A newbie with questions on seats and grips

Hey Guys, I'm a Newbie, so please be nice. I have always wanted to build my own pole, but just never got around to it. At this point I am not actually building a rod, I am re-building one. About 15 years ago I liberated a 13 1/2 foot 3 section telescoping Fiberglass Fly Rod from a guys trash. It came complete with a J.C. Higgins self winding fly reel. The guy who had it before me was apparently one of those individuals that believes that Duct Tape can be used to fix anything. The Guides were Duct Tapped to the rod, the reel was Duct Tapped to the rod, The grip was made of Duct Tape, The butt cap was Duct Tape, even the stops inside the telescoping sections were made of Duct Tape. I figured at this point that if I want to learn to build rods, I might want to practice on this one. I now have this thing completely torn down and cleaned up, and ready to be re-built. I have been looking around the web for info and have a good idea of how to restore this thing. The bit of information I still need has to do with buying the right size parts.

1) How do you size the Reel Seat? The butt end of this rod is 21/32 or 16.66mm O.D.. I have learned online that you want the reel seat I.D. to be bigger than that and to use masking tape as a spacer. But, how much bigger? Also what is a Skeleton Reel Seat?

2) How do you size the grip? I know that it goes above the seat by slipping it over the top of the rod and you epoxy it in place. what I don't know is how to size it. I don't have a caliper to measure the rod and I know with the taper you have to adjust the sizing. Also, since it goes above the reel seat I figure that I need to know what reel seat I am getting before I figure out the grip size.

I have been looking on the Mud Hole Tackle website and they have the larger I.D. sizes and pretty fair pricing. If you know of any other companies on this page that carry the larger sizes let me know. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2013 10:05PM by Michael Reeder.

How are you setting this rod up? Reel seat at the butt? Do you plan on a rear grip or fighting butt? With this length of rod, it may have been set up for two handed casting rather than one, this necessitates are rear grip. Most pre-made fly rod grips come with a 1/4" bore that requires reaming out to obtain the fit on the blank.

A skeleton reel seat is one without an insert, you either buy the insert separately or make you own. The rel seat should be JUST large enough to slip over the area of the blank where it will end up.

A strange rod.....what will you be fishing for?

I plan on putting the Reel seat at the butt and then the grip above it. So is this to say that since my rod butt end is 16.66mm I should go with the 17mm size seat? I have used this pole for years as a crappie pole. It is great for getting the bait up under low hanging trees or under docks where they like to sit. I have another fly pole that I use for trout fishing, but I want to build myself a fly pole once I learn how to do all this.

If the measurements are correct, that would be a good fit.

thanks for your help Phil

Well Michael, the first thing you have to do is....never call a fishing rod a pole. Poles have no guides and no reels.

You give the impression that you want to build as a fly rod (reel seat at the butt) yet it seems you aren't going to fly fish with it. If that is actually the case I might suggest you consider a "tennessee handle". This way you could use any number of reels placed where you desire. You can tape the reel on with electrical tape or purchase slip rings. You can use cork or one of the graphite tubes. If you use a graphite tube you can use the graphite arbors to mount it and ream the arbors to fit the blank. This will let you experiment with newer materials and build skills.

I'd suggest minima 4 guides. They are light and reasonable in price. You could mount a fly reel one day, roll cast with a sink tip line, and fish a clouser minnow. The next day you could tape on a small spinning reel and toss betttle spins, jigs, or fish a minnow under a bobber or on the bottom.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.