spoonplugger1

20 years ago a casting rod would of had around an 8 inch rear grip, a spinning rod somewhere in the 6 1/2 to 7 inch range. Because you hold the reels differently the actual amount of grip length under your arm is the same.

Not a fan of the balanced butt concept, it's not something new, we went through this in the early 90's, didn't work than, doesn't work now. It just means we have given up on making the most sensitive, lightest rod we can produce. If you're concerned about balance and it's your first priority, then just use a shorter rod. To much of the fishing industry is driven by the new shiny thing, not by cognitive thinking about how do we make a better product. Why do we think buying the highest modulus rod, with the lightest most expensive reel is a good thing if we turn right around and install a bunch of $.25 cent washers to it, do we have any idea how much weight is needed to balance the rod? Remember where your mom, or dad had to sit to play on the teeter totter with you, or you with your kids? Somehow bass angler's have gotten the idea that they get to tired fishing and that adding weight helps. Even though physics shows of that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words what you put in motion also takes the same amount of energy to stop, the more something weights the harder it is to accelerate and than stop. They throw their dinky little rods, on dinky reels and dinky baits, when for instance musky and surf anglers are throwing large heavy plugs with long, heavier rods and larger reels and seem to survive the experience even though the surf, or current is pushing and pullijg on them all day.

Okoboji, I disagree respectfully, the people at Lew's had no idea what that rod would be used for, they built it in such a way, that anyone, knowledgeable, or not would pick it off the rack and give it the old shake test, compare it to all the other similar rods, check the price tag and hopefully purchase it. Optimizing the angler's specific use for that rod was not in the top five considerations. Lamiglas makes the kayak specific Paco rods in 6 different powers, everything from trout and smallmouth, to large saltwater species, they all have a short handle so they don't get in the way, because frankly you have no plce to go, or move, so the rod better be friendly. They all have graphite rear grips and large foregrips so you can grab them out of your rod holder, or rocket launcher behind you easily with no interference, they all have a heavy tether loop built into the butt so you can tether your rod to the boat and not lose it when you knock it over the side. There are other kayak special ideas incorporated into the rods, like blanks that don't blowup when you highstick them, pretty much a guaranteed to happen. You pay extra for these build ideas, it takes longer to build them in, but just how many rod/reel combos lost over the side does it take to make up the difference? How many lost fish because you couldn't get the rod out of the rod holder? How much gas burned, or trip money spent just to lose the fish of a lifetime, or have your rod blowup and lose the fish? If it was me, I'd slip a graphite tube, or Texalium grip the right length right over the cork there now install a rubber buttcap like the Paco rod with tether loop and go fishing. Done right for maybe $30 max.

Butt caps come in different lengths and diameters, they also come in different materials. Take a single edge razor blade, or exacto knife and cut the grip at one of the cork seams, if it matches close to what you need, build a tenon, (notch) for the butt cap to set on, or build up a tenon from masking tape. Cut the blank off behind the tendon and install your cap, if your cap is built out of something than can be shaped, the part not needing shaped can be protected with a bit of masking tape and the other side sized as necessary. If it's the butt cap that needs shaped, you can install it on a short piece of steel shaft with a tape arbor on it that the butt cap can slide on to, fire up, your drill and slowly shape and size with sandpaper to fit.

Production rods error on the side of not knowing what the angler is going to use as far as reels, lines and knots. The custom builder hopefully has this nailed down before he builds a rod.

Ghoti gave some great advise, both my spinning GL3 and casting GLX 844's have 7mm tip tops, but they are both 25 years old, long before braid was used 5mm should work fine with your setup no matter the knot.

When in doubt use math, it usually gets you pretty close.

Only way your going to know is to buy one, or go to a golf shop and look. The underlying EVA material comes in different hardnesses depending on the application, that's important for comfort.

There is nothing more accurate than those old short rods, still have a few Lamiglas Certified Pro 5 1/2 ft. blanks in my blank rack, and get an order for one every now and then. Worms for number of fish, jigs for big fish when slack line presentations makes more sense.

Looking at the condition of the tip top I'd say you have no warranty claim, since it's their low end rod made in Mexico, I'd just buy another if you like it. The tip being cut that far back is going to affect the tip's performance quite a bit. That said I see no SC II blank with that spec in my catalogs. The SC III blank is listed as a 4.5 tip, the SCV blank a 4.0 tip, best guess would be a 5.0 at least, why don't you just remove the blank out of the old tip top, try it, if it fits measure it, strangely drill bits are sized in 1/64th inch increments.

Lure rating is more important for your application, medium doesn't mean anything.

J Franco's selection is decent, I would just use my Carolina rig rod for the heavy spinnerbaits instead of buy another rod.

