[BMahoney.STC]

What do most of you prefer when it comes to your rear grip on your lite inshore rods. I personally never liked the split grip and always preferred full cork grips, and I am curious how most other people feel about this.

As an example
My go to handle styles are the ones on the St. Croix legend elite. (https://stcroixrods.com/collections/freshwater/products/legend-elite-spinning).

 

[Smackdaddy53]

7 1/2- 8” split on a split reel seat and 6’4” casting rod. Measuring the rear grip is done from the rear of the reel seat to grip transition. Longer rear splits to offset longer spinning rods.

 

[Rookiemistake]

I build my own. Ive had both. I lean towards full cork and a regular fuji 18 or 17 fuji skeleton with insert reel seat. Theres lots of cool looking seats out there and but most are just that.i have built probably 20-25 rods and after all that cool looking crap, holding a rod all day with a regular seat and cork grips is what i like.Cork is nice and smooth you dont have to worry about the blank getting beat up. Split grips are cool looking but not for me. Seems like builders use split grips to save money. A 10” cork butt is about $17-$20 depending on a what grade and they go even higher .Split grips in cork are probably half that.

 

[lemaymiami]

I've been building rods for many years (first one in 1971...) and all the spin or plug rods on my skiff are my own builds... I long ago quit doing fancy wraps - concentrating on durability and having each rod specifically designed for its intended purpose... I see lots of split grip rods in stores (when I bother to look...) and figure most of them were designed for freshwater at first... Whenever I see a rod with tiny guides... I know it was intended for the freshwater side of things, period.. no matter what the labels say...

I only use cork for fly rods - on all of my spin and plug rods it's veltex or something very similar for both fore and butt grips, period -and I rarely use a butt cap, preferring to extend the veltex over the end of the blank about 1/8 to 1/4" for lightweight durability. The day in and day out utility and durability are just head and shoulders better than cork.....

Take a look at the fishing report I just posted and you'll see the rod my angler is using and all the ones in the background are all matched in thread color, etc.

Any time I'm asked, I point folks buying rods to look at the components being used in any store bought rods - particularly the guides and the reelseat. That, at least provides a hint of its quality...

 

[AMiller]

Let me just ask, why don't you like split grip rods? playing devils advocate here is all. is it strictly looks or is it function? on a spinning rod, my right hand (casting hand) rarely, if ever, touches the rear grip. sometimes when I really want to send it I use my left hand to provide more leverage on the butt of the rod, but the butt cap would be there so why do I need all that cork in the middle?

I build my rods with both split and full rear grips. Lately I've been building a lot of rods using Winn grips in lieu of cork. On a spinning rod made for targeting slot drum I'll use a 2.5" butt, a 1.5" rear grip, and a 2.5" fore grip. I highly doubt this adds any technical advantage to that rod, but I like it. On a rod made for bull drum though I use full rear grips, either Winn or cork. truthfully I don't know why but that's how I prefer it. To me, lite rods get lite split grips and larger rods get full grips, but I doubt there's any technical advantage to either in real world application.

Heck if you want to get real weird, don't even have grips, just put a butt cap on it and some winding checks on either side of the real seat and be done. Your holding the real seat most of the time anyway. spend that extra money on a real seat that feels like heaven.

 

[Smackdaddy53]

I don’t understand the mystery behind split grips, they have been around a couple of decades. This reminds me of a “mono vs braid” thread. I remember when the first split gripped rods started showing up and people acted like it was the silliest thing they had ever seen. Bass guys wasted no time, they are all about balance, sensitivity and weight savings. We all have opinions and preferences but I can tell you that building a rod using split grips and seats is not to save money. I have built around a hundred rods and never once did I buy a split seat, split grips and 2 extra winding checks that cost $3-4 each for economy. That is funny...

 

[Half Shell]

Two of my favorite rods happen to have split grips.

1. a Falcon Coastal XG 7' Med "split grip popper" that I use strictly for popping corks for trout, reds, snook, etc

2. a custom 7'2" 12-25lb based upon an American Bushido carbon blank with a split grip reel seat with an integrated Winn grip and titanium guides.

My guidance was " light and sensitive as possible for throwing lures at tarpon, permit, cobia, etc" which my Phenix Black Diamond carbon 15-30lbs rods with full Winn grips just seemed to be too much for what I was wanting to do most of the time.

The reason I like these rods is that the grip/reel seat is contoured on top and fits well in the palm of my hand. It may even add a little more control but that's debatable. What's not to me is that they are more comfortable.

Anyway, I like light rods and while the full vs split thing is not that important to me, I really like the contoured grip over the reel seat and usually only see those with split grips.

