Alternative sliding ring reel seats

[Blue Fisher]

In a few of the threads there have been opinions raised over using the simple rings on cork handles. Some say they never fail, others won’t use them and a few use them augmented with tape to be sure. Others advocate the use of the John Roberts product.
Well on one of my recent old rod purchases I have another product, Fuji FRS 27, Pic below. The 27 is the required diameter of the cork.
They work like simple rings but you can twist lock them when in place, probably on some sort of flexible cone arrangement. They seem like a really good idea, Your hand is partially on your nice warm expensive cork, the reel is securely held and they can be positioned anywhere on the butt. I would prefer this arrangement over the commonly used fixed DPS type screw fittings. There your hand is on the plastic fitting, sometimes on the threaded bit and away from your lovely comfy cork. Also the fitting is in a fixed position ( not often a real problem I admit but the FRS 27 option allows freedom of choice.)
So why aren’t these fittings more common? I can see they are no longer in the Fuji catalogue, but a dealer in the Netherlands may have some old stock. Did Fuji decide not to sell a cheap effective and flexible product where they could sell many other types of reel seat instead. Or was the FRS 27 fundamentally flawed and withdrawn?

 

[nottskev]

I've never seen those. Daiwa for a brief period put ones like this on some rods. They can be slid and locked where you want them.

I much prefer bands for all bar carp or barbel, but not all bands are equal. Some are faultless, some are useless. Shimano for a while put shaped metal bands on some early versions of rods - Diaflash and Twin Power - and I changed these as they just didn't grip. Changing them was made more tricky by the pointless "sculpted" look they went for with the cork handles, which featured thick bits, thin bits, flared bits with the bands locked in a slim section.

 

[Blue Fisher]

I've never seen those. Daiwa for a brief period put ones like this on some rods. They can be slid and locked where you want them.

View attachment 31941

I much prefer bands for all bar carp or barbel, but not all bands are equal. Some are faultless, some are useless. Shimano for a while put shaped metal bands on some early versions of rods - Diaflash and Twin Power - and I changed these as they just didn't grip. Changing them was made more tricky by the pointless "sculpted" look they went for with the cork handles, which featured thick bits, thin bits, flared bits with the bands locked in a slim section.

That looks an elegant solution too, although I would want it the other way round so that the hand is on mostly cork. I wonder if it is possible to get them as a spare part.

 

[Philip]

I think ABU did something similar, a sort of semi fixed arrangement that screws tight to the cork handle so you can reposition it. I have it on one rod..if I can find it in the tackle mountain I'll take a picture.

 

[@Clive]

A hundred years ago you could buy a reel seat made from tubular alloy with a thread and reel seats secured by locking nuts. You could buy shortened versions like this to lock the reel to a fixed reel seat or a double screw arrangement whereby the tube slid over the corks and locked onto the cork when the reel seat was tightened.

2

 

[Keith M]

I think ABU did something similar, a sort of semi fixed arrangement that screws tight to the cork handle so you can reposition it. I have it on one rod..if I can find it in the tackle mountain I'll take a picture.

I also had an all in one sliding reel seat which you could re-position wherever you wanted on the cork handle when tightened over the reel foot.
I think it was made by Fuji and was not as nice to hold as the one that Diawa used above.

Keith

 

[Mark Wintle]

I can't be doing with sliding fittings if I can help it and have converted several rods from sliding fittings to screw-down. What I then do is fit a cork hood so that it is far more comfortable to hold.

 

[seth49]

One of the first rods I bought, was an ABU spinning rod, which had the sliding reel seat, it worked ok, but usually stayed in one place, once I found a good position.

 

[@Clive]

It would help if reel manufacturers had standardised the reel foot design. As it is even reels from the same manufacturer differ in length and thickness.