Old-school Champion rod grips with separate ferruled rod blades are right at home with round reels - they put  a medium-frame large spool in the same thumb position as LP reel on straight blank-through-handle.  My best buy on a new grip was the Smith Super Strike grip, a $100 Yahoo buy,

 

though $125 is more typical, and list price for both Smith and Bright River offset grips begin at $150, and can double that for rare and ornate limited/ bench examples.  The Japanese like these, and sell in a boutique market I call the Japan Underground.  

More recently, China maker Aioushi has entered this market with baitfinesse glass and composite rod blades - they sell the grips as "sink-type handle" the and rod blades as "ejection rod" - everything swaps with Japanese (and vintage US) Champion type ferrule and grip head chuck.  

I've been having fun tinkering old Langley reels into 2-3-g BFS by adding mag brake, and matched my first with Aioushi $50 ferruled rod blade and a Bright River SS Eyespot grip I already had without a current application.  

 

When I wanted to add a second, I looked at putting a straight cork grip on Aioushi grip blank.  The grip blanks are made to quickly epoxy-on a wood pistol grip.  I bought a $75 Aioushi grip blank, $25 Bright River cork, odds and ends to finish it out.  

 

The trick is to butt together a cut length of the cork aluminum tube onto the grip-butt tube, essentially using a spigot ferrule - or fixed, you call this a stint.  Cork Al-tube, 13-mm I.D, 15-mm O.D.; Grip blank butt-tube, 14-mm O.D., 12-mm+slip-fit I.D.

Ordered a foot of polycarbonate mechanical tube (clear "acrylic" but stronger) from Amazon for $8, 12-mm O.D., 8-mm I.D.
I gave the grip-butt slip-fit epoxy feet by turning the stint section on my rod roller and used the smallest dremel sanding drum.
Six-wrap shims of my blue PE/acrylic tape gave the Al-tube stint end 0.2-mm clearance fit, plenty of room for ProPaste epoxy film.

I set the stint in one operation, Al-tube first, then used the long leftover piece of polycarbonate tube like a piston to push in the rod-butt slip fit and butt the two tubes.  

Here after a six-hour epoxy set - I also cured it on my rod-roller, to make sure epoxy flow was uniform. 

Finished rod grip after cork set.

Langley Target on Bright River grip.  

Langley Lurecast on Aioushi grip from blank.  

23 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

Old-school Champion rod grips with separate ferruled rod blades are right at home with round reels - they put  a medium-frame large spool in the same thumb position as LP reel on straight blank-through-handle.  My best buy on a new grip was the Smith Super Strike grip, a $100 Yahoo buy,

 

though $125 is more typical, and list price for both Smith and Bright River offset grips begin at $150, and can double that for rare and ornate limited/ bench examples.  The Japanese like these, and sell in a boutique market I call the Japan Underground.  

More recently, China maker Aioushi has entered this market with baitfinesse glass and composite rod blades - they sell the grips as "sink-type handle" the and rod blades as "ejection rod" - everything swaps with Japanese (and vintage US) Champion type ferrule and grip vise.  

I've been having fun tinkering old Langley reels into 2-3-g BFS by adding mag brake, and matched my first with Aioushi $50 ferruled rod blade and a Bright River SS Eyespot grip I already had without a current application.  

 

When I wanted to add a second, I looked at putting a straight cork grip on Aioushi grip blank.  The grip blanks are made to quickly epoxy-on a wood pistol grip.  I bought a $75 Aioushi grip blank, $25 Bright River cork, odds and ends to finish it out.  

 

The trick is to butt together a cut length of the cork aluminum tube onto the grip-butt tube, essentially using a spigot ferrule - or fixed, you call this a stint.  Cork Al-tube, 13-mm I.D, 15-mm O.D.; Grip blank butt-tube, 14-mm O.D., 12-mm+slip-fit I.D.

Ordered a foot of polycarbonate mechanical tube (clear "acrylic" but stronger) from Amazon for $8, 12-mm O.D., 8-mm I.D.
I gave the grip-butt slip-fit epoxy feet by turning the stint section on my rod roller and used the smallest dremel sanding drum.
Six-wrap shims of my blue PE/acrylic tape gave the Al-tube stint end 0.2-mm clearance fit, plenty of room for ProPaste epoxy film.

I set the stint in one operation, Al-tube first, then used the long leftover piece of polycarbonate tube like a piston to push in the rod-butt slip fit and butt the two tubes.  Here after a six-hour epoxy set - I also cured it on my rod-roller, to make sure epoxy flow was uniform. 

Finished rod grip after cork set.

Langley Target on Bright River grip.  

Langley Lurecast on Aioushi grip from blank.  

My old reels found a good home👍😀

Tom

When through blank construction became the norm, American engineering came up with the solution for round reel users that smoothly transitioned to super comfortable palming as low frame reels became available. See how the offset reel seat similarly raised the hand closer to the top of the reel. This design is still used today.

