.mark poulson wrote:Depending on the rod, anywhere from just the chair leg cap on a 7' med. light, to 2 oz plus cap for a 7'11" punch rod. I use a lot of different brands of rods, so their weights are all over the place.Sore Thumb wrote:As a percentage of total rod reel weight, how much weight do you have to add to get an outfit to balance at the centre of the reel handle?. Any pics? Thanksmark poulson wrote:I think you're right. I balanced my rods to midpoint of the drag star/handle, and they are much easier to fish with all day, especially my punching setups.toddmc wrote:Most people go through life playing sports with tools that aren't usually a great fit for them. They never really get to feel the highest level of performance. I'm not one of those people. The fishing rod is much like a golf club in that someone that spends a lot of time with it will be able to tell the difference in swing weight very easily. I can't pick up an off-shelf golf club without wanting to adjust the lie and swing weight to fit me.
The production rod companies know that the average customer isn't even going to bother to take the intended reel and bait to the tackle shop to feel the balance. What really causes me to shake my head is that some of the really high-end production rods are very obviously poorly balanced, yet people still buy them. The owners of those rods usually get offended (an obvious reaction to buyers remorse) when I remind them of it. Buyer's remorse can be fixed with the right balancing tool. Try the cheap fixes to see if you might be an enthusiast. The real enthusiast with naturally want to take it to the next level with a balancing tool that also looks good. The putty tricks mentioned earlier can be good fixes also.
Once they're balanced, I don't notice the weight.
As Mark says, you won't notice the weight. The new high modulus blanks wont usually need more than one brass disc on the Matagi system. I think each disc is around 1/3 oz. and the brass sleeve that goes in the blank is around 1/3 of an ounce. Today's higher modulus blanks and lighter rod components shouldn't require you to add much weight. The heavier older rods that are over 7' can require you to add too much weight. That is why you need to use top level blanks and components on a flipping rod.
These are some old crappy pictures from another thread on this topic. The pencils show balance points. Both setups are a pleasure to fish all day. The spinning setup has a few extra aluminum discs to get the handle to the perfect length. The threads on the Matagi butt balancer are long enough to allow tweaking to almost any need.
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