Mad as a fish
Well-known member
Rod reducer what is it for is it for making a rod shorter if so why ?
Rod reducer ?
- Thread starter Mad as a fish
- Start date
<(Andy2009)>
Well-known member
Your thinking of it the wrong way around mate.
A reducer is mainly supplied with a rod for people who use there reels down the butt. It goes in the butt after casting, so when reeling in it gives those who fish like this extra leverage when bringing your rig in with a fish on the end (hopefully)
.
I myself fish with the reel down the rod as you've seen mate, but have needed the use of a reducer though...
A reducer is mainly supplied with a rod for people who use there reels down the butt. It goes in the butt after casting, so when reeling in it gives those who fish like this extra leverage when bringing your rig in with a fish on the end (hopefully)
.I myself fish with the reel down the rod as you've seen mate, but have needed the use of a reducer though...
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Mad as a fish
Well-known member
Cheers Andy for your reply mate
harry barker
Well-known member
......................................................................................................Your thinking of it the wrong way around mate.
A reducer is mainly supplied with a rod for people who use there reels down the butt. It goes in the butt after casting, so when reeling in it gives those who fish like this extra leverage when bringing your rig in with a fish on the end (hopefully)
I myself fish with the reel down the rod as you've seen mate, but have needed the use of a reducer though...
So why is it called a reducer then ?.........if its to make the rod longer it would be called...errrrrmm.a extender.
So really it is to shorten the rod...well shorten the rod below the reel for casting so the bit of rod below the reel doesn't dig into yr chest when power casting.
Wouldn't be needed if yr just lobbing off the pier or short casting in the rough stuff,but if you need to get distance off the beaches and use pendulum casting to blast your end gear out in a onshore gale then by removing the reducer before you cast could aid you to pull the rod butt close into your chest to finish the power stroke fully.
<(Andy2009)>
Well-known member
NO...
If you buy a rod that is 13FT, and then they gave you a reducer, as that is what they are called anyway, it gives you the extra foot of leverage.
Some manufacturers, like Zziplex for example, state there rods are (E.g. 14ft, 13ft 6" without reducer) and so on...
When I got my 14ft greys apollo MK3, the Dealer I bought it from asked me if I would like a 'REDUCER' with it, I said no as i rarely use them.
If a tackle dealer like that said reducer then I must be saying its meaning correctly...
I always thought the reason it was called a reducer was because it means you can reduce the distance between the reel seat and the butt end which is what reel down chuckers sometimes want. Then to enable reeling in you stick the reducer in so you can hold the rod better. Not sure like because I always fish reel up and anyway I didn't get one with my rod
smoothound
Well-known member
i was told once that that they're called reducers because back in the 80s rod butts were pretty thick. so tournament casters used to put a thinner piece in the bottom of the rod to reduce the diameter of the butt, then put the reel on this so they could get a better grip of the spool when casting.
g-force
Well-known member
If I remember correctly, "reducers" were originally used with older, thicker butted rods to enable the reel to be clamped to them instead of the higher diameter blank, which enabled casters to get a better grip on the reel.
They differed from "extenders" which merely plugged into the rod to extend the rod a bit for extra leverage by being reinforced to withstand the stresses of casting. What most people refer to these days as "reducers" are in fact "extensions" as most aren't built to have the reel clamped to them, it just seems that the term "reducer" has come to be used generically to refer to anything that's shoved up your butt!
Being a reel-up bloke, I've never had to use either so I stand to be corrected.......:roll eyes:
Gary
They differed from "extenders" which merely plugged into the rod to extend the rod a bit for extra leverage by being reinforced to withstand the stresses of casting. What most people refer to these days as "reducers" are in fact "extensions" as most aren't built to have the reel clamped to them, it just seems that the term "reducer" has come to be used generically to refer to anything that's shoved up your butt!
Being a reel-up bloke, I've never had to use either so I stand to be corrected.......:roll eyes:
Gary
Ian Alexander
Well-known member
Just like the old song...
"You say reducer, I say extender,
You say potatoe and I say potato,
potatoe, potato, tomatoe, tomato, reducer, extender, let's call the whole thing off"
(Sorry lads, I think the bad weather has sent me a bit stir crazy today)
Regards Ian
"You say reducer, I say extender,
You say potatoe and I say potato,
potatoe, potato, tomatoe, tomato, reducer, extender, let's call the whole thing off"
(Sorry lads, I think the bad weather has sent me a bit stir crazy today)
Regards Ian
Codcodcod!
Well-known member
By sticking a Reducer in the bottom means you can use the FULL length of the ORIGINAL rod and have leverage to pump fish in. (Instead of sticking your reel a foot up the butt).
Most people have the reducer in constantly because it's a pain in the arse to keep taking it out.. It hardly affects casting either.
Thats the modern day version anyway.