Maybe there is something wrong with me, or I've been doing this to long. Split grips were not a fashion statement, the lack of a full grip was to save money and make a lighter rod. A grip that cost you more money and isn't lighter than a full grip is a waste of time as split grips have always taken longer to install than a full grip. This grip is to long, both pieces, and incorrectly shaped.

Is the cork gripped rod set up rear locking like the EVA gripped rod? If your interested, Schneider's has Mid-Corks for 17 mm skeletons at a discount price.

The Minimal guides are superior to the guides used by Pure Fishing in all their rods, Janns Netcraft sold those guides long before Pac Bay brought out their versions.

This is a long known problem, like ghoti said, it didn't take people, and some of the manufacturers like G Loomis, long to quit using REC tip tops when using REC guides, mid production first year they were already getting complaints and switched over to a ceramic tip top. This was 15+ years ago, My #2 replacement has probably been Pure Fishing's tip tops on their rods, just took off a set of Berkeley Lightning Rod grooved guides and went all ceramic for a guy.

I'm sorry, I thought you might have been looking for options, since those butt caps are not available like many of the other components that are specific to production rods. You can't have fishing long not to have noticed that, and may have wanted some similar looking options, I didn't realize the little silver ring with the very small numbers was all important, if they really thought it was, there was a lot of room there to make the numbers larger. There is a difference to me between looking at a blown up picture, and what I can see from the distance of a rod laying on the deck, or in a rod locker.

With the flat caps that are sold now days that are designed to have some kind of inset addition, I don't see why you couldn't buy some of the little sticky dots used on sale items and apply them there with any info you want, or use specific colors for different line sizes, or types. Some of the standard old plastic caps also have an indentation in the end, though a bit smaller in diameter you can figure out how to use. If you need something more durable and permanent you can punch out circles from lure tape. Sure would be easier at a glance, or in low light than something written, or etched.

No, not really,but 2 mm ones are.

I'm with Mick, how are you changing actions and why would you need to order new guides? Cutting a blank is the only way to change action I know of and it's always slower no matter what I do, just test the blank and get what you want before you cut and than order the guides. You don't need a tip top, or the perfect guide set to test and evaluate a blank.

Lots of companies have reel seats of different colors and patterns that also have great customer satisfaction and service. Mud hole has them on site and in their catalog, Rainshadow/Alps, Sea Guide, Fuji, American Tackle, and others have many different styles. Matagi painted seats from Japan are available from the NERBs, or Voodoo Rods sites, if they don't have them, they put in bulk orders pretty regularly.

American Rodbuilders Warehouse has trout, panfish blanks in many lengths and.powers for under $30.

Rod blanks don't need a finish, it's just paint, agree with above, rod blanks are cured in a big oven to make them a rigid tube, anything over 250 deg. will damage them irrepairably. They can fail at anytime.

The traditional size rear grip for that blank is 8 inches from the back of the reelseat, a size 13.5 ID reel seat if I remember right.

Bdnoble, Do something for me first, you you have a casting rod, install a spinning reel with the line your going to use on it and go do some lawn casting. I bet it worked better than you expected, it's our worst case scenario we have been taught, low and small guides. The guides used in this design are not low framed like your casting rod. Guide sizes have dropped over the last decades, wasn't long ago the smallest guide you would see on any rod was at least a 7, or 8, the first guide from the reel was a 30 mm, or bigger on spinning rods, what size are they now? What size are they doing now? 16mm - 20mm the same size an height Gary Loomis was putting on his light powered steelhead rods 40 years ago, with 4 mm guides on the tip. Then Berkeley came out with the Series One rods back in the late 80's, people horse laughed them till they actually tried them, they had these little 5 and 6 mm guides on them, starting with a 10 mm stripping guide on the casting rods, even the heavier powered ones. After enough people got their butt handed to them by these silly rods that were so light and handy, the industry changed virtually over night to the little tip guides that all before couldn't believe would work. Now we have seen another evolution, this is new to the US, but not to the rest of the angling world, they have been using them for decades. Some custom builders noticed these little guides in a Batson display and the international catalogs and asked Batson to import some for them to try, sizes down to 2 mm with ceramic rings. the rest is history, they used them, liked them, won some money in tournaments using them, and then sold custom rods to the other tournament anglers. That was over 10 years ago I believe. Some thoughts, everyone wants the lightest most sensitive best balanced rod, one 6 mm guide weighs the same as 6 of the 3 mm guides. If the guides are durable enough? They are. If they don't snag up as much as the bigger guides in your rod box? They don't. if they are cheaper? They are. If they don't get tip tangles with braid? Mine never have. I could go on and on. Just like before, people have reasons to never try something new, even if they can just tape on a pair of guides and try them out without ever having the permanently wrap them on and finish the rod. Why does the rest of the world have to have a better, lighter, better balanced rod than folks in the US? Why are we happy with the status quo like the 80's before the last change? When is a rod built just good enough, ok? Why is modulus the only gauge for a good rod?