I’ve been building fly rods for a while now and almost exclusively fly fish. One thing that bothered me about reel seats when I used my first store bought set up was that it had the tendency to loosen with use and usually at the worse time.
One of my best friends, who introduced me to fly fishing and rod building was using a Fuji reel seat in an unconventional way and I’ve built every one of my many saltwater flyrods this way.
I mount a Fuji conventional reel seat upside down on the butt of the rod. Same as always, tape rolled up as a buffer and use past epoxy to permanently keep it there.
The neat part is to use a Fuji KDPS quick connect as a fighting butt/reel seat bottom end. The fighting but IS the part that will spin to lock the reel in place. The Fuji set up has high value in that it is inexpensive, will not rust and absolutely will not loosen with use.
The other thing that I like to do is to not use color preserver on my main thread color and then use a color fast cream or other contrasting thread color and not use the flash tinsel thread. Just something that I do and I’m not sure others do this as well.
I learned my rod building from a book by Clemens called Advance Custom Rod building published many years ago but still very relevant, especially as it comes to modifying a blank, etc.
I have a few NFC Gamma Betas that I built with Alps aluminum double locking seats that are very nice and do not loosen. I happen to also have oneI bought from a MicroSkiff member who built it using a Fuji graphite seat like yours and I like it as well, it’s just not as fancy or flashy.
Also a fan of alps reel seats, haven’t tried the triangle taper but a couple others I’ve tried have been solid. Also like rec but they’re seemingly always out of stock when I need one
I like your threads work as well. It reminds of a buddy of mine. I had built him a few rods, and he had decided to try to build one himself, for his wife. He Did a AL Roll tide color scheme, got it all put together and epoxied it up. He called me and said “man all my thread disappeared”
Here’s a tip that i came up with at least 30 years ago, when building fly rods for my own use. Pretty simple really, using whatever reel seat you choose (back then I used Powell seats, decent quality aluminum, double locking with machined hoods, very solid… those Fuji seats are quite strong - and actually lighter in weight…). Instead of mounting the seat at the end of the blank I epoxied it about one to as much as two inches forward, leaving a stub end of the fly rod’s butt section exposed. After the handle was glued up and turned down - then the reelseat was glued up and clamped tight to the cork - and once it also was solidly fixed the only item remaining was that “stub”. For that I would turn down a veltex (EVA foam) section with the appropriate innner diameter that mated exactly with the reel seat on the front end - and left about 1/4 “ of foam extending past the end of the “stub” when mounted into place. If you got it right you had a perfect foam fighting butt mated to the end of your fly rod’s handle - without needing a bit of glue. If and when it wore down from use - it was a simple matter to replace…
What made all of this extra attractive was that this type of handle setup allowed your casting hand to choke up slightly when casting - a real plus with a 10wt or heavier rod. To this day I have both a 10 and a 12wt rod - built up on Thomas & Thomas blanks that are still favorites all these years later…
One more thing about T&T… They’re the only outfit I know of - that will actually make you a rod section (to replace a broken one…) when the rod is one of their long discontinued models… Can’t think of any manufacturer that offers that service. Contact Thomas and Thomas directly if needing a new rod section I have no idea if they still offer than service. The quote I was given a few years ago was quite reasonable - have no idea what it would cost today… You’ll still have to wrap new guides on that section, though…
@lemaymiami Inknownthisbtonbe the case. I was just in the Bahamas with my buddy who fishes the Thomas Thomas rods and he got the tip closed in the rental. Ouch. That was in May. His rod will be back to him next week. Amazing service.
Beautiful work. The spinning seat with the thread cover is a great way to do it. Plus those spinning seats will not mar up a nice fly reel foot either. I have a few on mine I have built over the years. Some with the thread cover and others just adding a second locking nut from fuji or american tackle and then adding a fighting butt. I tend to add a fighting butt on all my custom builds even down to a 3wt.
