Converting casting rod to spinning?

[Three se7ens]

I have an okuma cedros jigging rod that I really like, but it's a casting rod and I'd like to use it with a spinning reel.  Is it feasible to change out the first 2 guides to spinning guides?  The rod comes in spinning models as well, but none of them have the gimbal butt like the casting models, and I like that feature.  I know anything is possible, but it don't want to end up putting a bunch of money into something that's only going to be marginal as a finished product.

[BMITCH]

I'm not a rod builder but I think the spline will be off?? Why not get a spinning rod you like and put a gimbal end on it?

[Jeri]

Hi,

You might find that you need to address the first 3 rings up from the reel seat, and replace them with 2 rings, spaced accordingly.

The spine issue is probably not going to be an issue, as the rod was probably never built on the spine. In the factories, where each worker is building literally 100's of rods each day, they will very rarely ever check for spine alignment.

Have found in the past, that if you inspect a whole rack of identical factory built rod, you will inevitably find one that is 'sweeter' in action than the others. This one rod will by chance have been built on spine, or even 180 degrees opposite.

In the factory, you have something like a 1:360 chance that a rod will be built 'on spine', and that is because of the random pick up and build nature of factory rods.

Spine as an issue generally, is a little emotive even between rod builders, and what the majority of their work entails – as for spinning, it might be that the spine needs to be on the opposite side to the rings, while trollers prefer the rods built with rings on the spine side. It is a variable that comes with the end user as well, with the surf rods, we generally build with rings on the soft side for multipliers, as casting is smoother and sweeter, but occasionally we get a client that wishes a slightly stiffer casting action, so we build their rod opposite to our norm.

So, I wouldn't worry too much changing your factory built rod from casting to spinning, ring spacing and size will be more important.

Hope that helps.

Cheers from sunny Africa


Jeri

[Capt Ahab]

Since you should also change the reel seat to a spinning seat - ,might as well align everything with the spine anyway

[philaroman]

I'm guessing you have a straight handle, without any kind of trigger & you made sure that a spinner fits into your reel-seat, correctly -- RIGHT?

1) there is ZERO chance that an Okuma rod was spined at a Chinese factory, so don't worry about spines.  Flip the rod 180*, w/ a casting reel underneath & retrieve under load, by back-reeling -- if you like the action of the blank THAT WAY, you'll probably like it as a spinner.

2) carefully read through this:

http://anglersresource.net/StaticLoadTutorial.aspx

http://anglersresource.net/WhattoLookforinaTopShelfSpinningRod.aspx

3) play around with taping on various spinning guides, BEFORE you remove the casting guides (chances are, they won't be in the way because height & placement for the first 2-3 guides is drastically different).  If you can get "GOOD SPACING", as shown in the Fuji diagrams, GO FOR IT !!!

[Three se7ens]

Since you should also change the reel seat to a spinning seat - ,might as well align everything with the spine anyway

No trigger, the reel seat is the exact same as they use on the spinning models.  I'll just need to find the SS/zirconium insert from alps to match.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

[philaroman]

do yourself a favor: match the new guides to your reel (height, ring diameter) for best function, rather than matching them to the other guides, for best looks

[Nuvole]

If you are not casting anything to the moon, save the trouble and just the rod upside down.