Mr. Bial's post got me questioning the use of trigger seats. I've never seen a casting rod in real life that was triggerless. After doing a quick search on the internet, I see that there are a few out there, and the best seat I've seen is one on an Evergreen rod, that I believe fuji manufactured for them.

So my questions are, why do we not see more triggerless seats?
What are the benefits of a trigger? triggerless?

I've seen some builds using the minima spinning seat for casting, but what other seats are available? One flw angler, Tak I believe it was, grinds down his tirggers and reshapes the grip to a taper. I'm must curious as to why we don't see more of these.

Any of the standard nylon/graphite pipe seats can be used for either spinning or casting, triggerless. Most casting seats on larger surf rods are of this style.

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

I ground and reshaped a fuji ECS seat awhile back to a small rounded "nubbin" trigger. Feels pretty sweet and IMHO a great choice especally for a finesse type casting rod.

The trigger is pretty much self explanatory. When your thumb comes off the spool the rod is only secured by the fingers of the casting hand, and the trigger gives extra security of not letting the rod slip out of your hand.

In addition to what Randolph noted grasping the trigger with your index finger helps to stabilize the relationship between your thumb and the spool during a cast giving you more consistent control of the placement of the lure/bait as it reaches the end of the cast.

I was at a show once and had a triggerless casting rod for a customer who was going to pick up the rod at the show. He needed a triggerless design to work with a specific rod holder he was using on his boat. Anyway, one of the Sales reps for a major tackle line, who is also a noted accuracy and trick cast caster saw the rod and asked if he could try it out. After some practice, he said something like "Why would anyone ever want something like this, I can't hit the side of a barn with it."

In the rods defense he was sinking the casting plug every time into the ring at the far end casting pool, he just couldn't land the plug in the plastic cup inside the ring from 50 feet away. That was some pro feedback that stuck well in my mind.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2013 02:40PM by John E Powell.

Jeremy,
In past times I have made a couple of rods with reel seats that had no triggers.

After a short time in using both of them, I took them into the shop, cut off the back grip, cut off the reel seat and put a new trigger style reel seat and new butt grip and butt cap on the rod.

Now, I can enjoy using both of the rods.

I - personally - will never own a triggerless casting rod.

Be safe

REW

personal preferance

Bill - willierods.com

I understand the trigger to aid in a cast but some casting rods are rarely casted ie sturgeon

Gaston,
One of the rods that I changed from a trigerless to a trigger style casting seat was on a sturgeon rod.

The issue is the lack of trigger really makes reeling in a big fish much harder. The trigger really helps to stabilize the rod and to keep it from twisting in your hand when reeling in a fish.

Roger

Roger is 100% right, and in addition if you aren't going to cast with the rod, it is not a casting rod. Boat rod, jigging, mooching, trolling, etc. But it needs to be cast to be a casting rod. :>)

Thanks for the responses. I was just curious about the triggerless. I've never seen them in real life, so I've never used one. I figure with Edge rods coming out with them, and spiral wraps, that custom builders will start getting a lot of requests for these. I've had some good tournament fishermen request rewraps and whatnot, and when I asked about spiral wrapping, they knew nothing of it. After trying it, that's how they want all their casting rods done now. When Edge Rods makes a factory rod spiral and triggerless, I'm guess there are going to be more requests for building triggerless rods. I feel that there at least need to be something more than a nub there, maybe a reduced trigger, but I cannot see doing away with it completely with the way I fish.