Rod/reel balance

[TyroneFly]

What is the general rule, if any, in determining if a reel balances with a particular rod other than a manufacturers designation? For example, I have one reel that is designated as a 5/6 wt line and another that is 3/4/5 wt line. The one designated for 5/6 balances about 1/4 of the length down the cork from the winding check on my 9' 4wt while the 3/4/5 reel balances near the winding check. Is there a preferred point on the rod at which proper balance is acheived?

[Normand]

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

http://www.fly-fishing-colorado.com/...fly-rods2.html

[J Castwell]

I do not believe in the so called 'balance'. It has been proven and accepted that all rods will perform better with no reel attached at all. The numbers on reels are just indicators of which line will fit on them; a number three reel will not hold a 5wt line. Some claim that a reel can act as a counter weight below the hand, with the fulcrum being at the hand. A rod must be stopped to form a line loop, the additional weight of any reel is a detriment. Most will not take the time to cast their rod without the reel attached. Those who do so learn this.

[tailingloop]

Furthermore, if you do have a reel on your rod and achieve some sort of what you might call a 'balance' point, as soon as you extend or shorten the amount of line you are casting you change the weight distrubution and thus balance. Same too if you have a bunch of coils of line at your feet after retrieving your fly, or if you change from a WF to a DT line, or dacron the GSP backing, or rig a high density shooting head instead of a standard line.

I don't concern myself much about balance as long as the rig is comfortable to cast. I cant afford to have all the different line and reel combinations to try ty match a perfect 'balance' to my rods, nor do I want to waste the time necessary to figure it out.

[MontanaMoose]

While on the other hand, I like to have the rod/reel combo cause the balance point to be at the 12th cork, (2nd back from the winding check) of a 14 cork grip. I have a 4/5/6 reel that balances a 9wt. just that way and the reel holds an 8wt. wt. fwd floating line just fine with approx. 50yds. of dacron backing. About all this does for me is make the combo 'carry' nicely, i.e. it's feels somewhat 'tip light' and light in my hand. (Good trick to make older cane rods feel somewhat lighter)

By 'carry' in this instance I mean while I'm walking with the rod fully rigged, fly in the keeper and if I've got the rod parallel to the ground. One other thing this does for me is that it changes the 'feel' of how the rod loads with a given length of flyline beyond the tip. I know that if I moved the balance point back that the rod would 'feel' like it loads with a shorter amount of flyline beyond the tip but for my purposes, I like the rod to be tip light for various reasons that are just personal prefs.

Cheers,

MontanaMoose

[Bobinmich]

I'm with JC on this one. No reel is best. From there, the lighter the reel, the better - and sometimes the more expensive too. A reel for 3 or 4 weight line fishing small streams for brookies or bows only needs to hold the line and a tad of backing to give the line something soft to rest against when sleeping. Bigger steel head and salmon reels need to have more backing in case the stupid fish runs downstream and you can't run or swim fast enough to catch him. They can use a nice drag too so you can play them better and keep all the skin on your fingers. Once you have that capacity - go for light because you may have to cast it all day and it will get heavier as the day wears on. Big browns at night don't need a lot of backing because they usually stay put and if they were to take you to the backing you would already be wrapped 29 times around a log so what good would it do? Salt water needs gobs of backing and massive drags which will add weight. Larger arbors help here too which will add weight. The reels will get big as will the fish.

I don't know anything about warm fresh water fishing. Bass and carp and the like may be altogether different - but I doubt it.

Godspeed,

Bob Bolton

[Marco]

I agree that " balance" is not that important since , as stated before, changes with the amount of line out in the casting stroke. I too am only concerned with it for comfortable carrying. I think the word is used more in the aesthetic sense. There is however another "balance" that could be considered and that is the size and capacity of the reel relative to the quarry, but this also has nothing to do with fulcrums and gravity.



Mark

[Flyandtie1]

As long as it feels good in your hand then does balance really matter??

[PanFisher]

Normand,

WOW! THANK YOU! Finally something in writing that says it correctly!

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

"Your fly rod, reel and strung line, for best feel and performance, should achieve fulcrum balance at about the point where the index finger of your casting hand grips the cork. If you set the outfit up like this it will feel almost weightless in use, regardless of the actual weight of the gear."

I once built an 8wt rod that was so top heavy it killed me to cast it. An Old Timer who knew what he was talking about showed me the little hole in the Medalist reel that allowed for lead shot to be inserted into the reel to make an outfit balance properly. I added lead shot inside my reel and this allowed the outfit to cast properly.

I later rebuilt the blank with lighter guides and less thread. The rod then did not need the lead shot added to the reel to cast well. It is good to see the correct information in print!

[PanFisher]

Normand,

I just checked the second link: http://www.fly-fishing-colorado.com/...fly-rods2.html

"Test for Physical Balance -- Assemble the rod with a reel and line to match the rod weight. Either bring your own rod and line or borrow one from the fly shop. String the rod and allow about 3 feet of line to hang down from the tip.

Extend the rod and allow the reel to hang down. Put your thumb on the cork grip where you normally would when casting.

Then place the rod on the edge of your index finger under the reel seat at the place where you put your thumb on top. The assembled rod, reel and fly line should balance level or close to it.

When you are making over 100 casts a day in a full days fishing, an unbalanced outfit can totally tire you out."

You would not believe how many times someone has handed me an old rod with no line designation and asked what line weight to use. I simply put reels loaded with different line weights on the rod and balanced as described above. When I found the reel and line that balanced on my index finger as above, I stated to try the line weight that balanced accordingly. This has never failed me - so far the accuracy rate has been 100%.