Quote Originally Posted by afishinado View Post
I agree, when casting, the balance of a fly rod / reel never seems to make much of a difference. But on the stream, we cast 10% of the time and hold the rod through the drift 90% of the time. For me, I really hate to fish and hold up a rod that'a either tip or butt heavy. I always try to chose a reel that balances out the rod or even weight the reel slightly to achieve a decent balance. But no need to carry it too far - close is good enough. You will naturally move your hand slightly up or down the grip will help balance the rod so as not to fight it when fishing. If the rod is grossly out of balance you will find yourself holding the rod up on the blank if it is tip-heavy, and holding the rod into the reel seat if it is butt-heavy. Neither extreme makes for a comfortable grip, IMO.
I totally agree with this. I often fish with older 9 foot "blue collar" cane rods. These are heavy, and can be unpleasant to fish with if I put a light-weight reel on them. Add a heavier reel, and the unpleasantness goes away.

There's a reason that "back in the day" almost all reel seats were down-locking. It was to place the as far to the butt of rod as possible to help balance the rod. With the lighter rods nowadays, most reel seats are uplocking.

But you're also right: close is good enough.