casting with conventional reels

[Ron Jones]

That is, honestly, why I don't like levelwinds. Just to much crud that can break. BZ on the groper.
Ron

[CapeFish]

Chad: The comfort of the rod is important to a point, but tanking into consideration that balance in important also. Finding the center of balance is a good starting point and if you have to adjust from there at least you have a reference point, matching the reel to your rod is important also. IMHO the balance of the rod and reel is like the balance of a good gun in your hand. I'm not an expert on rod building and admit that I have a lot to learn, and I respect your opinion.

Joe  

Joe,

THose are light tackle rigs, that mid positioned reel seat is fine for that application, but not great for heavy applications
If you've ever seen a Michigan-style spinning handle, (short rear grip/long fore-grip), that is one that comes very close to a harmony of balance, comfort, and casting performance. With the reel in place, your hand grips the rod just forward of the seat--right at the balance point of the entire set-up.

Chad

Sounds like your describing a fly rod setup. Ill give an example. An 8' rod med action you are intending to use for bait & plug casting with a open reel (Conventional). Would you balance the rod heavy on the butt end?

Joe

It's a two-handed spinning rod that is cast as you normally would, but fished with one hand held above the reel rather than at the reel seat.The following examples as seen on RBO's photo album were built by Ross Pearson. The way he explained it to me is that these float-fishing rods are typically long, and held in the hand for quite a while. Thus a fly-rod style grip with the reel as counterweight helps to combat fatigue.



I brought up Michigan-style handles for the following reasons:

1.They are examples of a setup built to be held and fished right at--or very close to--its balance point.
2.They are examples of a setup which uses one of its integral parts (the reel) as a balancing counterweight.

The balance point of a blank, and the balance point of a completed rod with reel strapped on, are two different variables.

To use the example you gave, suppose I found the balance point of the 8' casting rod blank to be 14" from the butt. I go ahead with gluing on the reel seat at that point and wrapping the guides. Upon casting the completed rod however, I find that my hands are set too closely together to allow full extension of my lead elbow during the cast. Furthermore, I find that the rod seems a little tip-heavy working poppers with my new Super Surfcaster titanium reel. "But why?" I think to myself. "I used the exact balance point so it shouldn't feel this way."

In reality, what happened is that the balance point changed as soon as I wrapped the guides and strapped on my new light-weight reel. This balance of the completed rod with reel attached is more crucial than that of the bare blank--akin to the balance of a completed rifle versus that of just the stock.

Now suppose the situation was the same, but my reel and guides were afixed only temporarily with tape. I would then only need a few minutes to re-tape my reel to another point on the blank, not the balance point, but a point which I subsequently find allows me to cast comfortably and with maximum distance. Satisfied with these results, I can next tackle the task of balancing the rod such that it doesn't feel so tip-heavy working poppers. Perhaps this might be something as simple as using different guides, or switching to a full grip rather than split grips. If it was a spinning setup I may consider trading in my Super Surfcaster reel for the heft of a tried-and-true Penn Spinfisher...

Of course, there are many more methods varying in degrees of complexity, but to sum things up:

A rod with a comfortably-positioned reel seat can later be balanced and perform beautifully; A rod with an uncomfortable reel seat that hinders performance will be just that--even though it was built with care. Figuring out balance per applicafion is important, and imho best done with a temporarily complete setup on which other variables have already been worked out.

Chad

[Reel 224]

Valkie: If you can find a Penn Mag 10 it is a level wind with steal gears and very good to start on. You can pick one up on E-Bay for $50.00 less and prats are available from Scott's if you need the. There is a thread here started by Sal on the reel.

Joe   

[fishhawk]

Doing reel well guys.
Went fishing yesterday and used an overhead reel.

Everything was going along swimmingly, casting just nice, getting distance and only a couple of small tangles.

Then I caught the fish.
A 60 cm groper.
Now it put up a serious fight, cheating using rocks to give me a hard time, but eventually I got the baby in.

At some stage during this little battle, the level wind gear had decided to loose a few teeth.
Cheap reel, cheap plastc gearing, but for those who know the reason, it was to perfect my casting technique with a less than perfect bearing filled spool.

The next, and last cast, was a beauty, the line fed off the reel for a good 50-60 meters, perfect arc, wonderful cast.
The bait was hit almost as it hit the water, and the fish ran.
I started winding, but something jammed.
I watched as the line fed off the spool at a great rate of notts, so I tried winding it on again, nothing.
Quick as a flash I grabbed the line and dropped the rod with the intention of hand landing the fish.
NOTE TO SELF
Dont try and bring in a running fish on 30 lb line by hand.
Much blood and 300 meters of line later, I gave up and cut the line.

Now I have to go back to the Penn reel and try to learn casting on a reel far far too good and which line flies off the spool.
That is once my hands heal.

This fishing game is starting to become dangerious, and thats not even mentioning the waves that tried to embrace me and take me swimming.

Good job valkie! Equipment failure isn't your fault! At least your on fish!