 

[lemaymiami]

Each to their own as far a split grips or full butts are concerned - but you might want to know that my setup (the skiff I work out of....) isn't exactly a microskiff (It's a first generation Maverick - and the first smaller skiff they built, using the original 18' mold, shortened at the stern by 14" to produce a skiff that is 16'10" but still a full 84" wide...). That hull, the forerunner to the Maverick Master Angler 17... didn't have an inner liner -so you saved 150lbs in hull weight and got a very wide interior space... Mine may have been the only one that was sold un-rigged, way back in 1988 so I got to set it up as I wanted from stem to stern... Because I had a background as a competitive club angler (the old Tropical Anglers Club based in Miami and still in operation today...) I wanted to be able to bring as many rods as possible on board. We competed in more than a half dozen tackle categories, so if two club anglers were on a skiff and only had a dozen rods between them... you know they forgot to bring the fly rods or the 4lb spin rods, or the plug casting rods - you get the idea... My skiff will load eight rods under the gunnels , four on a side with rod tubes for each rod... and vertical rod storage for another six rods (three on each side of the console...). If none of my customers brings a rod on a charter - my normal load will be eight rods (all stored under the gunnels until they're needed).

Here's where things get a bit "different".. I also have four flush mount rodholders, two in the bow and two at the stern (one on each side next to my anglers..). Every rod on my skiff has to do more than one thing well. They're not only casting rods -but also do duty as bait rods, or trolling rods, etc. - and split grips just don't work well in a rodholder if a big fish has it bent over hard...

That big tarpon we released on Sunday was on bait and it struck a rod in the rodholder bending it so hard that it was tough to remove from the rodholder in the bow... if you look at the second picture in yesterday's fishing report you can clearly see the two bow flush mounted rodholders (the two black circles, one on each side of the guy with the tarpon..) - something I use every day if we're baitfishing... split butt rods need not apply for this kind of use... They're great for someone who will be casting all day long -but many of my anglers are beginners. They're learning how and where to cast at fish, but those rods working bait make a great difference each day on the water (and that's why I never was very fond of split grips -except for many years ago when I built enormous surf casting rods where the distance between the buttcap and the reelseat was nearly three feet in some cases..). Haven't built a surf rod in almost forty years now -but that's another story...

 

[Half Shell]

Thats a good point about the rod holders Bob, the split grips don't seem to work as well in that case.

 

[Rookiemistake]

I really think its preference not a functionality issue

 

[BMahoney.STC]

I don't dislike split grips nor do I have a reason other than use in a rod holder but on my liter rods thats not an issue. I just find myself always gravitating toward full grips as I don't own a single split grip but in stores all you see is split grips and wanted to know what others thought about them.

 

[devrep]

I'm an old(er) guy and traditional in most things but I really like split grip rods. Having said that, I don't build my own rods (yet) so if a rod I want has a full grip I don't have a problem with that. I use both.

 

[topnative2]

IMHO----Funny looking nonsense.

 

[mro]

I like

That pretty much sums up my point of view on sport fishing.
Few things I "indulged in" just for myself and fishing is one.

If you like your grip, you can keep your grip.

Well on occasion............
I've been good at coming up with good excuses to fill in the gaps.

 

[Capnredfish]

Full grip. No Blair Wiggins blinged out rod look. Not that a full grip is needed. That’s just the way rods should be done, full grip.

 

[Smackdaddy53]

Full grip. No Blair Wiggins blinged out rod look. Not that a full grip is needed. That’s just the way rods should be done, full grip.

You probably still only fish Stren monofilament on red Ambassador 5500’s and think Recoil guides are the devil. It’s ok to be stuck in 1980...

 

[Capnredfish]

I fished braid while you were playing in your poop before mommy cleaned you up. I went back to mono. I just like better. Only reels ever owned were Mitchell’s from decades ago and Penn. Current rods are Falcon and Star.
As a kid it was Zebco and Mepps lures, live bait to play with gators, gar and turtles.

 

[Capnredfish]

Maybe the split grips are easier to hold rod in mouth while taking selfies holding fish and making sure rod brand is visible.

 

[Smackdaddy53]

I fished braid while you were playing in your poop before mommy cleaned you up. I went back to mono. I just like better. Only reels ever owned were Mitchell’s from decades ago and Penn. Current rods are Falcon and Star.
As a kid it was Zebco and Mepps lures, live bait to play with gators, gar and turtles.

I think you forget how I like to ruffle your feathers...your post wasn’t an opinion, it came across like full grips are superior and if you have split grips you’re an idiot. Both are just options just like recoils and traditional guides or spinning or casting reels.
The only braid around when I was in diapers was the old dacron and “squidding line” grandpa had on his Penn 209’s and fiberglass rods. Spectra and dyneema didn’t exist until 1963 and wasn’t commercially available until 1990.

 

[LowHydrogen]

You probably still only fish Stren monofilament on red Ambassador 5500’s and think Recoil guides are the devil. It’s ok to be stuck in 1980...

One more negative word about my old Abu round reels and it's gonna be on!!

I can't bring myself to get rid of them, thinking about investigating how to hod rod one with some Boca's, and put on a Dobyn's Frog rod I just bought