I am making rods for use while kayak fishing. The handle seems a little long for this type of fishing, ie sitting down while paddling. Is there any rough guidelines? I am not just going to chop the butt off, butt off, however, for the next one.... I was thinking 4.5 to 5.5 inches. Thanks, John

My kayak rods have the same length butts that any of the rods I use in other boats have. Make the butt too short and you pay a penalty in wrist fatigue when fighting fish.

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The butt length has to do with the persons size! The rods you see on a shelf are just general lengths

Good Wraps Bob

John,

Bob relly nailed it in his statement about the persons size. I build a few Kayak rods out here in SoCAL and the best way to measure the comfort of the the rear grip is to have the fisherman sit in his or her kayak. As Tom stated it make a huge difference if the butt is too short . Once you have the length that fits the individual fisherman it's a wrap. Remember that when kayaking the only part that will be vertical is the upper torso and everyone is different. Build to the fisherman.

Tight lines,

John

I have a friend who fishes from a canoe, he is 6'4". It took allot of trial and error before We found the right length. Your customer has to pretend he is setting the hook to fighting a fish from ever angle possible while in a setting position . There is a rod builder from San Francisco who is a Kayaker and builds an his own rods. Hopefully he will chime in.

Good Wraps Bob

John,
Lots of folks make ice rods - that are 25 inches long, with 4 1/2 inch grips - just large enough to fill the hand.

So, you could make a handle this short if you wanted to.
But, as Tom suggested, there would be a lot of twisting force on your hand, due to the excessive tip weight with no counterbalance on the back of the handle.

Why don't you take an old rod, chop off the handle to 5 inches and go fishing. See how it works for you.

Take care

Roger
p.s.
If you just make it a split grip, and add a 2 inch long butt - to the end of the 4 inch grip, add a bit of lead tape around the end of the butt, you would have a very balanced rod, with not too much of a handle increase.

If you're fighting fish of any decent size, you want the rear grip to reach back under your forearm, if not just to your elbow. Fishing in a kayak wouldn't make any difference in this regard.

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Tom could be right,not sure. Hey if You hook a big fish, one thing is for sure it could pull you around almost like being in a float tube

Good Wraps Bob

I do a lot of light tackle jigging for Stripers and Red Drum. Regularly tangle with fish #5-20 using #8-17, med heavy, bass blanks. When setting up a rod for this application, I put the butt at my elbow then locate the reel seat accordingly. I use a split grip on these rods, personal preference. The long handle takes the load off the wrist while providing the leverage you need to fight fish this size.

You are right, if a big fish is hooked the kayak becomes part of the drag system. Trout hardly ever, redfish, lot of the time if not anchored. But due to theft issues, I was trying to get the "most rod out of the shortest rod", since 6'6" is about as long as I can get in the truck if I am stopping and going inside, so the thoght of 2 or 300.00 worth of rod and reel just stuck in a rod holder hanging out the back of the kayak, lets just say I ain't that trusting over the long term. I will probably just go to two peice rods, then I can go with 7" or 7'6" and not have to worry about knocking the tip top off or having it stolen out of the back of the truck. I tested holding it low and discovered I prefer to hold the rod with the grip braced on the arm/elbow region. Go figure, never even noticed before, so thanks for helping me check out my technique. But need to be able to cast long while sitting down, so need the extra length, thanks, John

Hand on foregrip to near or just at elbow unless casting becomes a problem. In a kayak I found that my general light tackle combo had far to long a butt grip at 10" with an uplocking spin seat. It was annoying to manuevar around it. I had no idea of this until I actually fished with someone in a kayak.

For my personal kayak rod I ended up with a 7.5" rear grip 2.5" shorter than previous, along with an uplocking American Tackle aero seat. Many tell me the seat is upside down, but it is comfortable due to my grip over a spinning reels foot. I hold the stem between my pinky and ring finger while many others have it dead center between middle and ring finger and still some with larger hands only have their index finger above the foot stem.

This is something that made a huge difference in comfort level for me by simply flipping the seat to "upside down" as well as shortening the rear grip length for a kayak rod, but not so much that it impeded fish fighting ability.

Interesting Sean. I'm using the aero seat for the first time. I'm having a hard time thnking up a forgrip to use with it. It never dawned on me to consider going uplocking. Everything else I build is uplocking but I didn't think it would work with that seat. I generally do have the reel stem between middle and index finger.

Tell me, how do you guys go about landing a decent king/wahoo in a kayak? I'm thinking even a cobia/dolphin would be a problem if it hit the deck! Call me chicken but I kinda like having five fingers and toes....ditto on two arms and legs:)

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

You'll have to turn the grip to fit properly regardless if it is preformed cork or you are turning it yourself. The manufactured ones are close, but do require modification.

In your case, I would stay downlocking or your fingers will end up on the reel threads and become annoying to you. With your style, I simply turn a straight grip into a slight taper to fit the seat. The other way around is similar but since I prefer a little wider grip than what is often seen in stores the foregrip looks like a fat cigar shape until it is fitted into the seat at which time it then seems to be perfect for me.

As for kings/wahoo/phins/cobia in a kayak, I can only speculate that since they are fighting the rod plus the kayak, they wear themselves out significantly enough prior to being landed to pose little threat. A cobia would actually be the one that scares me the most out of those 4 but if I was ever in that position I would simply let the fish basically drag the kayak around long enough to where I felt it had little to no energy left.

Have fun in a long boat ride

Good Wraps Bob

Couple of the guys down here target tarpoon and they are way more willing to get towed around than I am. I would imagine a cobia would be more like a sliegh ride. Even a big bull red will move you for a while. I am just looking to make up distance as I will be sitting most of the time when I cast. It was sugeested that I take an 8'6" steelhead blank, cut the handle down a little and that way I would have the rod a suitable length for casting a decent distance and be able to take it apart since apparently most steelhead rods are 2 piece and I would guess suitable for braid. Relly leaning to the MHX 2 piece or rainshadow popping blank. the 7 to 7.5 butt and putting on an upside down aero split grip is intrigueing and I happen to have the grip. Thanks, John