larry, the only consideration for you will ultimately be size of the person casting the rod. since you are building the rod for a smaller person build it accordingly. his arm size, hand size, and his hieght all are things to consider. rear grip is the first considerstion that will tell you were to place the reel seat. then fore grip will fall into place accordingly.

Hello manokanaka, I am building this rod for my 8 year old son who stands 52" tall. I have been teaching him lately how to cast a conventional reel that I have on 8'10" Fenny. Last night I watched him practice cast this set up and was paying more attention to the mechanics of his cast instead how he handled the reel and noticed that he looked really comfortable with this rod set up. I measured the rod and found the reel center is 15" from the butt of the rod. This has got me leaning towards a 9' rod with the reel seat placement the same as the Fenny. He wants to surf fish and is going to be using a conventional reel as well. Primary fish we'll be targeting are stripers on the west coast. So I'm an thinking that a Lami GSH108-2HX should fit the bill. What are your thoughts? Thank you, Larry