I am building a surf rod for the first time what would be a good place to start on handle length it is a 12 foot blank 2 piece

Best advice I can give you is to hold the blank as if you were casting it; go through the casting motion and then mark the position of the reel seat.

to add to ken advice,i will usually have the customer supply me the reel to be used and i will tape it on with him/her present,then adjust for their personal fit.

www.southriverrodsllc.com

Hi Bucky,
To add to the above. The best position for casting may or may not be the best position for fish fighting for you. Do some of that also and you may find you have to compromise a bit on the seat position to suit you and your technique best.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

Spinning or Conventional?
50/50, 70/30 split ?

Don Becker

Also makes a difference to me if you cast weight + bait and spend lots of time standing holding the rod waiting for a bite like shark/ray etc.
If you throw lures where most time spent casting and retrieving and imparting an action to the lure.
If lures- big topwaters or metal or jigs?
It can also be different if you use sliders, then you are building an almost pure distance casting stick to just throw weights as far as they can go and slide your baits down to them.

You need to build for what you plan to do with the rod.
Well that's my excuse for having a few dozen on my rod rack......

Thanks for the advice the rod is for someone else he is gonna get me the reel and the use will be for pier fishing long cast

Find out from him what he likes and DisLikes about what he is using now
Should be of some help

Bill - willierods.com

i agree with the first several responses. I am a big surf angler, pretty much all i do.

if the customer is throwing bait: for a long distance, whether pier or sand, you want the customer to "practice cast" couple dozen times and see what he/she likes. im 6'3" and like a long handle, my heavers are 31 or 32 inches to center of the reel seat. i got a buddy that is considerably shorter then i am and he can't cast my heavers to save his life. he likes a shorter handle, the one i built him is 27 or 28.

what i have done in the past is take the butt section and mark the inches from about 25 to 35 with a china marker (or something similar). have him practice cast over and over again with out looking at the markings, once he finds something that feels comfortable look where his thumb is and use that mark for the center of the reel seat. if you build it to how he feels comfortable he will thank you time and time again when hes bombing 8 and bait 100 yards off the pier.

if they are using it for plugs/lures, have him hold the blank like hes fishing the plug and mark it that way.

just my two cents....

AK

Southside Custom Rods, LLC
Chesapeake, VA.