I am building a little "farm pond'" spinning rod. It is an SC111 5'6 UL. It will have a Tennessee handle and I use a Spirex 500 with 4-6lb test. I am planning on doing " Concept " guide method for the first time and I will be using REC guides for the first time. I am wondering if I should still use a Silicon Carbide stripper and I am wanting to know how small I can reasonably go with these guides. These ponds are in Iowa and the bass aren't real big but the bluegill are.
Thanks Steve

If your Spirex 500 is built like mine, it's not built with an angle in the reelfoot to make a true concept system, but it doesn't mean your can't do it anyway as the the light line your going to use will facilitate it no problem. Using the search engine above will get you lots of formulas that will work.
Put in Tom Kirkman as the author for his formula that works very well, or put in "ultralight guide spacing" probably for many more. I'd go with the full REC set if your going to use them. You can probably start with a #20 stripper and go down from there. #20, #10, that 6s or smaller would probably work pretty well, as a guess.
All the best to you and yours.

Spencer

The New Guide Concept set up is explained in the online library here.

Light line under heavy pressure can benefit from really slick rings. But I still don't know if an SIC butt guide would be considered mandatory. Steel rings were used for a lot of years before ceramics came along.

I would think with line that small you can get down to #6 or #5 guides with no problem pertaining to line flow.

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So what is considered a really slick but light guide ring? I want this rod to be light but casting distance is a major consideration. Thanks Steve

The Alconite rings and frame styles are thin and light. About as light as you can get in a ceramic type, unless you want to pay for something like the Fuji SIC or Cermet in the titanium frames. The new American Tackle titanium frames should be very light as well.

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