I still like downlocking fly seats on rods 6 wt. and under. Any idea why uplocking have taken off so much? With downlocking there is less line getting looped over the butt end of the rod, and they balance nice.

Thanks - Marc

Keep it simple - that's all I can handle!

My take on this is that in the past rod blanks were heavier and the reel was placed as far back as possible to balance the rod. With modern, very light graphite blanks, rods balance better with an uplocking reel seat, which puts the reel closer to the center of balance, I. e. the grip.

Bob's answer will probably sound better than mine but I always thought it was to protect the reel from getting banged around. Especially when standing a rod up.

Typically most lighter line weight rods, and in shorter lengths, have been fitted with shorter grips (6 to 6.5 inches) and thus having the reel sit a little further back gave the angler's hand a bit more room. The heavier line weight rods which are generally made in longer lengths, have most often been fitted with longer grips (7 to 7.5 inches) and thus the reel could be moved forward a bit which allowed for the things mentioned by the previous posters.

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Good Morning Marc,
Like you I prefer downlocking reel seats. A few weeks ago a couple of our sponsors were putting downlocking reel seats on a closeout sale. I bought several for some rods I am building. I am not convinced that the downlocking reel seat leads to an unbalanced rod.

Since the article on wood grips appeared in Rodmaker magazine several years ago, I have been putting wood grips on my fly rods. I use maple burl, walnut, zebra wood, and spalted Tamarind. If the wood is too dense, I bore out the grip and fit a foam arbor. I haven't had any problems with my fly rods being returned for being un-balanced. I would think that a wood grip would affect the balance more than the reel seat.

You might try Angler's Roost,one of our sponsors on the left. Earlier last summer I bought a downlocking reel seat from them. They have them in two sizes. The reel seats are already assembled and you might need to bore them out. I bought the larger diameter one and needed to bore out the wood insert and then use a foam arbor tapered to fit the rod blank. You might also check with Schneider's Rod shop. They were selling some on a closeout a few weeks ago. Good luck.

Mike Blomme

In my experience, the downlocking puts the reel in the dirt when people stand their rods up for what ever reason while fishing. Dirt or grit in a fly reel (or any reel) is a no-no!

I build nothing but fly rods and have only one customer over many years who wanted a downlocking.

I have noticed as small bit of a trend on people wishing to go to the downlock style. Seems to be more towards the fiberglass builds.

Ron Weber