spoonplugger1

My guess is that any casting reel seat you pick, 20 mm and smaller, will fit, your grip, and since they are center bored grips, they install like any other. The way the Black Widow type grips are installed is to size the reel seat to fit your blank in the correct position on the blank, something you always have to do with this seat, they don't come in sizes like the others. Cut a large foam arbor to match the angle of the Wiebe/Super Sticker reel seat and glue it to the back of the reel seat. Once the arbor is dry you just run a drill bit down through the reel seat, using it as a guide to get the right angle through the arbor. Install another arbor on the blank in the right place to ensure you have room for a butt cap of your choice, this arbor is centered just as it comes. Slip fit the reel seat to the blank. If everything is done properly the tube should now slide over the top of everything. The rest is pretty easy and obvious to a builder, about a 15 minute job, not counting the gluing, the reel seat sizing takes the time. Forgot to mention one thing, since the hole is offset on the Wiebe style there is a maximum you can bore to without removing your trigger. If I remember right, since it's been a long time, the max is at, or just shy of 9/16 of an inch. Also if your buying a seat, they may not mention that there were two bore sizes built by the manufacturer, a 3/8 bore with arbor slots built in that allow you to size, the seat to your liking, and a max bore seat that I believe is 9/16 bore, there may be a bunch of these out there that are hard to sell, since blanks have become so thin, but it would be a very poor choice to use on a thinner blank.

The only way I can think of the average builder can make a grip would be to turn a custom grip with the mandrel offset in a 4 jaw chuck for the reel seat side and centered in the tail stock on the butt cap side. Cut the angle to match the reel seat last. Need more help, let me know.

I've installed somewhere around 100 of those over the years, and what you want to do is going to be a real hairball. There is a reason why the Black Widow Edge rods use a tube grip, it's SO MUCH easier to do. By the way the rear of the reel seat has no tenon pocket to receive a cork grip tenon. Having an offset hole on the cork grip up front at the reel seat and a centered hole at the butt is your hairball.

Hotshot and popping rod blanks are not the same design, the hotshot blanks are a pacific northwest design for pulling plugs, the rods are in rod holders positioned in a near horizontal fashion with the tips pointing almost toward the plugs, the tips are soft so the plug's side to side action isn't hindered. The popping rod is a much more moderate actioned blank, very similar to a crankbait rod's action. They were designed to move a poppng cork correctly with a shrimp behind on a leader. Chugging topwaters are similar. The HSR9000 rods make a better than decent bonefish rod, I have GL3 casting versions for steelhead/smaller salmon plugging, and a GLX 3 piece spinning version for bonefish among other things, it's a marginal steelhead plugging rod, too stiff. I had varied success with the more powerful and longer hotshot rods I owned and used in Florida when I was stationed there, the Loomis HSR821 was another standout and is in the Loomis Greenwater series with different components to match the situation, as is the HSR 9000 and HSR 941 blanks. The series came out maybe 10 years after I left Florida. Had much better luck with salmon backbouncing blanks in the blue water, they were also the rods first used when swimbaits were designed. I had pretty good luck using salmon jigging spoons on the wrecks.

I agree, but the SJR6400 he spec'd is rated 2 to 6 lb. line, when dropshotting returned from Japan after disappearing here, those rods were short and light lined to go with a little light weights and fine wire little hooks, coupled with a vertical only initial presentation.

All the reel seat parts you see are all off the shelf Fuji components. If you go that way I can help set you up.

St. Croix XLC70MHF, will get the job done with no guesswork on anyone's part. Best of everything at a decent price with a super warranty. Same for your spinning rod. Get a custom when you have a specific need that's not met and you have a good idea of what's wrong.

Being a custom rod builder that fishes everything, all gear types, fresh and salt, maybe I see things more broadly. I know I was using bass and steelhead/salmon rods on the flats and on wrecks before anyone else I knew was in Florida and Georgia. Now those same blanks are used in the salt, just look at the Greenwater series rods from G Loomis for almost two decades. Same blanks, different components to fit the situation. That's how I build my kayak rods, because no matter where I'm fishing, whether it's my inflatable whitewater, or sit on kayak a shorter graphite tube handle comes out of rod holders so much better, whether it's the vertical ones behind me, or the ones in front of me, the rod always comes out slick and easy because of the material and length. NO a graphite tube handle is no slicker than the hammer and ax handles you' ve used without them flying out of your hands all these years. A shorter handle also makes a shorter, lighter rod that still goes around the bow of the boat because the rod's length is in front of you not behind you. Same for casting performance, rod length in front of you is better than behind you. They also don't hang up on you, or the boat while fighting the fish from many odd angles and positions from a kayak. Both Paco and I use composite or Lamiglas Triflex type blanks when we can because highsticking, a no-no for any rod is pretty normal procedures from a kayak. With the new materials and designs, at times you are hard pressed to distinguish blanks anymore, at least the ones relevant to kayak use.

My 5S76MLXF mentioned above has a tip that reminds you of the tip on an ultralight trout rod that finishes with the backbone you'd expect on any nice finess bass rod. Tackletour reviewed that rod. The United Composites blanks are built with the same layup the company uses on the all graphite heavy saltwater blanks. It's called an aviation layup and makes a much more durable blank than the layup we see used by he industry in general.The dual helix layup has been used for everything from heavy saltwater rail rods to fly rods and everything in between.

