Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Big rings

Click pic for closer view
Let's get this straight from the start. I can't stand 50mm butt rings on rods. As I mentioned in the previous post they are cumbersome. I also doubt they make a huge difference to distances cast. A 40mm butt ring placed correctly will be perfectly fine for most people using most reels.

However, some anglers simply must have 50mm butt rings. When asked to fit them I have always used Kigans  because I can get them quickly. Recently I built a set of 3.25lb Torrix carp rods for a regular customer (I've built a few sets of these rods over the last year or so, in fact) to my usual spec with 40mm butt rings and 12 mm tips. After a few weeks he decided he wanted 50-16 rings on them. As they had been built with FujiBSVOGs the cheapest option was to remove the rings and move them up a place, fitting matching 50mm butt rings and swapping out the tips. Now, I had never set eyes on a 50mm BSVOG before, and when I finally got hold of three (from Mudhole as H&H don't have any...) I was shocked to see how bulky they are. The frames are thick and there seems to be a double thickness around the liner. The fold-down rings from the previous post look a lot better, and are lighter too.

With this new-found knowledge I will in future always be fitting Kigans when a 50mm ring set is requested. They are not as nice a ring to work with compared to a Fuji, but they make for a more practical fishing rod.

No fishing in Lumbland at the moment as I can't get motivated. Too cold for me to go chasing nocturnal summer predators, and the tench bug still hasn't bitten. Every time there's a warm sunny day I get the itch to catch some tench, but those days are tending to be followed by cool, wet and windy ones like today, and the itch goes away.