I have been commissioned to build 3 walleye planer board trolling rods for a client. I'm not familiar with carbon fiber tube, building techniques, etc. I'm looking at the USA Made Factory .970 ID carbon fiber tubes to be used as rear grips for these rods. Can anyone comment on how best to arbor the blank to these tubes, and if they are sturdy enough for the job of riding in rod holders trolling Lake Erie walleye? Also - as far as butting the tubing to the reel seat - what are good options to use here? I'm planning on using the AmTack SCRSD casting reel seats. You can see I'm very unfamiliar with carbon tubing - I'm mainly a custom cork guy but am leery to build trolling rods with custom cork rear handles. I'm building on the Batson RDR86M telescoping blank.

thanks for any help!

Great blank. Batson also offers foam arbors to fit the tubing. EVA trim pieces for the seat and butt. Several of the Alps metal trim pieces fit as well. All readily available from Utmost, just down the street from Batson. And yes, the tubing holds up to the abuse from rod holders.

I was in a discussion with another forum member about USA Made carbon tubing for rod extensions and over sleeves. I have not done any business with them yet, but if they have carbon tubes for extending blanks, I'm interested!

Lamiglas used to make the tubing, I don't know if they still do for their rods, NFC may also, I know their Black Widow tubing is hand laid up out of the same material they build their blanks out of, watched the lady do it. Light weight stuff.
Lamiglas part # for .980ID tube was THT-980-Length, the length were in inches, 10, 12, 16 and 60. Butt cap was GH-950-BC, the trim ring was GH-980-TR.

AYE! Yes I have done a few. The product coming from USA factory is way thicker in the wall I believe.

You can use the white/tan urethane arbors available from most supply houses. Make sure to scuff the interior surface with 60/80 grit paper and clean well. One could even scape / cut lines into the arbor to give room for the epoxy a reservoir to for torsion bonding characteristics.

I do wish there were some other alternatives out there also, nice thing about the foam is that it will not add much in weight. The thicker wall tube adds weight to the butt of the rod to balance it out.

thank you all!

thank you all!