Hi All!
I am a brand new rodbuilder. Been a fly tyer for years and figured I would try my hand at some builds. My brother lives in Maui and I am building him a surf rod. There are no charts or info out there on handles and Guides for surf rods that I have found. I bought a Northfork composite blank. It is 138 inches long (11'1") and it is rated at 15-40 lbs Med Light, Fast action. The model number from NFC is SUR 1164-2(Psi LMX) . i will put a spinning real seat on it .. anyone have any input on all these components I am trying to figure out?

Cheers, Marc

Just to get some more specific info from you for the surf gurus to work with:

I take it that "handle" means reel seat?

When I think handle, I think of Grips. What type of grips are you (or your brother) thinking: EVA, Cork, Carbon Fiber, or other? Split Grip or Full Length?

Batson's Guide Spacing diagram for their REVSU110MH may give you some ideas on what components are needed. Keep in mind though that Batson's 11' surf blank is rated for lighter line and has a smaller butt size (.727 vs. .875) and tip size (8.5 vs. 10) than the NFC so use their diagram as a starting point. Sky's the limit as far as handles and reel seats options...every thing from shrink wrap over cord, straight butt cord (deckhand style), Winn or cork tape over bare blank, standard spinning reel seats and my favorite, Fuji LS Plate reel seat. For a first build, I would keep it simple, call NFC for some suggestions, and research on-line. Enjoy the build!

I think Batson also makes an 11 ft. 9 in. that might help, I guess it would be a REVSU141M.

Marc, If I was to build this rod for myself, I would guide the rod using American Tackle Micro Wave MW50
guides. Surf fishing is all about distance casting with a 11' rod. These guides really do tame line slap and allow the line to flow smoothly thru the guides. A size 20 Fuji pipe reel seat and some 3M (1" wide) Safety Walk black tape for the grip material will make this a lite weight fishing machine that your brother will be able to fish with all day. The butt length could be anywhere from 18 to 24" depending on what type of bait he will throwing or all around use. Its a simple build that is comfortable to fish with.

Dennis J. Danku
(Sayreville,NJ)

Just grab ya mate, slide the real seat on and get him to do some dry casting
and where he feels comfortable determines where it goes, mark it

As for the foregrip, grab the tip and put it on full load, where he's got his hand for leverage determines the length of the forgrip, mark it

Guides? Well

..what sort of line do you have in mind?

[www.rodbuilding.org]

[anglersresource.net]

[www.fujitackle.com]

[youtu.be]

I replaced the rod guides on my old 10’ Penn surf rod and used Fuji… LC20 - LC16 - KW12 - (4) KT10 - MN12 Tip-Top. It casts 30lbs braid wonderfully far. The placement was determined by the Shimano Stradic 5000 I use. The labeled ratings are similar to your NFC rod but a foot shorter. If my Penn was 11’ I’d add another KT10 or two, depending on the static load test.

The factory rod has a Fuji DPSM22 reel seat and cork tape for grips. I did replace the butt cap with a Fuji bulb style butt cap.