The original was the SJR700, it's been around for decades. If you know who Stan Fagerstrom is, it was his favorite stick. I have an original in the old IM6, so I've now dated myself. The one's you mentioned are nothing like it, the 6400 is stiffer tipped and was one of the original dropshot design rods. They were all short originally, to decrease weight and increase sensitivity. Well back to a light, long, x fast blank. The IMX material is IM7 graphite, 47 mil modulus, it was originally graphite scrimmed till they discontinued, but no longer, since re-introduction they are glass scrimmed like the Lamiglas IM700 rods always were. Many X-fast long, light powered blanks are made now of better materials and just as durable in a fishing environment, you just got to get past discriptions that are not universal in the industry and never were. Suggestions, the the St Croix 7ft. 6 in. blank rated 4 to 10 lb line, another the United Composites UC66LXF, or UC70LXF rated 2.to 10 lb. line. There are others, but harder to find and I have someplace else.to be to continue this conversation

Have you looked at the Lamiglas Paco rods? Kayak rods built from a famous kayaker's designs.

Wright & McGill Skeeter Reese cranking rod, or the Ardent Denny Bauer 7 ft. 4 in. cranking rod.

Not surprised either, the Batson clan has a long history of making a blank of that design in RX7, RX8, and RX8+ that everyone loved, before the new lineups. After fishing many other sticks from many sources, I'm covinced my RX8+ stick is about as good as it gets in that blank design.

Looks like this may be a foregrip with really poor fit and finish, an awful lot of daylight there, it may have a tape arbor just behind where the break is to take up the slop which left you no support on the end. Add cheapest grade of cork material, and Bob's Your Uncle as the Brits say. Since it's on the end, the fix is easier for you to do using the insructions from above. EVA is a great option, but if you can't spin the rod, shaping is more difficult.

You can also still buy the old metal ferrules if you want to go that way.

Have you considered asking the local tackle stores? Howell Marine and Tackle has been around a long time, try there.

This is a Fisher/Kennedy crankbait build from the 80's.

You'll never get away from knots being noticable, if you're not snagging, or hanging up your golden.

Pac Bay has the info on their guides on their site, the tables are right along side the guides in each guide series. If you don't know much about them, they were used by G Loomis when Gary Loomis owned the company. Others have used them also, but not as consistantly.

The inside diameter of the guide frame is how guides are measured, so measuring the outside diameter of the ceramic ring is way to get guide size down, different ring materials and how they are installed makes a difference big time on the inside diameter you experience.

A lot of low end commercially built salmon rods have this problem when you try to install a reel such as a Shimano Tekota that has the full sized saltwater reel foot, not the smaller compact reel foot. The Abu C3 reels still have the small foot as the bass reels so people get confused when going from one to the other. I always take my reel shopping so I know, and the good shops will put their demo reel on to check for you before you buy the rod. I've used a dremel with a small burr to open up these reel seats some to fit the longer/wider saltwater foot over the years. 1/8 inch you'll probably get away with, but no more, only take the absolute minium. The info I'm passing on was given to me by Todd Vivian, former rod designer for Lamiglas Rods, he now works at Mudhole. Another way, measure your blank diameter at the foregrip, measure the OD of the reel seat at your point of work, do the math, how much room do you have? Remember it's a centered hole so you have half the thickness left after sutracting reel seat diameter from the blank diameter.

A lot of the Matagi dealers are small outfits that order when they have enough customers to warrant the shipping and customs costs and than they spread out the costs between all the orders, a single order you pay the full freight. Most are great people when your in a niche market, you were probably getting cut a break and not realizing it. My experience is you get better than twice the time we got from soft touch reel seats before you start seeing any evidence of wear, if you've used a painted Mudhole seat, it's in the same ball park. My wife's GUSA rod is 10+ years old and still looks great, but she's about the easiest person on gear I've ever seen.

If you want to reassure yourself buy a 5 guide, tape it on one of your rods between two guides near the tip and go out and test cast it with your setup. You never have to build a rod, or have one built on a guess. You can find the right position for your reel seat by simply spinning up a bunch of masking tape arbors on the blank and sliding the reel seat back and forth to get your right rear grip length for your presentaion. Tape the guides on and go see how your line flows through them before you build it. A dollar's worth of tape and an hour of your time can teach you volumes with no consequences.

The HPS nut has no notches of any kind, it just a threaded collar. If the threads are the same it will work.

We've been hiding threads with the Fuji HPS and cutting and reshaping the corresponding cork or EVA foregrip since I believe the 80's, and they weren't the only ones making this for casting and spinning (pipe) reelseats. Split grips we were building back than were built threads back and covered. Some of my older S-glass rods have these non-discript reel seats that looked very much like the old Berkley Series One reel seats, closest seat now is the CUI Benchmark CRST3 seats which look very much like the Castaway seats of years past. That said unless they've changed the thread pitch on the Alps seats, they should fit. I've switched nuts on Fuji, Pac Bay, Forecast, and AmTack reel seats for years. One of them, can't remember which right now, could at times be a bit snugger because the centering notch was minutely smaller, easy to fix though.