15' float rods

[sam vimes]

For what it's worth I prefer the balance point to be my index finger on the reel stem, other wise it all feels top heavy, and if that means having to stick a chunk of lead in the butt cap, so be it-the extra weight is more than compensated for by the feel of being in balance.

Have you ever bought a rod that you haven't had to modify to get that kind of balance point, or do you always use a heavy reel? Of the hundreds of float rods I've been through over the years, off the shelf or custom, I've never had one over 10' that would balance that way without modification.

 

[mikench]

Thanks for all your comments! I'm sure that I will get used to the rod and , in truth, by the end of the day I had and it seemed to be like any other. It cast very well, accurately and without effort! I was using a 2g Visiwag 1 and could cast easily to 30 yards with little effort! A lovely rod; thanks to Sam Vimes and Nottskev for their input.

As stated earlier I chose to use a FS reel,as opposed to my pin because I wanted to try the rod casting a variety of floats to varying distances and overhead and from the side to test it out! My attempts at Wallace casting still and probably always will, leave a lot to be desired.

 

[xenon]

Have you ever bought a rod that you haven't had to modify to get that kind of balance point, or do you always use a heavy reel? Of the hundreds of float rods I've been through over the years, off the shelf or custom, I've never had one over 10' that would balance that way without modification.

No Sam, I have not had one which did not need some sort of tinkering with.

 

[Mark Wintle]

Making a rod balance at the point you hold the reel is a bit like needing a hammer to balance at the end you hold it. It adds weight to the entire combination and makes what has been described as a sort of rebound strike inevitable. If a rod is reasonably light then the less encumberments the better; I have even substituted the weighty plastic butt caps on Normarks with a cork version that lessens the overall weight of the rod and actually makes them better to fish with.

I have only counterweighted a couple of rods in the past; I tried an ounce of lead in the butt of the top-heavy Shakespeare Boron Mach 2 13ft but found it easier to fish with without the lead. I borrowed a Normark that I can't remember the name of, circa 1991, not a 2000 or original series but in between and my mate had counterweighted that one as it was also top heavy. I also have a Shimano Beastmaster power rod with adjustable weights for the butt but with or without the weights the rod is unwieldy although the action is good.

Some of the long heavy butts on glass rods counterbalanced the weight of the glass to a degree; my old ABU Mk 6 has a 29" butt so with the reel near the top of the handle more like a 12ft rod with a handle that gets in the way of everything.

I do wonder sometimes that people are obsessed with ultralight rods when nearly 50 years ago we used rods weighing over 12oz (plus the weight of the reel, usually about 11oz) in 6 hour fast river matches. I seemed to manage it back in those days despite being about 8 stone wet-through back then....