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Taping your reel seats... Updated

Posted: May 28th, 2013, 2:04 pm
by bman
***UPDATE: Its been a year since I wrapped my reels. I took the tape off one to check for corrosion and it was still in perfect condition. I think the rescue tape must do a very good job sealing out the water and salt.***


I've been looking for something to add some grip to the plastic reel seats on my spinning rods.
It's always seemed funny that the part you hold the most often is rough threaded plastic :smt102

Tried out some Silicone Rescue Tape.
photo 1.JPG
Went on easy! Provides a good grip and smoothed out the rough spots.
Its just silicone, no adhesive, and sticks to itself.
If I took a little more time I could have made it prettier ;-)
photo 3.JPG

It comes in a bunch of colors:
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t.jpg (6.36 KiB) Viewed 10420 times
Bonus: It makes it easy to tell your rods from your buddies. If you fish with me you may not buy blue.
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$10 gets you 12 feet of the 1 inch wide tape. I did four rods and still have lots left over.
You can find it here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AZO ... gbenfis-20

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 28th, 2013, 2:14 pm
by Dubble Trubble
Plus, if lightning strikes your rod, You are insulated... Image

Dubble :thumbup:

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 28th, 2013, 3:32 pm
by guthooked
Can we get a volunteer to test the lightning protection theory?

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 28th, 2013, 9:09 pm
by FishWithChris
We did this to some of our major offshore reels back in Mississippi and old school baitcasters in irl. Works great.

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 29th, 2013, 6:26 am
by MudDucker
Did that many years ago with offshore rigs and then suffered a major failure due to hidden corrosion and quit doing it.

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 29th, 2013, 2:26 pm
by FishWithChris
Y'all must've left the tape on there for a while lol

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 29th, 2013, 10:50 pm
by bman
At $10 for 12 feet I can take it off in a year to wash and replace it.
Also the silicone tape is waterproof so it should not let the salt build up inside like a porous tape would...

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 30th, 2013, 8:32 am
by fishinfool
If it sticks to itself, is it reusable? Make sure you get a good rinse after fishing and if possible, unwrap, rinse, and rewrap. Salt will eat up a reel seat quick.
Great idea!!

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 30th, 2013, 8:56 pm
by Reel Cowboy
MudDucker wrote:Did that many years ago with offshore rigs and then suffered a major failure due to hidden corrosion and quit doing it.
That'd be the issue with this.

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 31st, 2013, 1:29 pm
by WolfeMan
What about a good coat of Corrosion-X or similar product under the silicon tape? That would help a lot, I bet. Since the tape sticks to itself, and not the rod, I wonder if this is a reasonable solution to the "trapped saltwater" dilemma.

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 31st, 2013, 1:39 pm
by Chalk
Maybe I'm odd... But I hold all my spinning rods at the fore grip. You can't feel anything with your hand that far back.

This is my most recent rod I built...I intentionally leave a gap so my index finger extends down the blank. Note no fore grip on this rod....I can feel fish thinking about hitting it lol

Image

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: May 31st, 2013, 11:07 pm
by dombern34
with Chalk on this one, i don't think i own a rod with a fore grip, but I'm sure that tape does make it more comfortable for rods with them

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: June 1st, 2013, 8:10 am
by reelbad
If some folks still worked with their hands a little bit they wouldn't have a problem fishing a few hours with a nice light weight rod and reel. Come on out to the trailer lot for a week to cut and move steel all day and I promise that reel will feel like butter in your hands. :-D

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: June 2nd, 2013, 8:36 am
by bman
reelbad wrote:If some folks still worked with their hands a little bit they wouldn't have a problem fishing a few hours with a nice light weight rod and reel. Come on out to the trailer lot for a week to cut and move steel all day and I promise that reel will feel like butter in your hands. :-D
:smt023

Re: Taping your reel seats...

Posted: June 2nd, 2013, 4:43 pm
by bigphishy
i've had the same idea and issue with the handle threads being uncomfortable. a few years back a rod that i had started to come apart right at the reel seat. i first taped it up with some eletrical tape and it fixed my problem. after some more thought i went and bought some stuff that you would use as grip tape for a tennis racket handle. this stuff worked great, it had a bit more cushion to it and a lot cooler feel too. after about a good year in a half it got stepped on and broke right in the middle. when i unwrapped the reel from the rod there was a little bit of grime underneath eveything but no corrosion.