Yes, that seat is on my Lami Rogue River Special, and could never quite seat the rear of my BB-25, which fell off one day mid-cast - I had a back-up reel, but couldn't strike the 30" speckled trout I was sight-fishing.  

LP reels don't have the rear-foot problem.  

At best, that's a fractional offset.  Fuji O and N grips, which accepted Fuji butt ferrules, e.g., Fenglass, Browning Silaflex, and Speed Stick, were half-offset.   Bright River offered a recent run of the original Fuji NGH grip (all sold out).  

Reel feet can be offset in the frame to gain up to 7-mm offset - certainly everything you need on a small-frame reel with 30-mm spool.  

 

Not really fishing for an alternate solution here, especially with the perfection of a match like 4500C on Smith 66SPX.  

If anyone has the inkling, the Aioushi offset grips are a cost-effective alternative. 

On 8/4/2025 at 6:35 AM, bulldog1935 said:

....

The trick is to butt together a cut length of the cork aluminum tube onto the grip-butt tube, essentially using a spigot ferrule - or fixed, you call this a stint.  Cork Al-tube, 13-mm I.D, 15-mm O.D.; Grip blank butt-tube, 14-mm O.D., 12-mm+slip-fit I.D.

....

 

The grips are what make a custom rods...having that assembly down is super critical. How to shim extra length, making mods to the seat. I love the look you got there...it just speaks "kick-azz".

Take out your Dremel add a small burr on it and with a light massage your BB25SW should fit, after all saltwater reels have always had an issue with freshwater designed reel foot seats, the SW reels usually have a wider foot if not longer one also. Abus 6500 and smaller, and the newer SW palmable reels usually have the FW reel foot. Surprised a low end rod like your Rogue River Special had that seat, Lamiglas and G Loomis used that reel seat on their high end rods pretty exclusively, IM700, Esprit/XMG50 for Lamiglas, IMX and GLX for G Loomis. Learn something new all the time, the reel seat with its round threads and all metal nut is an expensive seat compared to others. It's still a high end option for rods that use it.

Pretty sure I still haven't solicited advice on this thread.  Here's the last redfish I caught on both BB-25 and fluoro in Nov 2018.  

 

The long rods were helpful keeping 1/4- and 3/8-oz jigheads above the skinny grass, as well as getting far away from hull slap. They're still useful for surf-lure and shore fishing.  

Still carry the 1/4-oz JH and maybe an MM/MH for channel slopes on a falling tide.  

Now in salt kayak, I mostly fish 1/8 oz on BFS, and get everything I need in 7' rods. 

Almost made up for Rattlesnake Bay with a 28" trout on Estes Flat.  

My round reels matched with short offset-grip rods are for river kayak.  

and the subject tackle on this thread specifically for wading limestone headwaters for endemic bass, and occasionally our tailwater for tailwater rainbows.  

This is too cool, and have to show it off.  

Rec'd today, an extra-narrow+shallow-spool bench modification of Langley 310"XN" Streamlite, including cropped down spool and level wind, and gears improved to 5.6 - from the bench of NKmaker in Japan - don't know anything about him, but I have a web spook looking for me - he had 4 examples listed on Yahoo, and this was the only RHW (he also converts original RH Langley to LHW).  

Yes, this is going to get my mag brake mod...  

 

here's where this reel began, normal wide-spool Langley 310KC

.............  and a LH-conversion 310XN from NK maker

On 8/4/2025 at 11:58 PM, spoonplugger1 said:

 

Wouldn't this need a grip that is also off set?

 

I've never seen one for sale

3 hours ago, Banned User said:

Wouldn't this need a grip that is also off set?

 

I've never seen one for sale

Not 100% sure if anyone sells that.

But you can sure make one. Either glue up the handle and bore it (drill press).

Or you could just build the grip on the blank and shape it.

@Chris Catignani Fuji sells a version of that in Japan

It's not quite a full-offset

or even half-offset

 

1 hour ago, Chris Catignani said:

Either glue up the handle and bore it (drill press).

Or you could just build the grip on the blank and shape it.

Unfortunately, I cannot, no tools or space to put the tools if I could get the tools.

 

But this crazy idea just hit me, maybe I could shape my own offset grip with some JB Weld? Around an arbor?

1 hour ago, bulldog1935 said:

@Chris Catignani Fuji sells a version of that in Japan

It's not quite a full-offset

or even half-offset

 

How much do those cost?

I posted 3 things.  The Japanese offset grips begin at $150 with cork and go up with wood, rubber, or bakelite grasp.   Of course the trick with anything in Japan is getting it across the big pond - e.g., the $8 Fuji reel seat - most of this stuff, not marketed to US, requires a business relationship with a broker.  This is something I've been doing 20 years.  

The Chinese clone that's the subject of my OP is new in the market, and a good buy.  

Maybe you should search Vintage Champion Featherweight Rod Handle on ebay and go from there.