I think I I have asked this before and the reason for asking it again is I cannot seem to grasp the concept.

I am building a rod for my Brother-in -Law for Xmas. I do not know which reel my sister will purchase for the rod.

With that being said how do I:

Know what size guides to buy? It is a 7 foot graphite rod he will use for Bass fishing.

Thanks

Spencer

Spence,
In that case I use Rich Forhan's equal distance formulas. The ones he has listed I've seen are for are for light actioned finesse applications rods, but if you bump the sizes up by one they seems to work well also with size 4/4000 size reels also.
I can e-mail you the info if you like.

Thanks Spencer

It would be good if you could email me info or if there is a place I can go to get it on the web.

Spencer

Will send it along as soon as I get home.

I would think you at least know about what size reel will be used on the rod. In fact, you need to recommend the proper reel size to your sister, so that the reel she buys will match up nicely with the new rod.

On the online library page here, take a look at the New Guide Concept System if you're using a spinning reel. Set it up with something you have on hand that is roughly the same size as what you're going to recommend that she buy. If you're going with a baitcasting reel, then Rich's formula will do just fine.

........

Spencer, you can ask your sister if she knows exactly what reel she will be buying for that particular rod, and hope she buys that reel. Or you can build a rod that can handle several different reels(weight). It would be nice to know or have the specific reel when you start to build the rod. As for guides start with a 12, 10-10-8-8-8 and tip size 8. This is for the 7' rod. If you know what he uses the rod for (flipping, pitching, crankbait, carolina or what ever, that would help also.

I just got a Mud Hole catalog, and it has some probably very broad recomendations in the front, in a little mini rod building section. You gotta know if the guides go on tob or bottom, at least. I would buy the reel, for bass maybe a Cabo pt, or even better, then demand payment from my sister immediatly! LOL