Counter balancing a rod

"Chris Rennert" wrote in message
...
Hey all, I was wondering if anyone had any creative ways to counter
balance a flipping(flippin) rod? I know I can buy that rubber boot type
thing, that you drop weights into, but I was looking for possible ways of
doing it internally in the rod. I figured Steve would have some good
insight, and I posted it here instead of approaching directly, just in
case others wanted to do the same thing :-).

I used to weight balance rods. I discovered while it made the rod "feel"
better, you were still moving more weight around on each cast. Now, I don't
weight balance any rods, preferring to use a rod as lightweight as possible.
I'm not as tired at the end of the day simply fishing with a lightweight rod
as I was with a weight balanced rod that was an ounce or two heavier. It
might sound silly, but after a day of casting, that added weight adds up.

However, if you're bound and determined to balance the rod, the best way I
can think of to do it is to drill out the cork on butt, gaining access to
the interior of the blank. Then, you need to figure out how much weight to
balance out the rod/reel. I like to use a point somewhere just forward of
the reel as the fulcrum. Resting the fulcrum, staple or tape an envelope to
the end of the rod. Then add lead shot or bb's to the envelope until you
have the rod balancing as you prefer it. I used to weight mine so that the
tip was still just a tad heavier than equally balanced. I also preferred
lead shot over bb's, they're denser and it doesn't take as many pieces of
shot in comparison. BB's are made of steel and you'll need more volume in
the blank to balance the rod in comparison to lead. If you know anyone that
reloads shotgun shells, you can usually talk them out of a handfull of shot,
or if you have any shotgun ammo lying around, you can cut open a shell and
use that shot.

Now that you know how much weight you need, mix up some 30 minute epoxy.
Work a cotton ball through the glue until it's well saturated with the
epoxy. Insert the cotton ball into the blank about as far as you think
you'll need to in order to fill the remaining space with the bb's or shot.
I used an unsharpened pencil but any blunt object smaller in diameter than
the blank will work.

Once the epoxy impregnated cotton ball is inserted into the blank, dump in
some of the bb's/shot and pour a little more epoxy. Dump another small
batch of bb's/shot and cover that with epoxy and continue to do this until
you've used up the bb's or shot. If you guessed right on the amount of
space left will be just short of the end of the blank. If you did a good
job drilling out the cork butt, you can simply smear some of the remaining
epoxy on a tapered cork plug, and insert it into drilled handle snugly. A
rag soaked in rubbing alcohol will clean up any smeared and excess epoxy as
long as it's not set up.

Set the rod upright in the corner and let the epoxy set up. You want to set
the rod verticle so that the epoxy flows around the bb's/shot and secures
them in place. If you don't get enough epoxy in with the shot, eventually
the rod will make noise like a baby rattle!

Then, once the glue is set, you can take a sharp knife or hacksaw blade and
cut off the cork that is still sticking out of the hole you plugged. Using
a sanding block, smooth everything out and Voila', you have an internally
weight balanced rod.

I hope this makes some sort of sense.

That's a whole lot of screwing around to make a rod feel good. It's better
to just buy the right rod in the first place in my estimation.
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com