Gentlepersons: I hope my Christmas query finds all of you very well,full of seasonal cheer and good counsel. I have saltwater flyfished for many years with rod weights of 5,7,and 9. My 9 wt. is the first and only flyrod I have ,so far, built myself. I used some non-traditional design features , but the rod turned out beautifully. My question is why lighter wt flyrods are always built without butt sections? Is there some functional reason for placing a flyrod seat at the end of the blank? l am aware that some seats have optional "fighting butts", my 9 wt is such a rod. Last week I was helping a freind layout a special 8 wt and we both agreed that there was a balance advantage to placing the seat 3 inches from the end of the blank. The obvious option was to cut off the 3 inches, but that would have affected the balance. Why not move the seat up that same 3 inches and not cut the blank, creating the so-far-unheard-of light weight flyrod butt section? Thanks as always for your greatly appreciated responses. Joseph Jacobs Lake Worth, Fl

Joseph, Personally, I have not found a 'static' ballance test on a fly rod to have any meaningful significance. The "real" feel of a rod can only be appreciated when it is under the stress of a fly line in motion.

There is no reason you cannot do this. For many years I made integral fighting butts on the Fuji seats I used on fly rods. I had a customer bring me his 7' 4-weight fly rod and ask to have such a butt made. He liked it so much that he eventually had all his rods fitted with these butts, which put about 2 to 4 inches of butt behind the reel. His friends tried his rods and many also asked to have the same butt fitted to their rods.

There is no standard configuration that you must adhere to. Do whatever you and customer feel is the best for your application. But also remember to take the rod out and try some casting/retrieving before glueing things up. What feels good in the shop may not feel the same under actual fishing conditions.

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THANKS TOM!! and Don, you've busted me! You both obviously have great expertise in flyrod building. My 'balance' ruse was an unsuccessful attempt to abbreviate a more complicated question, but now that I have your attention; the goal was to build a specific purpose rod, namely to cast under overhanging mangroves with pinpoint accuracy at 10 yards and 'horse' medium size fish away from the mangrove roots. We think this requires a short rod with plenty of backbone and a butt section to brace against one's forearm for 'horsing' leverage. That having been said, I greatly appreciate your response to the broader question; why are 5 to 9 wts built without butt sections? It would seem that with all the new materials and renewed attention to fly fishing, there must be an advantage other than tradition.

Thanks again for your help.

Joseph Jacobs

If you need a fighting butt, add it or make one right on the rod (remember that most of the power in your rod is in the lower section however, so cutting or moving the handle too far up can take the most powerful section out of play).

The only reason they are not used on lighter rods is that most people find them unnecessary and the factories find it easier to sell the status quo than market a new style and try to sell that.

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The reason you will not see fighting butts on fly rods 6wt and below is that the rods are mainly used for trout fishing. Most trout FF are poor casters, when they shoot line the line is not guided with hand forming a loop with thumb and forefinger. The trout guys just dump the line on the water/boat, the outgoing line will commonly tangle on the fighting butt.

The eastern Canada salmon FF are similar with the removable/pull out fighting butt. These guys normally spend tons of $ on trips, equipment, custom flies, travel lodges and never take a casting lesson.

All of my 6wt rods have short fixed butt, and I will build my next 10ft 5wt and 4wt rods in similar fashion. The butt is also handy for spey casting with the single handed rod, two fingers and thumb below the reel works nicely.

The short quick casting for saltwater is nicely covered with the 8.5ft rods in 8wt. Check out Sage and St. Croix, there may be some others in the many blanks available.

Regards,
FKrow