While fighting stripers over the weekend I notice my baitcaster wanting to rotate pretty bad, I have never fished a spiral, so for a experiment I am going to rewrap a 7' mh Ugly stick, and convert it to a spiral - bumper rod. I use this rod for live baiting stripers and I need a very tough guide. Not for fighting fish, but for just general misuse, crush resistance. I set up a min. 5 -6 rod spread and get doubles and triples on ocassion, throw rods in the floor, step on them, i am looking for a guide that can be bent then straightened repeatedly. I was thinking a single foot guide, because it seems when a double foot gets bent the ring wants to pop out and a single foot guide can be bent back. for a 25 buck factory rod I don't want to spend alot maybe 15 dollars, for the set of guides. Is a shock ring appropriate. The rod might be asked to catch a king fish every once in a while. Can someone with more experience recommend a specific guide, don't care what manufacture.

I would just like to thank Tom, he has done an incredible things for all rodbuilders and those who aspire. Very impressive, and rare in the business world of today. Although I have never net him, it is easy to see he has an outlook on life that we all should strive for.

Also to save a post, I recieved the old issue of rod maker that deals with the plans for the power wrapper, it was helpful and I would like to know what chuck / stand someone would recommend. should i spend 100 bucks on a metal replacement chuck that mudhole is selling, btw, i am a collage student. who works full time and recently bought a house. so money is important. thanks to everyone who contributes to this board. Matt Robinson

Hi Matt,
We also fish Stripers with live bait and the spiral wrap is the way to go.
I would suggest 2 foot guides, the wider frame UDLG (Batson) or THG (Pac Bay).
They seem to hold up the best overall. The idea of bending and straightening is not a good idea.
Maybe somebody else has used flexible guides that will hold up under the strain of fighting hard running big fish and can comment.
We use a size 20 or 25 for the butt guide to help keep the line off the rod, and the go right into size 8's.
Tight Lines!

Best wishes,
Ron Schneider
Schneider's Rod Shop
Mountain Home, Arkansas
[www.schneidersrods.com]
mtnron40@yahoo.com
870-424-3381

I suggest you mail order your rods from Cabelas, or Bass pro shops, buy a bunch of $20.00 rods and if they bend or break just toss it in the trash

Dave von Doehren
PRRODS......If man built it , man can fix it.and if man built it man can break it !

Hi Matt,

I know that these guides are outside of the price guidelines you mentioned, but in case you decided to spend more money I wanted to mention American Tackle's "Atlas" frame guides. These guides have our proprietary stamped stainless frames. They are the strongest guide frames offered in the industry in both the double foot casting and the single foot guide styles. Although I wouldn't suggest the single foot option for durabilty, I must tell you that in laboratory compression tests our "Atlas" frame single foot guides carried a maximum load of 303 lbs. while the Fuji single foot only carried 228 lbs. As an added bonus to these strong frames, the upgraded material offers the best protection from rust and corrosion. Laboratory testing showed that the same same Fuji guide began red rust after 528 hours in a salt spray chamber while the Atlas frame had no rust after 1512 hours. Another nice thing about the difference in material grade is that durabilty is added while physical weight is not.

Good luck on your rod and on the water.

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

Fuji BLRLG's, or BULG.

Thanks Guy,
Ok, I will try not to bend any guides. But those were the suggestions I was looking for. Thanks

I would suggest buying a good set of rocket launchers so you can store your rods off the cockpit sole when those multiple fish hit. LOL

Jay

i remember looking at a loomis rod with some sort of titanium spring steel guide or somthing like that .you could bend them and they would spring right back.it was last october when i saw them.