Hi guys, I'm a newb here on this forum, but I have a bit of experience in the rod building scene-some of which could be applied to this thread.
Back in the 90s I built a lot of tounament surf casters in the UK. Handle length is quite criticle for this, and the style of castinfg was the pendulum in most cases. I believe this style is also used in launching poppers, although I dont think its a full blown version. Generally speaking the reel seat would be positioned at a shoulder width plus a hands width, or around 22 inches or 55.88cm, 24-26 inches for the big guys ( 60.96-66.04cm). This would be way over the lengths written about in the above post-but are these dimensions designed for the smaller Asian frame ?
I have a 2 piece SEED popping blank I bought from Singapore recently-the butt section seems to be short for me at just 31 inches. I'm 6'5", and need at least 10 inches for a double hand grip on the foregrip, ( I assume I may need a double hand grip on big GT)5 inches for the reel seat, leaving me just 16 inches of butt left behind the reel seat.
This short butt also lowers the leverage I can apply to a cast-Increasing fatigue, and reduces the leverage I'm able to apply to working a large popper, adding to fatigue.
Even a lay back or off the gropund style cast would require the same dimensions as in each case the butt is brought to the shoulder and the other arm extended at the finish of the cast.
As for working the popper, these longer dimensions only aid in reducing resitance of the popper in retrieval, and the leverage in fighting fish is reduced with your grip being further up the blank.