just finished a 7' spinning rod, brought up a couple of questions on placement. there have been discussions on here about balance vs. weight, thats no exactly what i am asking,
do you determine reel placement bacause of handle style split grip etc. handle length..type of seat, or what feels right,
also will reel placement affect the casting distance measureably or not at all. the longer rod is mainly for a little more distance is it not so do you need to keep as much blank in front or what.

while my rods for me don't have to be perfectly balanced, the longer ones can be a tad tip heavy i was just wondering if there is a point of diminished returns based on where you put the reel.

thanks for any replys, funny i know what i want to ask but when it comes time to type it out it don't seem to come out right.

The nice thing about building custom rods is that you can put the reel seat exactly where it feels most comfortable for you or your customer.
Once the reel seat position is determined, you can position your guides to work best for that.
Of course what 'best' means is all in the eyes of the custom builder or his client. When i am building travel rods the main criteria are way different to when i am building for a person with limited range of motion in his arms , or he has small hands or big hands or..............

Even with the lightest of blanks, in my experience, in order to achieve neutral balance around the reel foot, the distance to the butt will be too long for most people. It will catch on clothing for many techniques, especially jigging/plastics.

I place my reels to fit the user of the rod, not to balance the rod, which appears unacheivable in most cases. And I don't add balance weight. I would rather have light than balance. Put a lure on and all of a sudden you're not balanced any more.

not looking to balance, curious about casting distance based on distance from reel to tip, if there is a big difference, i know moving a guide can change distance

Jim,
If you move the reel back 5 inches, you are effectivly making your rod 5 inches longer with respect to casting distance. Can you tell the diffference in casting - quite probably. Will it be a significant difference, not likely.

I think it is more important that the rod be functional and work for you than to try to get the most casting distance out of a rod.
If you really wanted to get the most casting distance of a given rod length, you would have the back reel foot mouted flush with the butt of the rod. But this would make a very unfriendly rod to use as a fishing tool.

On the other hand, this is how many Salmon rods are built. i.e. the back reel foot is essentially mounted flush with the rod butt. Then, there is a very long fore grip to allow the user to balance the rod as needed, by simply moving his hand up and down the long fore grip while fishing. This makes for a nice user friendly rod, when mooching when you really need to watch the tip for a slight bite.


Roger

the spinning rod i built for a customer (christmas present from wife) went to a bass tourney this past weekend, hoping to get some feed back on this rod today.
thanks for the replys