I'm building a conventional surf plugging rod, and I have a conundrum: I have a blank that with a large enough diameter that none of the readily available trigger reel seats will fit: I need a size 24, and the largest trigger reel seat I can find is a 22. Pacific Bay evidently made a 24 for a while, but it was evidently discontinued a few years ago. I had one, but like a genius, I gave it away a few months ago.

This kind of thing happens with blue-water rods all the time: the glass broomstick blanks that the pelagic guys use have very thick butts, and the aluminum reel seats made for these rods come with inside diameters well over 1 inch. But these rods don't need a trigger, and I want one for this surf rod.

I might be able to scrounge up a size 24 trigger reel seat somewhere, but thinking about this made me wonder what other builders do in this situation. It's not exactly the most common problem out there -- if it were, someone would make a 24mm trigger seat -- but it's also not a unique problem: there have to be a few of you out there that have run into this before, most likely with surf conventional rods on the heavier side.

So my question: what would the guys out there do here? Just accept that you can't have a trigger? Use a tube seat and build your own trigger? Or do something else?

Any ideas here would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Chris.
Take a size 22 and ream the reel seat out so that it will slip over the blank.

Be safe.

Reaming may work, but sometimes it just requires more material than you have available to dispense with.

There is an opportunity here for a real custom solution. Perhaps you can cut off the trigger and surrounding area from a #22 and epoxy it onto the bottom portion of a #24, neatly of course. There is a solution, you just have to find it. Hopefully others will chime in with suggestions of their own.

................

What about a trigger clamp for a deckhand style rod? There is currently one on the market that is sized at 29mm

I should add one thing: the deckhand-style trigger won't work here. They attach to the rod via clamps, and the reel here does not have either a clamp or the screws that come with a clamp.

[www.grip-n-hook.com]

Pick up a new reel that uses this style rod clamp.

Then you will have a nice new reel to match your new rod.

Be safe

Give Mudhole a call.
Ask them about the bag of 104 Graphite triggers that they are selling on the internet @#$%& site.

Perhaps they would sell you a couple of triggers for a few $$. I doubt that you need the full bag of 104.

These appear to be full length triggers that could be attached to the underside of the reel seat rather simply.


Refer to item # 181650653634

Thanks, Roger - that looks terrific!

Chris - I have one in hand. The length is 3.250 in length, .680 width,.175 to where blank would hit
and 1.090 from blank to bottom of trigger. If you strike out with Mud Hole contact me as I have a few of them
and would part with one to help you out. I have used them with plate seats.
Bob

Robert,
Out of curiosity, I had never seen these long triggers before today. What system do you use to attach the triggers to the rod, reel seat or what ever?

Thanks for any updates.

Roger, they are installed the same as a plate seat or a guide-
with thread and epoxy . Fuji designed then, I believe, for use with
the plate seat.

Thanks for the offer, Roger -- I may take you up on it.

But first, I have a decision to make: I am either going to bid on Mudhole's fleabay item, and amass a lifetime supply of these things, or I'm going to see if nobody buys them, and see if I can call them and get them to sell me a handful of them. I don't need 104 of them, of course, but at fifty cents apiece, I could amass a lifetime supply, and become the kingpin of these things, for a fairly reasonable investment.

I very much like this solution, by the way -- I didn't know they existed until I read your post. Thanks for taking the time to make it. There can sometimes be issues with getting a conventional reel's feet to sit snugly in a plate seat, but this can usually be fixed fairly easily -- much more easily than any other method of putting a trigger on a surf blank too big for a size 22 seat.

I'll keep you posted as this progresses. Thanks for the help, everyone.