On a bass spinning rod blank with a butt of about .500 inch, what size spinning reel seat would you use? I am planning on using a Fuji DPSM style.

If it were me, I'd size the seat to fit my hand and shim as necessary to fit the seat to the blank. There is no practical loss of sensitivity in doing this and it makes for a more comfortable assembly.

Others use exposed blank seats and prefer to fit the seat to the blank. If you know where the seat will be located, you can have your dealer size one for you.

..............

Greg I use a #17 or #18 and sometime a #20 depending on how big the customers hand is. People with big hands will see more comfort in a #18 0r 20 . People with normal sized hands will probably be comfortable with a #17. A #16 is too small for most men.

J.B.Hunt
Bowling Green, KY



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2010 05:08PM by Jay Hunt.

I have found that 80% of my customers have had me use the A/T Aero comfort grip. Even my own personal builds have been done with them, and are a lot easier to grip and use especially in extended periods of fishing. I actually give them the choice with a couple of mock up blanks with both reel seats and let them make the decision for themself.

Ron Weber

I agree with the larger seat, for ergonomic reasons. I just had a guy here today who handled a rod with a 16, then one with an 18, and he commented on how much better the larger one felt.
But, when he handled one with an Aero, that's what he went with. That is really a nice reel seat.

Smallest seat any factory G Loomis rod ever had was a 17 mm seat., noticed St Croix also uses at least a 17 mm even on their lightest powered rods.

i use a DNPSM-16 or 17 for bass rods. Usually a 16 because i only using spinning gear for finesse tactics which typically mean smaller/lighter is better.
justin don't see the point in using a bigger one. i have big hands and find the 16 to be very comfortable

Regards,
-Justin

Thanks for the ideas. I got a 16, not really thinking about the o.d. just that it would fit, and it seemed too little. I am used to fly rod grips where you can size and shape as needed. I will check out the Aero grip, too.

Greg

Greg,
The comments on reel seat size are right on. The size should be dictated by the size of the fishermans hand, not the size of the rod blank.
I also agree on the use of the A/t comfort seat. It is becoming the reel seat of choice for many of my clients.

I do use a size 16 reel seat in the skeletal version, when I use a hidden hood concept. This is where I bury the non threaded portion of the reel seat in cork, and then shape the cork to fit the overall contour of the handle. That way, the user is contacting cork and no cold plastic or metal on the hands.

But for a conventional reel seat, I seldom use anything smaller thana size 17 and wll often use a size 18 or 20 depending on rod, blank, and user.

Take care
Roger

I have a fairly small hand, but I use a size 20 seat even on UL spinning rods. I have used 18s and 17s, but like the feel of the 20.

In theory, when you start start sandwiching different materials together, it adds damping which can detract from sensitivity. With a shim, you have a sandwich of glue-shim-glue. With a reamed seat, you only have one layer - glue.

A shim could be lighter than the graphite, this is true, but sensitivity is not simply a matter of weight... it's stiffness to weight ratio.

Whether or not you would feel a difference in sensitivity from that one thing alone, I don't know... but a rod is a myriad of parts and placement, all things add up, the devil is in the details.

I would recommend a reel seat a size smaller than you need, then you can ream it for a perfect fit. If it's too big, you would need some type of shim.

I wish they made spinning seats which did not require a shim.