to check before you install it. (Opps, upon rereading your post I see you don't have the reel yet)

If it were me, I would buy a new reel seat that is designed for the 8 wt. They are stronger and more suited to the type of fishing you typically would use an 8wt for. Also the larger reel seats match up with fighting butts better. You can always use the reel seat you have for a future build.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2009 10:57AM by Bob Riggins.

If the reel seat you intend is smaller then the radius in the reel foot it will probably rock. Not very comfortable to cast with. Don't be surprised if you need some modification to the reel foot. Do it all the time with a Dremel. The "standards" are quite open to interpretation.

Gene