Entering new ground here. Building a 12 wt. 9' fly rod. Presume that it will be used for sail fish and will need a fighting butt. For leverage, to me, this fighting butt should be about 6" nad since I have not found any this long I am think about building a butt cap on the blank; then mounting the fly reel forward of this (kind of like a split grip spinning or bait casting rod.
Any thoughts on this? Also, how would you determine the distance between the fly grip and the 4"-6" extended foregrip??
Thanks for any help.

You can do that but you end up giving up some real rod length if you make the fighting butt section on the blank itself. But that could be a good thing because for the best leverage you want a shorter rod anyway. I think it is a good idea and would do it that way.

There was an interesting grip in the magazine a while back that had the additional forward fighting grip just built on as part of the regular full wells fly grip. I think it was four or six inches long. Just a cigar shape formed onto the front of a regular full wells. The advantage of this I think, is that it keeps you from going to far forward which can result in moving your fighting hand beyond the main load bearing area of the blank and resulting in snapping a rod in the mid section.

I haven't built a 12 wt, yet, but here's something similar to what you're considering (I think) for the fighting butt/reel seat layout: [www.rodbuilding.org]
Keep in mind that if you have a 6 inch fighting butt, you've lost 6 inches of effective rod length, which may or may not matter to the user.

George Forster
Fort Collins, CO

I use slip rings and the length of cork I choose. Seven inch, ten inch, 12 inch, 13 inch....whatever. I can put on any length of cork I want. I am building a spey rod and putting on 24" of cork grip. With the slip rings I can slide the reel up and down and anchor it where ever it pleases me.
Jim

James,
Batson sells an insert(FB2P1-SG or FB2P1-B) that fits A8 reel seats. You can use this insert to build your own fighting butt and it allows you to remove the fighting butt when it is not needed. This could be a solution to your problem.

Mike Blomme

James, would you mention the model# of the blank. I have been eyeing one and wonder if it is the same. If so I have a few questions.

Would you ever care about the rod being IFGA legal? That requirement would have a lot to do with possible solutions.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

I agree with Russell. If there is any chance at all of going after IGFA records with this rod you need to build the rods to IGFA specifications. Which states, "Overall butt length may not exceed six inches when measured from the center of the reel foot to the end of the butt." This applies to single handed rods. Spey rods have other specification that aren't applicable in this situation.


Lane

You could look at extending thr foregrip to get the power you want, I think something like the Rainshadow switch rod grip. First time I saw a similar grip was on a saltwater fly rod.

I have built several 12 wts for tarpon and a 14wt for salifish with handles like Peter suggested. I do not like a split grip above the grip because you move the leverage point up the rod. I build a a continues grip that has a full well grip which is about 7 1/2" and a very thin cigar grip above it which is about 6". I always turn these grips after gluing all the rings on the blank. It is all one continues grip. They work great. The fighting butt on the 12's are not big extended things. Maybe they can be a little bigger around and maybe add one or two cork rings to extend the butt but don't over do it. I have landed pacific sails and tarpon with these style rods and I have about a 2 1/2" fighting butt on the rods.