Why so long?

[Texeye]

Have any of you cut the handle down on your spinning rod? Why do they have to be so long? I hate having the butt of my spinning rod rub against me when I'm fishing jigs.It is even worse when you are all bundled up ,it seems the handle is constantly catching on something.I am tempted to cut mine off and fill the end with lead to balance it back out.Maybe someone out there has done this or knows a place to buy some good spinning rods with short handles.I sure would be interested! Thanks.

[Water Dog]

The longer handles are for leverage on your wrist/forearm when reeling in larger fish .
Not everyone needs this feature . I like the longer handles for salmon , but prefer shorter handles for walleye jiggin .
Best Regards ,
Water Dog

[mnjimcarp]

the longer handles can be cumbersome. i have had custom handles and jigging rods made by Kevin Figgins. www.figrigrods.com check it out, he will custom your handle to meet your wishes.

[TBO/MN]

Jim is right, figrig makes great rods. If you are going to buy a rod from, say Cabelas, or Bass Pro, no matter what the brand, you can order a choice of handles on most rods. I know St. Croix, Loomis, Falcon, and all of Cabelas rods have choices in handles. I make my own rods, and most of the time I make rods with as short of a handle as I can get away with. Most 6 foot rods, I use 7 1/2 butt grips and 6'6" and 7' rods I use 9 and 10 in. butt grips. I understand your frustrations with long grips, but I am not sure I would attempt to cut one off. If the blank is splintered when cutting, it will eventually work the splinter/fracture up to the fore grip and weaken the rod itself. I have never attempted to shorten a grip in that manner. I have removed grips, and replaced them with shorter or longer grips........not a fun thing to do...:'(

Good Luck and Good Fishin'
TBOP/MN

[REW]

In a word - balance.

In general, the rod manufacturers are quite concerned with overall rod weight - because of demands from their customers.

To ge the rods to balance - a longer rod, requires a longer back grip to get the rod to balance.

Another way to obtain, the same balance, is to incorporate some soft of weight in the butt of the rod.
This may be on the id or the od of the rod blank. If it is inside - by necessity - the weight might come forward, a fair amount - to balance the rod, and add unnecessary weight.

If the weight is on the OD or outside of the rod blank, all of the weight can be concentrated in the last 1/2 - 1 inch of the rod blank and achieve maximum leverage for balancing. If the weight is constrained to be less than the id or inner diameter of the butt cap - all of the weight will be invisable.

By the use of weight - it is easy to balance a 7-8 foot rod - and yet maintain a 14 inch handle. Without the use of any weight, you will need about a 24 inch handle to get the rod to balance.

You do fish with a bit heavier rod, due to the addition of the weight, but with the use of the balance - the fish actually fishes "lighter - beccause you don't fish with a clenched fist.

If you want to cut off the rod blank - it is a easy thing to do.

A nice way to cut the blank is with the use of an abrasive wheel, that is in a metal chop saw, or mounted in a miter box, or radial arm saw. With no teeth on the blade, there will be no splintering.

If you then use a razor knife, you can cut off the last two or three cork rings down to the blank.

Now obtain some lead tape. You can get lead tape from 3-M or from golfing supply stores. Lead tape is used to balance golf clubs. Wrap lead tape around the butt of the rod - insuring that the od of the tape continues to be less than the id of the new butt cap. If you trim the cork down to the blank - in a lenght that is slightly less than the new butt cap - you can keep all of the weight inside the butt cap - and you won't have to add any cork back to the balnk.

After achieving the necessary balance - put on your reel of choice - and add tape - until the rod maintains a level - with the rod - resting in the "normal - holding - position; check for fit of the butt cap. If the fit is too loose, simply wrap the lead tape with masking tape, until there is a nice snug fit on the butt cap. Mix u a batch of epoxy - and glue the new butt cap to the rod.
Voila - a shorter handle, and a perfectly balanced rod - with a total cost of less than $5.

If you don't use an abrasive wheel to cut off the rod blank - then use a very fine toothed razor saw, or a very very fine toothed hack saw. The finer the teeth on the saw, the less likely the blade is to catch and destroy fibers up the blank, as the other post indicated. Another good thing to do - when sawing graphite - is to only saw backward. In otherwards use pressure on the blade - only when the tooth is going backware over the graphite. This will keep a tooth from catching and shattering a fiber up the blank.

Good luck and "stay balanced":.

REW

[Shellback]

Just a quick note. If you have an archery shop nearby, they can cut your graphite shaft with an arrow cut-off saw. The saw uses a high speed abrasive wheel to cut the arrow shafts. I doubt they would even charge you and you wouldn't have to worry about splintering.

[s-bone]

I used a Dremel to take 1 inch off the handle, worked slick.

[s.f.]

rew, you are exactly right. BALANCE.

if you cut them shorter you have to add something to the butt end to make up for the lost weight.

#49

[REW]

It is interesting that you mention the arrow shaft cutter. My local rod building shop purchased an arrow shaft cutter earlier this fall for that exact purpose.

I used it a bit, but found it to be somewhat cumbersome. The problem is that you move the shaft across the disk. I would rather move the disk across the shaft.

That is why I picked up a small - 8 inch miter saw - from the local pawn shop. Then I picked up a very thin - 8 inch abrasive blade from the local machine shop supply store.

To better use this saw, with thin blanks and tips, I built up the base 2 inches, and set it forward 1 inch by the use of channel.

Now, when it comes time to trim a rod, butt or tip, I lay it on the miter saw bed, and chop away with the abrasive blade.

Quick slick - and very stable.

Take care

REW

[Texeye]

Thanks for the information ya'll.I have a chop saw and I will be using shorter handles this year.If there is something I find I don't like I'll report back. Thanks Again!