Sato Sensei suggested that cutting short the grip of Slow Jerker makes it even more high resilient, more powerful to spring back. He demonstrated it in the Osaka Fishing Show in 2013. Just note that this customization would put your rod right out of the 1-year warranty of Evergreen.
So don’t try this to your rod!
There, I said it. Now I can go on.
What is the point of customizing?
You do not have to do this customization to the new model Slow Jerker 2012. See the picture on the right. The front is the 2012 model 603-6. The back is the old model 603-3. Notice the new one has the rear end of the reel seat shorter?
Sato Sensei points out that the reel seat is interfering the rod action to bend and spring back with the whole length of the rod. By cutting the reel seat just this short would make a surprisingly big difference to the rod elasticity. The rod would bend more deeply and springs back even more powerfully. He also demonstrated an experiment to put a piece of sports taping on the blanks between the reel seat and the rear end grip. The audience experienced that just that piece of taping restricted the rod action substantially.
So it was time for me to do it. Actually it was really easy to do. And the result was obvious. I tried 260g Gawky on my customized 603-3. So easy to spring back 260g with my 3oz rod. I had my hand on the reel seat and my elbow on the rear end of the rod. When I jerked up the rod I can push down on the rod butt with my elbow. I feel the whole rod bending and kicking back powerfully.
How to customize the rod
First, put a taping on the rear end of the reel seat grip to locate where to cut.
Cut into the grip. Try not to damage the rod blanks.
Cut open the grip.
There’s glue left on the rod blanks. It would be nice to clean it out, but I didn’t have polisher paste so I just left it as it is for now.
Slice the edge out to keep the grip solid.
Done. Easy.
I don’t believe you will come this far, but if you ever do, you might as well make a nice grip to hold the reel and the rod in more unity.
Put on a taping over the grip like this.
Place a heat shrink rubber tube over the taping. You can get it at any hardware store.
Give heat to set.
This is it.
The whole new Slow Jerker 603-3.
Hope the information helps you! Good luck!
