3ds Max :: UV Mapping A Long Object (2013)?

In the max scene you can see a spearfishing shaft, basically a very long in lenght cylinder.I properly map it as the checker texture that I apply shows, the problem is the lenght of the cylinder. As you can see in the photo, a screen shoot of max Unwrap UVW Modifier,(the uv islands are properly scaled with a correct proportion between them) if I scale them down to fit the UV space, in blue in the photo, blue arrow, because the lenght of the cylinder, I end up with very small islands. I did not scale them down jet to fit the UV space to show you my point.

I must scale them down to fit the UV space despite ending up with very small islands, losing a lot of definition, and most of the uv space hempty? how to correctly pack those UV island in the UV space? The problem is the lenght of the shaft that of curse I dont want cut down with seems.