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Shortening a rod

R

Robert Linwood

Senior Member
could any one tell me if it’s possible to have a 11ft rod shortened to 10ft and would this be a complete full rod rebuild any information lads would be great
 
It will be a very stiff rod and I’d imagine quite poker like.
an original 10 footer would of been made around a mandrel and tapered all the way down the full length as would your 11footer. Cutting 12 inches off is just taking away the last foot of taper and it won’t behave anything like a manufactured 10 foot blank.
To give you an idea try playing a fish on a feeder rod with the quiver tip removed.

as for rebuilding it really depends on where the guides are in relation to where you cut it. If you cut it and leave a good spacing from your second eye down then you would just need to fit a tip ring.
personally I think it will be awful.
 
Before you cut try taping the reel on the butt section in different places and have the line come through the last eye before the tip. also try taping a spare eye between the last eye and tip eye whilst still moving the reel along the butt. You might come across a happy medium of 6 inches off each end or 4 inches off the tip and 8 inches off the butt etc.

A fixed reel seat is your enemy here!

Personally, with the price of decent rods as they are, I'd go and buy a 10 footer off the shelf.
 
I wouldn't entertain the thought. I worried about losing a few inches from broken tips in the past, (we have all done it ) losing a 12 inches would change the action so much it would make it a different beast all together. Removing a couple of inches from the butt might be worth considering, and a few inches from the tip? The action would at least not be ruined.
 
Peter Brownbill said:
Surely it would make the TC higher
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Yeah I don’t really know what would be the actual case regarding the TC it’s a Very good point.
In theory it would take substantially more weight to generate a TC figure after it’s been cut but I don’t think cutting a lump off would make it more powerful just stiffer and far less forgiving under sudden lunges.
my guess would be if it’s originally an 11ft 1.5lb TC rod it would probably end up being something like a 10ft 2.5lb rod but the actual power in the blank I can’t imagine is going to relate to that that new TC generated.
one for @Bob Gill I think.
 
Neil Smart said:
I wouldn't entertain the thought. I worried about losing a few inches from broken tips in the past, (we have all done it ) losing a 12 inches would change the action so much it would make it a different beast all together. Removing a couple of inches from the butt might be worth considering, and a few inches from the tip? The action would at least not be ruined.
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Absolutely Neil. I’ve seen float rods completely ruined after a 4-6 inch loss.
 
My two penneth - every rod will be different but I had an 11ft 1.75lb Armalite that I found a little too soft. I went back to the builder (Bob Morris) who after a discussion on the likely outcome removed 6inches from the tip and 6 inches from the bottom end of the handle to maintain the spigot position and I am very pleased with the resulting action, still through actioned but a little over 2lb now we estimate. Short enough to cope with tight swims and powerful enough to stop a good fish whilst retaining a pleasing action.
 
I have an old Tricast 12ft 1.25tc carp rod that I use for most of any close range barbelling that I do. I cut about 10” off the end of the butt section at the reel end and this made a long handled carp style rod much more manoeuvrable.
 
For what it's worth .... I had two Nash Tri-Tips, which come with an interchangeable quiver top section, a 1.5lb section, and a 1.75lb section. After a few years I realised I wasn't using the 1.5lb tops but was in need of a couple of 2.25lb rods for flood water fishing. So I taped a line guide/ring part way down the tip section of one of my rods with the 1.5lb top on, then moved line guide about until I got a test curve of 2.25lb. From this I ended up cutting 6.5" off the tip of both 1.5lb tops.
I've used those 2.25lb rods for about 10 years now, they've caught me a lot of good fish, and I've been very pleased with them. But these rods have a beautifully progressive action (IMO), and I think the result may have been very different if the rod's action was different (e.g. fast actioned)
If I was going to do this again with another (different) rod then I would run line through the line guides to, say, 3 or 4 guides from the tip, then cast (carefully!) with it like that, and give it a good work-out to see its action....its 'feel' (bearing in mind that you can't stick back on what you've cut off!).
So, short answer ....it most likely depends on the action of the rod, and how much you cut off.
 
Terry Simner said:
For what it's worth .... I had two Nash Tri-Tips, which come with an interchangeable quiver top section, a 1.5lb section, and a 1.75lb section. After a few years I realised I wasn't using the 1.5lb tops but was in need of a couple of 2.25lb rods for flood water fishing. So I taped a line guide/ring part way down the tip section of one of my rods with the 1.5lb top on, then moved line guide about until I got a test curve of 2.25lb. From this I ended up cutting 6.5" off the tip of both 1.5lb tops.
I've used those 2.25lb rods for about 10 years now, they've caught me a lot of good fish, and I've been very pleased with them. But these rods have a beautifully progressive action (IMO), and I think the result may have been very different if the rod's action was different (e.g. fast actioned)
If I was going to do this again with another (different) rod then I would run line through the line guides to, say, 3 or 4 guides from the tip, then cast (carefully!) with it like that, and give it a good work-out to see its action....its 'feel' (bearing in mind that you can't stick back on what you've cut off!).
So, short answer ....it most likely depends on the action of the rod, and how much you cut off.
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Nice one! Exactly the way to do it.
test it through another guide and see if it’s what you like.
quite amazing how just 6 inch changed the TC by that much.
 
David Holder said:
My two penneth - every rod will be different but I had an 11ft 1.75lb Armalite that I found a little too soft. I went back to the builder (Bob Morris) who after a discussion on the likely outcome removed 6inches from the tip and 6 inches from the bottom end of the handle to maintain the spigot position and I am very pleased with the resulting action, still through actioned but a little over 2lb now we estimate. Short enough to cope with tight swims and powerful enough to stop a good fish whilst retaining a pleasing action.
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HI DAVID THIS WAS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS THINKING THANK YOU MATE
 
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