Does it bother you how long the handle length is on your lure rod/rods?

For the sake of this blog post, when I say “handle length” on a lure rod, I am referring to the length from the stem of your spinning reel when it’s screwed into the reelseat to the end of the butt grip. Hope that makes sense……

It kinda niggles me a bit when the overall handle length on a lure rod is a decent bit longer than I am used to. Over the years I have got very used to the sort of handle length we ended up using on the (discontinued) Savage Gear SGS8 and (discontinued) SGS5 lure rods, and which we went with again on the current generation Defiance SG8 and cheaper SG4 lure rods. I pushed for these handle lengths when we were doing the rods because the handle lengths on each of the different rods suited me perfectly - which obviously came from fishing with a lot of different rods before these ones.

Me fishing with the Savage Gear Defiance SG4 10’ 12-46g out in Portugal

You’re obviously going to find a difference in handle lengths on say the 8’6’’ rods compared to the 10’ rods, but that is only natural. I am very used to fishing with these handle lengths and I hadn’t quite realised how much I pick up on a different handle length than I am used to when I am either trying a different rod or working with some sample rods like I have here at the moment. If it’s any help, I have checked my “perfect handle length” for a 9’ rod rated around the 35g mark - as per the Savage Gear Defiance SG4 9’ 9-35g rod - and from spinning reel stem to end of the butt grip it’s 379mm (37.9cm or 14.92 inches). Compared to 411mm (41.1cm or 16.18 inches) on the longer Savage Gear Defiance SG4 10’ 12-46g and so on.

Which is why for example when I reviewed that awesome Savage Gear Tactical Medium Game 8'10'' 10-30g (2.69m) lure rod last week, I noted that the handle length was a bit too long for me. I can easily fish with it because without really thinking about it I tend to end up gripping the actual butt grip a bit further up when I am casting - as per the photo above - but in a perfect world I’d prefer “my” handle length on a rod like this.

Me casting the Savage Gear Tactical Medium Game 8'10'' 10-30g (2.69m) lure rod, note where my bottom hand seems to naturally sit on what is a longer handle length for me

And of course the handle lengths that I prefer might well not be the perfect handle lengths for you. I know that we all cast slightly differently for starters, and how the lower hand on the rod pulls the butt grip into your chest or perhaps armpit area I believe affects how long you like that handle length to be. Then how you hold the rod as you are (lure) fishing. There is no specific right or wrong here, indeed I bet that if I gave a load of you that Savage Gear Tactical Medium Game 8'10'' 10-30g (2.69m) lure rod to cast and fish with, some of you would agree with me - slightly shorter handle length please - and some of you would say sod off Henry, we like it exactly as it is.

So I’ve got a bunch of sample lure rods which arrived the other day. Now that I am back from France I need to get out and cast/fish with them all and start providing feedback so we can move to the next generation of samples. From various waggle tests which I know don’t actually tell us that much, I kinda like how the rods feel in my hands - but all the handle lengths on the different rod lengths and casting weights are too long for me. Not too long that I can’t go and start trying to evaluate the rods, but when I start to provide feedback I am going to very much pick up on the fact that I would like to see somewhat shorter handle lengths. Again though, I bet that some of you here would really like the handle lengths as they are.

Marcin with a stunning 68cm Irish bass he caught on the Favorite Black Swan 772MH 7’7’’ 10-36g lure rod

What about a bit shorter again though? I have been fishing the creature bait stuff a good bit recently with the Favorite Black Swan 772MH 7’7’’ 10-36g (review to come, might just be my favourite of the sub-9’ Black Swans and Skylines for this style of bass fishing, it’s unreal), and the handle length is shorter again at 317mm (31.7cm or 12.48 inches). In some respects this handle length is a bit short to be ideal for me, but with how I tend to fish this specific 7’7’’ lure rod? It works perfectly for flicking creature baits around or a bit of underhand casting, the shorter rod length is really good for areas where the casting might be a bit restricted - trees, banks behind you etc. - and on a wand of a rod like this I think that shorter handle length is ideal. How about you though?

Me underhand casting a creature bait with trees around me on this amazing little Favorite Black Swan 772MH 7’7’’ 10-36g lure rod

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