I was a little intrigued by the split grip handle responses so I thought I might pose this question to you all. What are the advantages of using a fixed reel seat over a strictly tennessee style handle in freshwater fishing? Doesn't a fixed reel seat lend itself to only one spot on the rod? Does this not effect balance and weight? Is balance and weight not important to the average custom rod buyer? I know some of you suggested in the split grip thread that you can add weight to achieve balance, thats what leads me to ask the question about weight and balance. Thanks for your thoughts.

In my opinion, the most important issues are weight and the distance between the reel and the butt of the rod. No matter how light the guides, no matter how few there are, no matter how light the reel is, when you locate the reel such that the distance between the reel and the butt doesn't result in the butt snagging the clothing at the elbow, the rod is a little tip heavy. The solution is to live with it or add weight to the butt of the rod to make it heavier such that the rod is balanced around the hand. I don't like this as much as just leaving the rod as light as possible and accepting a little tip heavy feel. Keep in mind, as soon as you add a lure to the end of the rod, it is tip heavy no matter what else you have done. The only time the balance is an issue is when you are jigging, and as you raise the tip, the tip heaviness is less an issue.

So I just make the rods as light as I can and fit the reel position to fit the person who will be using the rod, and forget about adding weight.

I actually like to use a split tennessee

Tom

I tend to agree with your opinion, especially when building longer rods the tip becoming a little heavy has always been an issue, but it is not so heavy that it effects casting or action. Top priority the rod needs to be fitted properly, being a fisherman myself, the feel is what it is all about.

what I do with spinning rods for bait or stop-and-go techniques (worms, senkos, drop shot), is to locate the fixed reel seat/reel further back near the butt end... after the cast, if the fisherman will simply reposition his hand to the fore-grip, the reel now becomes the rod balancer without adding any additional weight to the rod. The rod can be balanced horizontally or vertically, even in a tip down position, anywhere from about the eight o'clock position to 10:30, just by sliding the hand up or down the 7 inch fore-grip. The the butt grip length is 5 inches.

Terry;
My response may increase your intrigue opposed to answering it, Sorry!

With a few exceptions, I build exclusively Tennessee style handles, exclusively using graphite tubing. Then Semi-permanently mount the reel to the tubing by wrapping the reel on in the same manor you would wrap a guide to the blank.

Location depends on the person’s dominant holding style, size of there hand, and width of their fingers.
I set them up so that while holding the rod, they can have both their thumb and index finger resting on the blank. This increases their ability to feel what their bait or fish is doing at the other end, and further balances weight towards the rear of the rod

Total length of the handle behind the reel will depend on length of the rod, length of their forearm, or fishing style.

Example;
I fish with the reel foot’s neck between my pinky and ring finger most of the time. With my size hand in order to allow the thumb and index finger to rest on the blank necessitates mounting the reel with the foot’s neck @ 2.25 inches from face of grip.

For a person who prefers to hold the neck between index and ring finger, it could be a little closer and for those preferring the neck behind their hand a little further back.
But this still allows them the freedom to move their hand to different positions when they chose to without any hindrance, the only difference is when moving further back they may loose the advantage of being able to place their fingers on the blank.

Handles are where custom builders really can be custom. For example, I have a guy that wants all his handles 8" on his casting rods. He likes to fight his fish with his arms and doesn't want the butt hanging on his clothing. He can't find anything over 7' with a handle length he likes, but it's not a problem for me. Most of the guys I build rods for would not enjoy fishing a handle this short, so I don't have a set handle length or type for each blank.

Match your handle to what the customer wants and needs. Does he have small hands, big hands? Does he put his rods in rod holders? How does he work his baits with the rod? All important questions that will help you meet your customer's needs. It's important to understand the mechanics of how your customer fishes to spec the proper handle.

To Terry's question, I really like the Tennessee handle and think it is more comfortable to fish than a graphite fixed seat. But, I find it isn't secure enough for me for much beyond a light powered rod.

TC

Thomas Cayman - AKA Robert Russell

ROBERT M. RUSSELL
KYLE TX 78640



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2011 08:46PM by Moderator.

Steve, I build exactly as you do with the possible exception that I don't use cork with the graphite tubing. All my spinning rods are built that way. I was intrigued by the thought that with reel seats it appeared one would be sacrificing balance and or weight. It appears that some are making it work with the reel seats. I was toying with building a rod with a very light weight seat using very little tubing. I was curious if one could be built even lighter than the graphite tennessee handles and was trying to figure out if there was a way to have it in position before gluing it up. I hold my hand and fingers in exactly the same position as you do. I have an RX8 plus 822.5 that comes in at 2.7 ounces. I have a 1500 Diawa series reel on it and the whole unit is less than 11 ounces. That rod was built for me by the person who introduced me to rod building. Almost all my builds come in under 3 ounces even using more guides than most due, Most all are built on 7 foot blanks and nothing shorter than 6 foot and a half. I will probably build on a RX8 plus 822.5 with a reel seat as I have described, just to see what it does with balance and weight.

Terry;
I sorry I was not clear on what I said concerning cork.
I don't mix the two, but have built 2 spinning rods in the last three years using cork and a reel seat when I normally would use a graphite Tennessee handle.
One was for an article in RodMaker (Volume 13 #2) showing how builders could save money while doing something unique using wine bottle corks
I did an RX8 plus 822.5 with wine corks and reel seat as a bait caster for the same article for top water's, that I love

I do on occasions use wood veneer over graphite tubing on projects where it is requested.

If you really want to lighten up the rod build it Tenn style, with out using any arbors



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2011 04:56PM by Steve Gardner.

Okay, you got my interest now. How are you attaching the handle to the blank? I'm using two one inch pieces of hardwood, one at the front and one at the back turned down on a lathe creating an empty chamber with the tube. Tennessee handles must not be all that popular I figure, otherwise I would have thought some manufacturer would have taken a design like the old Shimano Bullwhip series and incorporated the handle as part of the blank. Not enough market i'm guessing.

Just follow the "hot handle" concept and you be good to go.

Can you direct me to where I can find that information? I am not familiar with the term.

There is an article on them in RodMaker Volume 11 Issue 2

Well that is certainly interesting but that style is not for me, too old school I guess. Never say never though. I can understand the theory behind it though. Thanks for the information.