I have built six light bass casting rods using the O'Qinn system. I have set up the transition guides so that the line touches each of them on the bottom of the ring. I set them up with the rod blank straight or under no load. Later when I load the rod to do the static guide placement for the running guides I notice that the line no longer is close to the bottom of my transion guides and in fact is somewhhere out on the sides of my transition guides. I have read a lot the threads on this site stating the importance of line touching the transition guides on the bottom or top and not on the sides. I don't believe you can have it work both unloaded and under load. Do I understand it correctly to be for the line to touch the bottom/tops of the transition guides while the blank is straight and under no load?

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

You have to determine what your priority will be. For heavy duty offshore rods, casting is not a priority, thus you want very little if any pressure on the transition guides under load.

On a bass casting rod, you'll be doing more casting than anything else. I'd set up for the straightest line path you can get with the rod in an unloaded state - this is where it will be when your lure is on the way to the target. And, keep in mind, that even fully loaded, the force on your transition guides on such a rod will be less than about a half pound on any particular one. And that would be pushing it.


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