I've been thinking about some old rods I used to fish with . . .

In the late 70's and early 80's I had several spinning rods under 6' with short front and rear grips (usually EVA).  They were very comfortable for 1 handed casting.  I decided to replicate that for a rod to use in the kayak.  Blank is a Sarge (small TX company) SGT742 cut down to 6' 2".

I have shortened rods like yours, but some I felt were too short when done, so think twice before cutting.

I like it...great job.

Grips done by Tom Kirkman, the shorter one was on his smallmouth bass rod for kayak fishing, all of them use a 20 or 22 mm Fuji NPS reel seat. and are extremely comfortable to fish. This style grip was popular on the old Lew Childe (Lews) rods.

A grip built this way is less likely to slip out of your hands.

I hear ya @MikeK...I have gone back to some of the shorter rods for Slider and other finesse baits.

This is one of my favorite rods now.

Its a Rainshadow CB66M with 6" cut off the butt.
10" Textalium Tennessee handle.

There is a reason rod handles evolved it’s called improved performance. 

Nothing wrong with trying to revive nostalgia using modern rod blanks and materials.

Today’s spinning rods today that use Aaron Martens fore grip design are superior in function and performance allowing balance with performance.

Nostalgia shouldn’t be lost and is a part of bass fishing.

Tom 

 

What is Aaron Martens design? From what I saw on the Enigma rods, there is nothing there that hasn't been used for decades if you are talking about the upside down IPS/VSS grip, the foregrip on the casting rod has been used longer than he has been alive.

We discussing spinning rods and as far back as I can remember spinning rod handles were either Tennessee style with full cork handles no reel seat, full cork no reel seat with 2 aluminum reel rings in lieu of using tape and full cork with real seat rear locking ring and about 2” long fore grip. Cork has given way to various materials when premium cork became scarce.

Aaron Marten designed for Megasbass before enigma has a 4 1/2” long tapered fore grip allowing you to side your hand foreword when holding the rod. St. Croix Victory spinning rods have copied this design along with a few others.

Tom

 

Grips like your description has been around for decades in many forms, the purpose is to be able to use the reel weight as a counterbalance to the rods tip weight from the guide train or the rods length, or both. For instance, the Skamania grip used by many steelhead as salmon anglers has been around in excess of 70 years, I saw them on the rivers when I was a little guy. Rogue Rods made a shorter version of this design and used them on some of their dropshot rods close to 20 years ago, using graphite tube materials. My version was much shorter since the blanks we were using were only 7 ft. long and really didn't need the grip length.

You'd be surprised by the number of designs we see today that have been tried, used and dropped to be re-introduced later and accepted as a new concept and advanced to the norm on the rod racks today especially in the bass market.

15 hours ago, spoonplugger1 said:

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You'd be surprised by the number of designs we see today that have been tried, used and dropped to be re-introduced later and accepted as a new concept and advanced to the norm on the rod racks today especially in the bass market.

Brian Latimer has a line of rods with large foregrips...just because he likes to just hold it there.
I think you will see more and more of these (for bass) as people start to fish more "under the boat" using FFS.

I make a crappie rod for pretty much the same reason.

Interesting... nice play on the exposed blank front grip (not really a foregrip anymore, that's a second grip haha)

 

I bet that would make for a stellar long spinning rod for any species that can bomb casts but then balance well and give ultimate control and feel.

 

I'm thinking 7'6-8ft finesse spinning rods, but have to experiment to figure the most ergonomic length for reel seat and front grip.

 

Good stuff