Most people have the reducer in constantly because it's a pain in the arse to keep taking it out.. It hardly affects casting either.
Thats the modern day version anyway.
john/r
Well-known member
i like it ian.
Stewart 1971
Well-known member
More like the result of too many six packs Jimmy
(well it is in my case)Same here, find the reducer just gets in the way, prefer reeling in off my hip / with the rod butt wedged in my beergut - landed double figure Smoothhound this way it's no bother once you are used to it.
As for the OP "reducers" were indeed so called as they were used by casters in the late 1980's to reduce the diameter of the rod and get a better grip on the spool. Rods were generally shorter in those days as well - I started casting in 1987/88 using an 11' 8" Conoflex Super Flick Tip, most other rods were only 12' and had very large diameter duraluminium butts.
harry barker
Well-known member
NO...
If you buy a rod that is 13FT, and then they gave you a reducer, as that is what they are called anyway, it gives you the extra foot of leverage.
Some manufacturers, like Zziplex for example, state there rods are (E.g. 14ft, 13ft 6" without reducer) and so on...
When I got my 14ft greys apollo MK3, the Dealer I bought it from asked me if I would like a 'REDUCER' with it, I said no as i rarely use them.
If a tackle dealer like that said reducer then I must be saying its meaning correctly...
YES....
A rod has two functions,the first is to cast the second it to retrieve.
You state that you use a 14ft rod but without a reducer and cast with the reel down.
So what you are doing when you are casting out is shortening the rod by at least a foot because the bit of rod below your reel is not being used at all to gain any extra leverage...so you are only casting a 13ft or less rod for casting.
When you a reeling in then yes you are back to the 14ft rod.
If the guy next to you was using the same rod but with the reel in the up position then he would be using the full 14ft of rod for casting and retrieving unlike yourself.
Rod manufacturers sell rods and state length without reducer, because they don't know whether the buyer is casting reel up or down so they give you a choice.
But to use the rod with the reel down they would recommend you buy a reducer so you could use the rod at recommended length.
<(Andy2009)>
Well-known member
Hey, cheers for that bit helpful info mate, a never thought of it that way like, a only use my reel about 6 to 10inches off the butt.
Mad to think of the balance of a rod in that way. Just thort of a question that will get the grey matter goin.
How would it work with rods that are stated the length of 13ft without a reducer, but have an internal reducer that can be extended out of the butt to whatever length needed???, like those new rods from Leeda...
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Ian Alexander
Well-known member
Hello Andrew,
Captive or telescopic reducers are a feature on a few rods now, (I have an uptider with one), but the very first one I ever saw was many years ago and guess who made it?.......Harry Barker. (I'm sure it was yours Harry!!).
Anglers and the big casters that used to fish the beaches with the reel low down always had problems taking the reducer in and out between casts and letting sand get in the spigot or dropping and losing the reducer altogether.
Many anglers fixed the reducers in permanently but I remember seeing the one that Harry made and it used a cam to make it a twist and lock type action.
Harry was one of the very first pendulum casters in the North East and a very good engineer.
I prefer to fish with the reel up for a lot of reasons, not least because I'm a shortarse and like to use my rod butt as a wading stick and don't want to dunk my reel. It also suits me and my style of fishing.
Regards Ian
Captive or telescopic reducers are a feature on a few rods now, (I have an uptider with one), but the very first one I ever saw was many years ago and guess who made it?.......Harry Barker. (I'm sure it was yours Harry!!).
Anglers and the big casters that used to fish the beaches with the reel low down always had problems taking the reducer in and out between casts and letting sand get in the spigot or dropping and losing the reducer altogether.
Many anglers fixed the reducers in permanently but I remember seeing the one that Harry made and it used a cam to make it a twist and lock type action.
Harry was one of the very first pendulum casters in the North East and a very good engineer.
I prefer to fish with the reel up for a lot of reasons, not least because I'm a shortarse and like to use my rod butt as a wading stick and don't want to dunk my reel. It also suits me and my style of fishing.
Regards Ian
harry barker
Well-known member
I know what you mean Andy,it must be early 80s that I made one of those twist and lock reducer, I got the idea from a shower curtain poll that if you had two discs with offset drilling as you twisted the reducer it would lock up so you could reel in using the full length of rod.
I used this on a Zzipex dream machine at the UKSF casting tournaments in the 80s(old stock casters then) and it worked a treat.
I carried this onto the beach fishing as I still use a reducer now and remove it to aid casting......but the big problem with this twist and lock reducer was sand and grit getting trapped in the slide and it would just not work as it would jam half way in and get stuck so fine for field work but no good for the beach.
Didn't know the likes of Leeda do this reducer.
Looking forward to the winter beach fishing now,counting down and have a time soon with the next northeasterlies and big tides...n a bit Frost in the air.
harry barker
Well-known member
ooops......just seen your post Ian...hahaha
