Years back bought some factory ones, it came as a oversize butt similar to a fighting butt, and had lead about the size of a quarter in dia., but bout 3/16" thick. You put as many as you need to balance the rod, in the btm. of it and slide it on. You can probably make or have a buddy pour some similar, then it's adjustable and removable. Just a thought.
Mike

 

Batson Enterprises has a weighted butt system. There are three different weights 2oz, 3.75oz and 5oz. It consitst of a threaded butt cap and the individually available screw on weights. I have a series of Lamiglas rods I'm building that all have the 5oz weights on them.

Fuji/Matagi also make an adjustable weight system - not as heavy as the Forecast.

All things considered adding weight to the rod generally decreases sensitivity, however it will balance out the rod especially for your spinners and what not

 

Batson Enterprises has a weighted butt system. There are three different weights 2oz, 3.75oz and 5oz. It consitst of a threaded butt cap and the individually available screw on weights. I have a series of Lamiglas rods I'm building that all have the 5oz weights on them.

Fuji/Matagi also make an adjustable weight system - not as heavy as the Forecast.

All things considered adding weight to the rod generally decreases sensitivity, however it will balance out the rod especially for your spinners and what not[/QUOTE

When I was in the tackle business, my partner and I experimented with several rods from Gregg to Loomis and discovered that balancing a rod actually increases sensitivity. As near as we could figure, changing the fulcrum of what is essentially a lever in one's hand from a spot toward the tip of the rod to the reel or the center of the hand itself allows the tip of the rod to better transmit input. Or something like that. Regardless, it seems to have this effect and if it is subjective, there were quite a bunch of avid fisherdudes who agreed to a man it was true.

In addition (and perhaps even more surprising) it reduces fatigue. It was for the latter reason that one of my early experiments was on a 9-foot Kalin (garage find) which served as a bobbe rod for Chinook fishing. I used a longish butt cap in which I could place a couple lead disks. It became a pleasure to use. Many put quarters inside oversized butt caps on lighter rods. We started fooling around with trying different methods over 30 years ago.

On the custom rods we built at the store, we'd balance the rod before finishing and gluing the appropriate amount of weight inside the butt section of the blank. I s'pose it's worth a mention that these were all built to order for individuals, not off the rack.

This would certainly be an easy thing to try (without permanently altering a rod) to see if others share an improvement in performance.

 

You only need to balance the rod to the position your fishing it in, not to the horizontal, so it will save you a bunch of weight. I've never noticed my 12 and 13 ft. float rods to be particularly fatiguing and sensitivity isn't an issue so I never balanced them, just built them as light as I could.

 

Hmm... I guess leaving it alone is probably for the best

 

I believe rod balance is the single most important thing to have. I have found it improves sensitivity and reduces fatigue also seems to help with casting. I try to get the balance as close as I can to the middle of the reel seat. I add weight before I glue everything solid.

 

Last rod I built most likely was under 7 ounces or so!