The positioning of the reel seat on a boat rod is a subject very open to debate.  While many anglers will suffer in silence, resigned to the fact that their rod isn’t exactly how they want it to be, it is when I have been handing round rods that are on review that the subject suddenly becomes very hotly debated.  Interestingly, preference doesn’t always correlate with physical size.  South coast skipper and “Man mountain” Vernon Everitt prefers a very short handle on his rods.  He often uses one of the pre-telescopic butt Suveran uptiders as a downtide rod with the handle cut off directly behind the EVA grip fitted below the reel seat.  This is an extreme example but you can see my point and also the dilemma for rod manufacturers.  Well, the ones that are listening and genuinely trying to put good product in the shops anyway.

Many anglers, me included, use uptiders for just about everything apart from uptiding.  Telescopic butts have helped greatly here but they do have reliability issues.  There are also plenty of anglers who have older rods and of course there are also the anglers we have already mentioned whose reel seat is simply in the wrong place; either too low or too high.

There is a solution to all this.  It actually means a bit of work but it gets you the handle you want with the blank, and of course the rod’s action, totally preserved.  It works well with most non-telescopic butt uptide rods and now that many boat rods come without the old joint and collar reel seats, most of them can be modified too.  That said, I sometimes think the easiest solution would be for rod manufacturers to just supply a loose reel seat, some foam grips and tube of adhesive.  You could then just put the reel seat exactly where you want it to be.  Anyway, here is the method to modify the handle of a typical rod where the blank passes through the reel seat.

Stage 1:  First thing to do is remove the butt cap and lower grip.  This is achieved by cutting through the butt cap with a craft knife or hacksaw.  Just how easy this is will depend on how much glue has been used.  Handles these days are nearly always covered in soft sponge like material (EVA).  This is also easily removed with a craft knife and peeled away.  Using the edge, not the tip, of a wood chisel is very effective way of scraping off the foam.  At this stage do not worry about getting every last bit off.

Stage 2:  Next it is the reel seat.  The order of the steps at this point is dictated by which way round the reel seat is fitted.  In this case, with the lower grip removed the threaded movable hood could be simply unwound and passed along the rod.

Stage 3:  To remove the remainder of the reel seat, cut a spiral groove around it with a junior hack-saw.  Care should be taken not to damage the blank.

Stage 4:  Once the groove has been cut along the seat’s entire length, the next stage is to break the adhesive bond that secures it.  Insert a flat bladed screwdriver into the slot and twist it.  This should break the bond, though the process may have to be repeated along the length of the slot.  Finally, simply slide the reel seat off the butt.

Stage 5:  The fore grip must now be removed.  As well as using a craft knife and scraper, you could also lever the foam away with a screwdriver.  It doesn’t really matter as long as the blank is not damaged.  If, as in this case, there is a decorative collar fitted in front of the grip, take the decision now whether to incorporate it into the new handle or remove it.  Personally I hate them.

Stage 6:  If all has gone well you should now have a pile of ex-rod fittings looking something like this.  This may be as far as you need to go if the rod you are rebuilding has a parallel, not tapering butt.  If the butt is parallel, all the new fittings can be fitted from the bottom of the handle.  However, if it is tapered, the fittings will need to be fitted from the top of the butt section.

Stage 7: this part only applies to tapered butt sections.  To slide on the fittings from the top end, the butt ring, if fitted, will have to be removed.  With the craft knife, very carefully cut through the hi-build finish on the whipping.  Removal of the whipping can be achieved by two methods.  Cut through one of the exposed threads and simply unwind the thread or, cut along the whipping and peel it off like a shell.  Here I have used a mixture of the two. 

Once again, it doesn’t matter, just don’t damage the blank. Here, the ring was under-whipped.  The under-whipping has been kept intact to preserve as much of the original look of the rod and to minimise the chances of damage. 

Stage 8:  The final job is to sand the blank.  Working carefully, use a coarse grade of paper to remove the last traces of the foam grips.  Use progressively finer grades to get rid of the glue and finish with a grade that gives a clean matt fish to the blank that will provide a key for the new adhesives.

You can then measure up the lengths and diameters for the new fittings.  Decide where you wish to fit the reel seat and measure the diameter of the rod butt there to determine the diameter of reel seat required.  As blanks are so slim, there will nearly always need to be some packing under the reel seat with masking tape to increase the rods effective diameter.  Most often buying a reel seat that is a tight fit on the blank will result in a tiny reel seat that will probably not fit your reel foot.  Masking tape is also used to allow for the taper on non-parallel blanks.  The length of grip required can then be determined.  Choose a length of fore grip that extends from the new reel seat position, up to the existing whippings or decals that marked the original position.  This results in a longer fore-grip (which is good) and also preserves again the look of the rod.  The foam grips will need to be a pretty tight fit for best results.  However, if as part of the customising process you wish to fit larger diameter grips, the diameter of the blank can again be built up with masking tape. You can then gather all your new fittings together for the re-build.

Stage 9:  Use a good quality adhesive.  Araldite is the traditional one however the one shown here, Pro Bond, is specifically designed for rod-building.  It has high adhesion but retains flexibility so does not crack when flexed.

Stage 10:  Which fitting goes on first depends on the style of the rod blank.  If the butt is tapered, as here, the first thing you need to fit is the butt cap.  The rest of the fittings are then slid on from up the blank and butted up to this.  With parallel blanks, work in the reverse direction fitting the fore grip first unless you are fitting a decorative collar, in which case, fit that first.

Stage 11:  For this build, the lower grip is next.  Spread a reasonable amount of adhesive on the butt and slide on the grip.  Remove any excess adhesive that is squeezed out by the grip.

Stage 12:  Pack out under the reel seat with masking tape as necessary to provide a location for the reel seat.  Spread adhesive over the whole area, masking tape as well, and slide on the reel seat.  This ensures that everything is secure when the adhesive has cured.

Stage 13:  With the fore grip in place using the same techniques as for the lower grip, you handle should now be complete.  The reel seat should be exactly where you wanted it.  The new extended fore grip extends to the factory fitted whipping and preserves the look of the rod.

Stage 14:  All that remains is to re-fit the butt ring if you had to remove it. You will need whipping thread and hi-build finish.

Stage 15:  Tape the butt ring in place and whip on firmly using the traditional technique of pulling the tag end of the whipping under the whipping with a loop.  The whipping can then be sealed using the high build.  The picture here is taken in my rod repairing frame.  As you are only whipping one ring, this is not strictly necessary.  However, it does make turning the rod whilst the hi-build cures a lot easier.  If you don’t do this, or if you leave the rod vertical whilst curing, the hi-build will run and slump, ruining the job completely.  The rod must be held horizontally and turned through ninety degrees every few minutes until the hi-build is cured.  I use an old BBQ rotisserie motor to turn mine automatically.

Stage 16:  Well that just about finishes the job.  In the final picture you can see the difference that has been made when the new handle is placed alongside a similar, un-modified version.  The change is only small, but makes a big difference to the handling of the rod. 

Whilst it won’t catch you any more fish, you’ll enjoy those that you do more.  All the fittings, adhesives etc used are available from Hopkins & Holloway, importers of Fuji / Seymo parts. For more information go to www.hopkinsholloway.co.uk

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