Attaching a lanyard?

[that_guy]

Hey Folks,

My father suffered a neck injury last year that has left him with less than 100% control of his hands.

We were fishing this past weekend, when he tossed his rod into the drink. We were fortunate that I could dive down and retrieve it, but we would like to avoid this happening in the future.

I attached a piece of rope to the rod then to his wrist for a short fix, but I would like to create a more permanent solution. We were working on teaching him how to cast two handed, but we all would like a little more security.

I have experience building/wrapping rods, and I have a pile of Para-cord. Feel free to make it a more complicated process if necessary, if there are pictures, or a good explanation I'm more than willing to give it a go.

Some more info, it's a 7ft spinning rod, with I'd say a 9 or 10 in bottom handle. I need the lanyard to attach, but stay out of the way of the line and the bail.

My first instinct is to wrap the para-cord around the bottom handle, with the lanyard coming out the bottom (similar to how we do the guides), then sealing it with flex coat. I just don't know if I can do this over the cork handle, or if I should remove the handle, replace it with something else, then wrap?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[upnorth]

What comes to mind for me is to take the butt cap off and drill a small hole just large enough to fit the cord through and then put a knot in it. pull it tight and glue the butt cap back on.

[Brad B]

I built a rod for a co workers special needs daughter and what I did with it was like Upnorth said except that instead of the knot I expoxied the rope inside the blank and then ran the butt cap up the rope and applied that as normal. I left the rope long so they could fine tune the length. I also gave the a small carabeaner to tie to the end of the rope once they got the length correct. my original plan was to come up with a wrist band/lanyard of some kind but in this case it won't have worked because if my co workers daughter want to hand him the pole while a fish was on it would have created a problem and a possible lost fish. my advice keep it simple and think out side the box.

[that_guy]

Great!

This is much better/easier than what I was originally intending to do. I'll give it a shot. Thanks guys.

[upnorth]

Hope it works out for you!!

[Hardyboy]

I made a rod for a friend of mines daughter who had seizures. what i did was make a hole across the bottom (through the cork and blank) and inserted a sleeve through it that was trimmed to size so it was flush either side then inserted a brass (for looks) D ring. I then added a tether used for emergency engine cut offs like on a jet ski if you get tossed off. so it clipped right to the D ring and velcro around her wrist like a bracelet. When she has a seizure and drops her rod its still attached to her wrist and saves the rod. If i can find them i will repost and attach pictures.