Hi All,

I recently purchased a 10 wt fly rod blank and started laying out the build. However, I hit a snag on the reel seat. The Reel seat I ordered has a removable fighting butt (planning on making it permanent). I thought it screwed onto the base of the reel seat, but the butt is fixed to a metal shaft which is pressure fit into the base of the seat.

The only way I see this configuration working is if I trim 1 inch off the bottom of the butt section (to give the shaft clearence to fit in the seat).

My question is, will trimming the very bottom of the butt section by 1" affect the rod negatively (i know it's a newby question)?

Thanks for the input.

It will not, you can trim :-)

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Eric
[www.emfishing.fr]

Another thought, if your rod sock and tube will still fit, having the butt a little long isn't a bad thing as it protects all the other rod sections during transport. The longer, more durable butt sections will take most of the banging about. Lefty Kreh talked about slightly shortening the tips of his rods for this reason.

If the seat is going to overhang the butt after trimming, as I think it will have to in order to accommodate the fighting butt section, then for all intents and purposes it's not going to affect the rod one way or the other. If you have room in your rod tube, you could always simply mount the seat so it overhangs the existing butt end by that inch as Spencer suggested.

.....

Trimming is not a problem. If you've a Dremel with a cut off wheel you can make a quick, neat cut.

If trim or not to trim is a half dozen of one or six of another with a removable fighting butt, you can let balance be the determining factor.

Thanks for all the tips!

I will play around with placement and see what feels best.