Reel Seat

I just was given an Orvis T3 Saltwater blank to build a custom rod. I looked in the Orvis catalog and wondered where you can find a reel seat like the one in the advertisement?

Another questions pertains to guides. Since it is an 8-wt. rod and is primarily for stripper, salmon, etc. I will be using double footed guides. I normally use an oversize guide on my rods and wondered what suggestions would be for a rod like this. It is an 8'6" rod thus I normally place 10 guides, two of which are stripping guides.

Let me hear what you think, I would appreciate it.

Coach,
Thier T3 reel seats are custom milled, so you won't find one off the shelf. You should try calling Orvis and see if they'll sell you one.

For guides, you may want to consider single-foot ceramics. You'll get much better casting performance, plus you may save some weight becuase you're making half the wraps.

Toaski, thanks for the information. I build a 9 ft 9 wt for a salmon fisherman and was told by a seasoned rod builder that single foot guide, although lighter, might be a problem holding up at that weight and fishing load.

Can't argue either way and it might just be preference or just tradition on his part. Have you used a heavy weight rod with single foot guides? One of my other friends also suggested single footed guides, so I am curious.

This same guy built a 12 wt. that I believe was 11- 12 ft long, someone ordered it that way. Cast great, but what an arm workout. It was not a two handed rod!

It is just my opinion, but I believe single foot guides are not the best choice for rods meant to be used in the salt.
Salt water rods need to be built tough.
Guides that are wraped top and bottom are more likely to hold up to the strain of(hopefully) big fish

I disagree. Many big salt water fish are fought and landed on both fly rods and spinning rods equipped with single foot guides. It is true that a bad wrapping or finishing job can render them less hardy, but installed correctly, they are up to the task. See Dale Clemens comments on the subject in his book "Advanced Custom Rod Building". Cheers, Alec

[This message has been edited by flytackle (edited 14 March 2006).]

Coach, Dudley,

The guides and wraps are not the weakest link.

If you use a Forhan Locking wrap (not that hard, [url=http://www.rodbuilding.org/library/forhan.html:3ecd0]http://www.rodbuilding.org/library/forhan.html[/url:3ecd0] )
your rod will break before the guide pulls out. And hopfully your line breaks before that happens.

Most salt water fly rod builders I've heard from will say that single foot ceramics ARE the best thing to be using for this application.


[This message has been edited by taoski (edited 15 March 2006).]

[This message has been edited by taoski (edited 15 March 2006).]