Alright this is directed to all you trout plug throwers and/or rod builders out there. After reading Robs article on trout plugs I have decided to build a calstar800xl. I pretty much have everything figured out, but I have a few questions. How long should I make the foregrip? And what kind of reel seat should I use? I think that's all I need. Thank you -Phil

What do you know so far? What kinda guides, grips (hypalon or cork tape), etc are you going to use? I have a rod here that has one of the heavy duty graphite reel seats by fugi. I believe it is model DPS22, but it is very light and will take an abu style foot, or the bigger reel foot if you ever decide to put say a 15/30 on it. For hypalon, i would use say 8 inch rear and a 10 inch fore if you like to hold the front grip more, or say a 10 inch rear and 6 inch fore if your looking for more of a typical style casting rod. Thosse are just what i would suggest, but i have been known to be wrong too. Also, just for fun, what colors are you gonna use, and do you have a power wrapper? Im a rodbuilder and am just curious. Drop me a line at Boatless4now@cs.com if you wanna hook up to kayak fish around SLO area, or talk rodbuilding.

Till Later,
Joel

Hey Phil,
On my 800L I did 14" butt grip and 5" fore grip. It's probably an inch longer than I should have but not terrible. On my Rainshadow SW976 which is more like the 800XL I did 12" butt grip and 5.5" foregrip. That feels just about right to me. I would measure from the very tip of your elbow to where your hand would grip the reel naturally. Hold another rod to get it right. You want a fair amount of leverage in the butt section. A short butt section will tire you out when retrieving the plug all day.
I have fuji trigger reel seats, don't know the model. Brian probably does. Samurai TI on the bassntubes board has an 800XL so you might ask him what components he used.

-Rob

Thanks guys. That's about what I was thinking. Hypalon 12" rear grip, 4" fore grip and a fuji trigger real seat. I already have a guy ordering the stuff for me, it'll be here wednsday. He's getting me a 10" foregrip though. Can I cut it down to what I want? For guides he recommended getting fuji hardloy. And for colors i'm just going straight black, nothing fancy. Thanks again for your help. I am so primed to build this rod and start chuckin wood at margarita, which leads me to another question. If I were to start out with just one plug for Margarita, what should it be? And would it be worthwhile to start throwing them right now?-Phil

I'm sure you know what I'm going to recommend. 9" Dark Trout colored slammer. Giving some credit where credit is due, the 7" AC Minnow has caught a lot of fish there as well for me. The fish seem to be getting bigger every year though so I don't think you'll miss out on much by throwing 9" vs. 7". If the lake record is going to be caught in this cycle of the lake, I think it will be in the next 1 to 3 years. Off to San Pablo, let's go hog hunting!

Hi Phil!
I recently built a Calstar 800L - thanks to the info and advice gleaned from this site. I went with a 13" hypalon rear grip, a Fuji trigger reelseat (size 22) and a 41/2" hypalon foregrip. These grip dimensions feel "right" for me. With Fuji NSG SIC guides, gunmetal grey underwrap and dark green overwrap with silver trim, the rod looks really good. I also tried the "Spiral Wrap" method of positioning the guides - looks unusual, but the rod is very stable when loaded under stress. Now all I have to do is find those Florida strain Bass and start showing them the big baits!
Whatever you decide to go with, enjoy your new rod - its great to build your own - its even better when you catch something on it!
Regards and Tight Lines!
Jacques