A couple years ago, I was wanting to buy a used 3wt Orvis Rod with Battenkill reel from a fellow that was selling all his fly fishing gear. He wouldn't sell just the 3wt setup, I had to buy it all. That included a bunch of very good fly tying gear (with a $150 vise and at least $150 in almost all unused materials and hooks), a White River 5-7wt fly reel with almost new Orvis 6wt WF line, and a like new St. Croix 6wt 2 piece rod. All for $350! I sold the vise on ebay for $100+ since I already had a vise and felt like I made out like a bandit having only invested $250 in about $600+ worth of gear. However, I already had a very nice Scott 6wt for trout fishing and didn't really need the St.Croix or the reel it came with, but figured I'd hold on to it as a back up rig. That was 3 years ago and it hasn't been out of it's sleeve. So on a whim, I decided I'd add a fighting butt to it and make this my official bass rod that I'd leave at our hunting camp year round or I might use it for a lighter carp fishing rig as well.
To do so, I ordered a fighting butt from the tackle and rod building site mudhole.com for a couple bucks ($7 shipped). I then cut a 6" section off an extra carbon arrow I had laying around and drilled a hole the same diameter as the arrow shaft into the butt of the fly rod. Most non-fancy fly rods have a plastic butt cap that is easily drilled through. Conveniently, the arrow fit perfectly snug inside the rod blank, so I did not have to drill into it. I then glued the arrow shaft into the cork butt section after sanding it with some sandpaper to ensure a positive surface for the glue, and put glue inside the rod butt section and slid the arrow in. I used a heavy duty polyurathane adhesive for this.
Here is the after picture. It would take looking closely to tell it did not come from the factory like this. Once it gets a little use, that cork will match the factory handle just fine. All for about $7 using glue and an arrow I had laying around, and about 15 minutes of my time. I thought it was well worth it. You could add a thick metal (aluminum or brass) bushing in between the cork and the rod base to make it look more professional, but that was not a concern of mine.
