Besides just holding a fly rod grip in your hand and deciding…“Yeah, that feels good”…are there certain qualities one should consider?
For example…
Will a grip on the slightly large side be more or less tiring?..will it be harder to transmit energy?
I suppose shape is a personal thing but are some shapes more favored?
What do you all look for in a grip?
I’ve been thru this kind of thing in other “grip sports”(mountain biking, dirt biking, golf, tennis, etc.) The prevailing thought is: “a larger grip will make you more relaxed” and that is quite wrong. I have found this out thru trial and error with every sport mentioned. The only one it seems to help in is golf…for me anyway. And in golf you only hold the club a small portion of the time. In the other sports you are constantly holding the grip so I’d think smaller would be better for fly fishing.
For dirt biking and mountain biking trying to hold a large grip is very exhausting.
And …I have very large hands, btw.(Men’s XXL in most gloves)
What it comes down to though is personal comfort…what works for YOU.
Check out Steve’s article under “Rod Building” Has some pretty good info on what a custom grip can do for you.
ducksterman,
This is a very good subject and should provide some interesting posts. I honestly feel that the cork handle grip plays a big part in a fly rod. I know that I have some fly rods that will cause me to have hand fatigue after 3-4 hours of fishing and other rods that do not seem to cause me any problems. I feel it is because of the cork grip being different on them and the one that causes me hand fatigue just does not fit my hand properly. I do not know if this can be changed on a factory built rod or not, but, would assume that a good quality rod builder could make the changes.
If anyone wants to read a very good article on this subject they could go to the “Features” section, click on “Rod Building” and then click on “Custom Grip” and you will find an excellent article written by Steven McGarthwaite entitled, “Determinining the Shape and Size of a Cork Handle”.
I had a friend who built some of the same rods I had built and I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with his rods. The ones I built of the same model felt great while his were absolutely terrible. His comment was my rods just didn’t work for him either.
Then I realized his hands were twice the size of mine. His handles no matter what shape were just too big for my grip while my handles were too small for him to get hold of.
It made a world of difference!
Factory size and shape are just fine for me. I have cast many ‘home done rods’ almost always with a cork too large. Very tiring, even for a few casts.
I try to buy preformed grips of 1" diam.
Struble’s grips (rev 1/2 wells) are 1 1/8 which I find too big for my taste.
If I remember correctly I had a grip turned down years ago…so I’m pretty sure it can be done.
I might mention this as stated is definitely an issue in golf…and the point made there is that if a grip is too large …again as stated…you are forced to put a death grip on…but the same is true if it is too small…because your fingers are gripping too tight just to get control…the best is to chose the size so that the fingers just barely kiss the palm or are just a little short of the palm…I guess the same principles would hold for the fly rod.
I prefer smaller grips. If the grips are too big my hands get sore after several hours. I really don’t like full wells grips, either.
I also like really small grips on winter rods, since I tend to be wearing thick wool gloves while casting.
DG
Never really thought about it before,But I guess it could explain why I have a preference for the feel of Superfine grips.
At 6’ 3" with rather large hands I ended up with a few rods that I ‘knew’ the grips would be too narrow on. I was wrong.
Since using them for a couple years, large grips seem to wear my hand out. In fact, I used to get a callus on my pinky large knuckle. The only time it appears now is when I’m playing the salt with higher line weight rods for a few days. I vote for large grips only on line weights 7 and above.