Harry Sandoval Wrote:
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> then the size 1 REC ultralight singe foot guides


Feel free to try the RSFX on your next built. I was a bit disappointed at the durability with the ultra light. Also the RSFX are rarely making any harmonic sound.

Ben,

Would you by chance have the weight of a size 1 RSFX guide?

It’s too soon to tell about durability for me, but so far so good… my biggest concern is breaking them off trying to remove ice…

I’m definitely not against building a stronger rod, but light weight has been my primary design goal so far.

I think it would be informative to add weight to the tip of the rod to simulate heavier guides. I’ll see if I can figure out how much weight I can add before the rod looses the feel I like.

Harry

Harry,

RSFX-B in size #1 is 0.09g just being curious how much is the "ultra light?

Thanks Ben, that's good to know...

I just weighed some and came up with .041g each. I actually weighed ten at 0.41g and divided to get the weight; my scale read .04g for a single guide...

Feel free to send me an email bgb6000 gmail

Follow up ? for Harry or any others using this blanks:
Harry - now that you have had this blank a little longer any other thoughts or changes you would have made to your build? I am going to evaluate 12 guides and your 13 guide set up. .
Would you use a standard snake guide or 2 at the tip for line wrap?
Still think a single foot stripping guide is the way to go?

What reel seat did you use and up or down locking? Fighting butt?

I am supposed to get this blank tomorrow with a carbon half wells grip and carbon butt. looking at a downlocking seat, all singlefoot guides with possible snake guide at tip. Not sure about double or single foot stripping guide.

Thanks all.

I’m really happy with how the rod turned out. My design goal was to keep the rod as light as possible and I think I did a good job on that front.
Durability has been good so far, with several inadvertent branch strikes and drops.

Because keeping the rod light was my primary focus, I couldn’t justify snake guides on the tip section; the two extra wraps seemed contrary to what I wanted to accomplish.
I do not experience tip wrap issues with leaders above .009”. When I get down into the .007” leaders or smaller, I will start to see some tip wrap, but it has always come off with a flick or twirl; the only time I neeed to manually untangle line at the tip was when I popped a snag from above where the line recoils out of the water…


I don’t think the stripper guide makes much of a difference for this style of fishing. On future builds I will either use a single foot spinning (Fuji kl) or just a largerrunning guide. I have test fit both on the CTS Euro X I am currently building. I think I prefer the size ten running guide versus the slightly taller size ten spinning reduction guide. I did the two line static load with higher and lower stripper guides with no noticeable effect. I definitely didn’t see the rod bending around the lower stripper guide like Diamondback designer said he noticed in the interview I posted…
Because I like the lower guide height for my stripper, I will test out a size 6 recoil RSFX as a stripper next…


I used a Proof Garrison style seat without knowing better. The seat is fine, but I prefer a separate nut and hood.
I have bought several reel seats over the past two months so I can personally see/weigh the options and use what looks best:

I really like the way the threads/nuts feel on the Struble 15xl3, and while it is more than 10g heavier than the other options, it may work well for the FANY 1102 because I still need 20g of counterweight in my reel to balance the rod where I like it.

I also like the Struble U20; I mounted this one on my Euro X build. I am happy with the quality of threads and it looks good. I also appreciate being able to buy inserts from more than one vendor. With the inlet diameter at .781” I was still able to make a tapered fighting butt.

I think the REC AUSL-D would be my choice for anything I wanted as light and fancy as I could get. One major advantage this seat has over all others I could find is the .681” inlet diameter. This means that you can use normal 1 1/4” cork rings and still get a nicely tapered fighting butt instead of the more cylindrical style available on standard Downlocking seats.
I really like the milled insert that provides a flat surface to mate with the reel foot. I also appreciate that the cork check locks into a centered position; the Struble u20 check has a bit of play.
I feel like I should mention that I didn’t use this seat because my patience ran out about two weeks before I received the seat. I ordered the seat direct in early December and didn’t receive until last week. I’m not mentioning this as a complaint, I should have called to check availability before ordering online.
In hindsight, I should have ordered the seat with insert from Mudhole, and then called REC to order the appropriate cork check since I couldn’t find a single online retailer that sells the newer version of this seat complete…

Let me know if you have any other questions…
Harry



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2024 09:42AM by Harry Sandoval.

I should add that I am inverting the uplocking seats and inletting the fighting butt into the reel seat so that I have a Downlocking seat with fighting butt.
I found it easiest to drill the inlet into the cork ring first. Then I glued on a piece of rubberized cork. Once the rubberized ring was glued in place, I inserted the reel seat hood and then turned to shape on my homemade flexcoat style lathe using a simple tape arbor.

If you don’t want to deal with making your own butt, I had great service from William at The Fly Spoke; he made me a custom carbon grip and matching butt with inlet for not much more than buying a stock grip and fighting butt would cost me…

Thanks Harry - great info and much appreciated. I do have a carbon grip and butt coming from NFC with the blank. Will look into the reel seats mentioned and planning on using all singlefoot guides - no snake at the top and glad you confirmed my impression. Also a standard stripping guide.
Thanks

Ed,

I would love to hear/see what you come up with using the NFC grip/butt.
I wanted to try those NFC grips, but didn't see an easy way to integrate with a downlocking reel seat and fighting butt...

Batson has received quite a few requests for downlocking fly seats that accommodate a fighting butt, so our product folks drew up an optional lower hood and trim ring with a pass-through for the new Alps RA5DL downlocking seat: [batsonenterprises.com]
This is what the assembled seat looks like. Recess hood O.D. is 0.840"
See a photo of the assembled seat here: [batsonenterprises.com]

-The Batson TEAM
BatsonEnterprises.com

NFC actually sent me an inletted grip so now I'll have to use an uplocking seat. I was expecting a non-inletted grip.
No big deal, I will adjust balance with some epoxied lead shot in the butt of the rod before gluing the fighting butt on. I actually prefer uplocking seats cause it gets the threads/nut away from my back fingers.