Watching with envy as folks head to the expo. Wish I could go but I'm grounded for a month due to recent surgery. So hope everyone has fun!

My particular question has to do with Spey Rods. I'm putting together a 13' for 8/9 and a 15 ft for 11 for king salmon in Alaska, and perhaps Atlantic Salmon in Scotland. These are my first Spey rods. The question is what reel seat to use. The standard is some variant of an aluminum reel seat, mebbe a bit longer that normal with two locking rings. Problem: the feet (or "stand") on two of my older reels (both are Hardy Salmon reels) are a little coarse for the cutout on the clamp part of the rings, such that it is difficult to wedge the reel into the provided slots in a way to grip the reel securely. I'm thinking why not use a fuji graphite spin seat - with which I have had great success on other types of rods for...lots of ... years. I have both types of seats on hand.

If the only issue is that my way of thinking is too pedestrian, too gauche, then I'll happily use the Fuji reel seats. They seem better suited functionally to the task. I have no concern about resale value. All my rods are "working" rods.

However, mebbe I'm overlooking something. Is there some strong reason I should follow convention and go with aluminum?

Warm regards, and thanks to all.

Whit

The Fuji or similar seats are nearly foolproof and hold almost any reel exceptionally well. Unless you object to them for reason, it'd be my 1st choice.

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