How to Balance rod and reel plus line

[ducksterman]

Just read a rather involved way to balance a rod ,reel and line...seemed rather involved and technical.

I'm wondering how you all decide if a system is balanced?

[kglissmeyer]

When it feels good to cast for a day!

Kelly.

[popperfly]

Balanced what is balance! I would have to agree with kglissmeyer along with how it feels when that giant fish is tugging on the end of the rod, that would be my balance

When it feels good to cast for a day!

Kelly.

[anglerdave]

You might find this interesting.

Let us first rid ourselves of a widespread idea, which I have often had occasion to point out as false or , at least, much exaggerated: the reel does not balance the rod; though in the past when rods were ten feet or more, very long and very heavy, a reel as a counterweight did produce the illusion of balancing the rod in the hand; but it is the line which plays the principal role owing to its weight and the shape of it's taper. It is indeed, on the line that the rod depends above all for giving its maximum, and yet retaining its balance. The ideal would be to be able to fish with the reel in your pocket! Charle Ritz 1959

[Sully]

You might find this interesting.

Let us first rid ourselves of a widespread idea, which I have often had occasion to point out as false or , at least, much exaggerated: the reel does not balance the rod; though in the past when rods were ten feet or more, very long and very heavy, a reel as a counterweight did produce the illusion of balancing the rod in the hand; but it is the line which plays the principal role owing to its weight and the shape of it's taper. It is indeed, on the line that the rod depends above all for giving its maximum, and yet retaining its balance. The ideal would be to be able to fish with the reel in your pocket! Charle Ritz 1959

And I dont believe it for 1 second and have never seen any actual data to back that statement up!

[zhoyt]

In this day of ultralight rods and ultrlight reels.....I dont find "balancing" to be important. Now how a rod handles line is totally different. If you have a 9' 5et rod and reel setup with the perfect WF line......what happens if you want to fish a sink tip? Or maybe a line with a longer belly?

[ducksterman]

This might get interesting so I'll throw this into the discussion....

http://www.flyfishohio.com/a_question_of_balance.htm

I've been just going with reels I like... in the smallest size and relatively light...then just going fishing....just wondering if I was missing something.

[JohnScott]

Duck -

I recently used three different reels with different line weights on my new 7'9" for 4/5 rod. From the left - an Abel TR1 with a DT3F line, an Orvis mid arbor BBS II with a DT5F line, and a Lamson Radius 3.5 with a WF7F line.

I suppose that just standing there looking for a point where a given rod / reel / line combination "balanced", I would have come up with three different balance points. However, in the dynamic process of casting, I really don't remember thinking any of the three combinations was not balanced.

John

P.S. In deference to those who do not like full sized pics in posts, I'm using the thumbnail method. Don't count on it ever happening again.

[Cold]

And I dont believe it for 1 second and have never seen any actual data to back that statement up!

Gotta say, I'm with Sully on this one. If the reel has no part in it, and the line is everything, then the whole setup would only balance at one casting distance. Because any shorter, and you dont have enough line out the top to balance it, and any longer, the extra line is going to throw it out of whack again.

[rockthief]

http://fiberglassflyrodders.yuku.com/topic/11718?page=1