Poor Man's Rod Balancer

I had a brief moment of inspiration the other night and whipped together what seems to be a pretty slick rod balancer on the cheap.  Here goes.

Parts list:
1/2" x 10" PVC nipple
1/2" PVC Cap
1/4" stainless Bolt (~ 1 inch long)
1/4" lock nut
4 stainless washers
1 metal wall clip.
Self vulcanizing rubber tape
Grease
Scotty short rodholder extension

Use two washers above and below the cap and grease them well... these will act as the bearing.  Tighten the lock nut on the underside of the PVC cap just enough so that the "Y" pivots freely.  Assemble and voila!  The PVC nipple fits snugly into the scotty extension but not so snug that it can't easly be pulled apart if needed. 

The pictures tell the rest...

pretty cool EK, let me know how it works for you!

Cool. I've just been looking at different balancers posted on boating sites and was thinking about making one. I'll pull one together & post as well.

Thanks Eric!

Ahhhhhh, can you explain the benifit of a "balancer"?... Is it to detect delicate bites?

Ahhhhhh, can you explain the benifit of a "balancer"?... Is it to detect delicate bites?

Yes... for those sturgeon fishermen who don't want to hold the rod in their hands the whole time, a rod balancer is the next best thing... some think even better.  The rod will dip even from the smallest of bites and setting the hook can still be done in one fluid movement as opposed to using a rodholder.

Haven't tried it yet... but after SBD and Shimmy gave them rave reviews, I thought I'd try it.

EK

NOTHING beats the hands on feel , I've hook sturgeon and only felt a change of the water flowing over my line . A balancer would have never picked up on that ! I had a buddy use the balancing method at the Pumphouse , lots of sharks hitting , came real close to loosing his pole more than once !

....came real close to loosing his pole more than once !

Gotta leash the pole when using one.

NOTHING beats the hands on feel....

I agree but some people swear by balancers. I'm still gonna give it a try.

What about on rough sloppy water such as San Pablo Bay most of the time. Iwould think that the rocking of the kayak might move it too much. I saw some of these on a six-pack fishing for sturgeon on coastside. But I still think holding the rod is the best.

Hmmm, I use the ram tubes for mine. I have them mounted right where I can rest my arm on it and keep my finger on the line. That way if anything touches it even if I'm not looking at it I feel it. I can take it out in one smooth motion without disturbing the tip and the reel remains facing up  So the beauty of this system is it's comfortable enough to use all day, keeping in touch, without fatigue. The balancing act does sound intersting tho...

There are a couple things about a balancer that are nice. Although I prefer to hold my rod with a finger on the line as I have done forever.

 You know how at anchor your yak moves and swings back and forth with current, wind, or chop, then you loose contact with your bait. A balancer allows you to see what is going on, it smoothly swings back and forth, up and down, following the movement without slacking the line and losing contact. If anything touches the line you can see the movement easier.

You can also position the rod tip to be in your line of sight while you keep your fingers warm or eat and drink, but you still need to be at the ready for a hookset.

anyone use "redisets" on a yak?

i have not seen anyone use one.  i was just starting to gather materials to do a balancer similar to KZ's. I put a scotty deck mount on the front right of my new hobie for that specific purpose.