Took delivery of my first fly rod and reel today, a greys GS rod and a okuma airframe reel. When putting the two together though there seems to be quite a bit of side to side movement of the reel, is this normal? Or maybe i'm just being over cautious in how tight im screwing the locking nut? Turning the rod onto it's side is enough for the reel to shift under it's own weight.

Hi charlie, sounds a bit loose for my liking.
The Okuma reel doesn't usually have a problem with the reel seat, and as far as I am aware the Greys rod has no issues either.
Try tightening it up again, be fairly hard with it but no more than fingers, don't use tools etc.

Steven.

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"A glint of sun has warmed the air,The flies will soon hatch out, To lure and tempt from their deep lair, The bonnie speckled trout." SKB tackle supporter. I love Furled Leaders.

Sounds dodgy to me too. Never come across this problem other than when a lightweight ie 2/3wt reel has been fitted to a 7 wt rod and the other way around where the reel is too big to fit the seat

Trust nobody who fails to fit a simple Fuji !

Amateurs with no background !

Best wishes

Steve P

Sounds like you've got an uplocking reel seat where the reel isn't locating properly in the slot provided before tightening up the threaded locking ring.

It's more likely that the reel saddle chamfer is at fault unless some foreign material has found its way into the locating slot on the reel seat. I suggest you ckeck this.Also check the reel for damage to metal that may have distorted or bent the edge that locates.

I have had a similar problem and provided its not too loose have wrapped a small piece to tape around the reel foot

Your reel needs to be a good fit to the rod. I have a Greys something-or-other (10 years old) and while the rod is ok the reel-seat lets it down. It's fine with some reels, not with others.

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That wouldn't happen with a Pridex

I have had the same issue with a Scierra ferrox and greys gtx
I too found the solution was to build up the base of the reel foot with
electrical tape.Not ideal but the only solution apart from a new reel.

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BROWN TROUT:THE RED SPOTS HAND PAINTED BY GOD

20 years back everything was built pretty much to standard by eagle eyed rod builders and engineers. Unfortunately everything revolves around price these days so we have 6 year old kids in China and Pakistan making our rods and reels. You know what they say "If its cheap its because it is cheap"