12 minutes ago, thinkingredneck said:

I have also gone with shorter butt rods.  I don't stand in my kayak, either.  I mostly use a St Croix MF BC rod.  I also have a couple BPS tourney special, one M and one Heavy. I have an Abu spinning rod with a handle that is too long.  A Fenwick that is a tad long.  I am embarassed to admit it, but I am having good luck using an Ugly stick spinning rod, medium.  Fun to use. The older I get, the less trendy I am.

 

I'm not that embarrassed to admit that I have an Ugly Stik baitcaster.  It was inexpensive, and I figure that there has to be something to them to have been a best seller since the mid 70's.  Since I'm a "general purpose" angler, it suits me just fine along side my BPS MH 3 piece 7' spinning rod.  These 2 rods are what I'll be going out with my in my canoe.  I don't say that this is right for anyone else, but it's fine for what I do.

On 8/17/2017 at 8:19 AM, RichPenNY said:

 

 Just take about 6-8" of copper water pipe insulation, (the small diameter grey stuff that comes in 6' lengths at home improvement stores) and place it above the grip in front of your reel on your spinning rod or on the split grip part of your casting rod behind the reel.  This is a low cost way to fish without worrying about losing your gear.

Doesn't this deaden the sensitivity? It seems it would have the same effect as a silencer on a bowstring, that is, dampening vibration.  

11 hours ago, GrumpyOlPhartte said:

@Bunnielab: I have a hassle with longer butts on rods since I fish from a sit-in kayak.  I found that Manley rods with an adjustable butt have made my life easier. Very quick and easy to extend and retract as required. Just mentioning this in case you are interested. Great customer service if you have questions. I'm hoping to replace a couple more rods since anything with over a ten-inch butt is an accident waiting to happen in my situation. 

 

I looked at the Manley rods, but wasn't sure how the added butt weight would affect the balance and didn't want to make my rods any more likely to sink.  I use floats but prefer the small ones.  I ended up getting a pair of custom spinning rods from a company in PA called SmallieStix.  The owner is a huge kayak fisherman and specializes in short-butt rods.  I have also found the the old Fenwick Smallmouth Elite rods have really short butts as well, so I picked up a pair of them when they were being cleared out.

 

But now with the revelation that a full cork handle might float a combo, I am gonna take a second look at my kayak arsenal.  

I carry anywhere from six to eight rods with me on my yak. Once I establish a pattern though, I'll usually end up using two or three mainly. But that changes daily. One day it may be a buzz bait/swim bait/creature baits that get the bite, the next day it might be a hollow body frog/square bill/swim jig type day. I want to have all those options and more available to me because I hate not having all my tools and I hate stopping to retie/change lures. Once I figure out which two or three rods I'll mainly be using I stow the rest behind me out of the way.

 

Also, I prefer my kayak rods no longer than 7'. I like 6'6" even better.