The rod is a Megabass Levante and it has an original sprial architect reel seat. I dont know if the reel seat is snug fitted or not and i dont want to compromise the blank if I drill it.

From the photos the reel seat is one piece so where exactly should I drill the holes? I was thinking along the center back of the threads. and maybe even the carbon parts. Once the epoxy is injected I can slowly rotate and use gravity to penetrate from the top interior down?

If I'm drilling how should I proceed since I'm unsure what the inner workings of this reel seat looks like and if the blank is touching the reel seat.

This will be my first time attempting, but was wondering how you guys would tackle this job?

Drilling could cause more harm than good. And there is no guarantee that there is space for epoxy to flow around under reel seat.

Based on photos alone, it appears maybe the only solution without tearing up the rod too bad is to free up the winding check at the thread end of the reel seat and see if you can get the reel seat to slide up the blank from it's glued down position.

Clean up what you can and re-glue it and slide it back into place and reglue the winding check.

I'm stripping a rod right now that shows the reel was glued on horizontally as glue is only on one side of the blank, the lower bottom side where gravity pulled the epoxy to rest as it cured. Absolutely zero glue on top half of blank.

To avoid this situation I stand rods vertically and fill the reel seat's cavity or void like filling a glass of water. I backfill both ends of the reel seats for solid connections to the blank.

A lot of manufacturers don't fill those voids and often rods have reel seats that can move around side to side while using and you can feel this loose movement between reel seat and foregrip or rear grip as well. Back filling a reel seat in a vertical position can solve this problem.

It may be a possibility for this rod as well, but once reel seat is back in place the rear grip might block backfilling of the rear of reel seat, but you might be able to fill in the front side some.

Another trick for this type of repair is to heat or warm up your epoxy so its thinner and more runny so it can more easily flow into tight places.

The issue I have with you trying to drill this reel seat is the shape of the drill bit tips. For a job like this you need flat tipped drill bits that can drill only through the reel seat but not touch the blank.

With the standard pointed drill bits once your drill bit clears the reel seat, the point of the drill bit could already be into the blank. This must be avoided at all costs or could permanently damage the rod blank.

And if all that is in the way of moving this reel seat is a winding check and maybe a hook keeper, I would be considering removing the hook keep temporarily and free up the winding check and simply slide reel seat forward to access blank under it for regluing and slide everything back into place, front fill reel seat if possible, glue in winding check at same time, and restore hook keeper and keep on fishing. No blank damage this way.

Just an idea based on photos only.

Seat loose to the sleeve, or sleeve loose to the blank?

3 hours ago, MickD said:

Seat loose to the sleeve, or sleeve loose to the blank?

The sleeve is loose to the blank.

That is tougher. Drilling would be pretty hard to do without getting into the blank. I wonder if a high strength anerobic (Loctite) retainer might work, capillary action to get it under the sleeve? Maybe someone else has a better idea.

I've never liked that concept for a seat, thought it too risky for just what you are experiencing.

If it was me, I'd see if I could get the winding check to move out of the way, than instead of epoxy I would use PermaGloss rod finish, it is a very thin water vapor in the air curing polyurethane that is also an excellent adhesive and totally waterproof, it's so tough people have made threadless guide wraps with the stuff. An example. Sets in about 1/2 hour where I am in the Pac. NW. If the reel seat spins, I would do so while using to get a better flow.

On 4/22/2026 at 5:55 PM, MickD said:

That is tougher. Drilling would be pretty hard to do without getting into the blank. I wonder if a high strength anerobic (Loctite) retainer might work, capillary action to get it under the sleeve? Maybe someone else has a better idea.

I've never liked that concept for a seat, thought it too risky for just what you are experiencing.

If I had an x-ray machine to see how far up or down the sleeve sat within the reel seat I'd definitely drill it where there's a cavity and fill in with epoxy, so I'm not taking the risk of damaging the blank.

Luckily I contacted the Japanese company I purchased from, and they are willing to ship it back at their expense to have Megabass JP look at the reel seat defect. I'm 100% certain I'll be receiving a new rod, but it'll take at least 1-2 months before I hear anything back from them.

2 hours ago, spoonplugger1 said:

If it was me, I'd see if I could get the winding check to move out of the way, than instead of epoxy I would use PermaGloss rod finish, it is a very thin water vapor in the air curing polyurethane that is also an excellent adhesive and totally waterproof, it's so tough people have made threadless guide wraps with the stuff. An example. Sets in about 1/2 hour where I am in the Pac. NW. If the reel seat spins, I would do so while using to get a better flow.

Removing the winding check was my first choice to get this reel seat fixed, but thankfully the Japanese company honored their services and offered to pay shipping back to Japan to have the rod looked at. Thanks again for the suggestions

Sounds like you have the best solution, even though it might take a while.

7 hours ago, spoonplugger1 said:

If it was me, I'd see if I could get the winding check to move out of the way, than instead of epoxy I would use PermaGloss rod finish, it is a very thin water vapor in the air curing polyurethane that is also an excellent adhesive and totally waterproof, it's so tough people have made threadless guide wraps with the stuff. An example. Sets in about 1/2 hour where I am in the Pac. NW. If the reel seat spins, I would do so while using to get a better flow.

Spence, are you saying you would slide the seat/sleeve up the blank, put Permagloss onto the blank, then slide them back with the Permagloss being the adhesive? Or am I interpreting your plan incorrectly. Thanks.

I'd move the winding check, put the rod vertical, apply a bit of Permagloss in the little pocket that's probably there, spin the reel seat and watch the Permagloss flow between the blank and reel seat adding as needed, if the people at Megabass did their job there shouldn't be need for much, if the tube is hollow and they just used tape arbors it could take a bit, if foam cored not so much to get the job done. I'd anticipate a bit of excess cleanup if they used tape arbors due to how well Permagloss flows from both ends of the reel seat since you used more, but it sets fairly fast.

Thanks, Spencer.