Ya know how we always start with a certain size guide and drop down in sizes to the tip? This is speaking of a casting rod. Why couldn't you use the smallest guide you intend to use from the bumper guide to the tip? And use only the guide necessary for the butt guide. It seems that once the line is on the bottom of the rod that it doesn't care what size guides it goes through except that it can go through them with ease. Seems it would make the rod even lighter. Anybody see anything wrong with this idea? I think I'm gonna do some tinkering with it just to see how it does.

Thanks,
Steve

Think about this
The concept system IMHO, is mainly for a spinning rod. Why, because the line comes off the reel in " pig tails ". The guides have to taim it and try to streighten it out.
Now when line comes off a casting reel or fly reel, it already is " streight " so smaller guides can be used , cause the line is already taimed

Steve,

There's no reason you can't tweak and try different guide set ups. The reason I what Bill Colby calls the Bumper spiral wrap up as I did, was to make it easy to explain to those who asked. I didn't have to spec guide sizes or placement - I just took what they already knew about regular guides on top casting rod guide placement and used that.

By all means, try different guide sizing or spacing. The only things I think that you probably can't improve would be the position of the first two guides and the Bumper guide in between them. Everything else is up for grabs.

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I agree Tom. I wasn't really talking about changing the guide placement but only the guide sizes. If you have 5 #6 guides on the tip section why not have them all the way down to the bumper guide and then let the reel determine the size of the butt guide. I'm gonna see what happens with that guide set up. I know it should make the rod lighter at least.

If you think about it in terms of "taming" the line, the first guide on a level wind casting set-up is the line guide on the reel itself. These are seldom larger than about a size 6 or maybe 7 on a larger reel. I just build a 13' Rainshadow float rod that my customer wanted as a casting rod. He wanted all number 6 guides, including the butt guide. He says it casts like a dream and he has no problems with the line stacking at the butt guide. I have no idea if it casts as far as if I had started with a size 12 butt guide and sent on down, but it does open up some interesting possibilities for experimenting.

Jeff Hunter

I would think the butt guide would tend to keep the line off the hand when holding the foregrip.
Small rig size and higher frame? If a 8 does this and that is what you want it to do why not. Then what ever keeps the line off the blank? #7 - 6 ?

Just like the inclosed reels with the little #7 hole in them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2005 05:09PM by bill boettcher.

The author said to set it up just like you would a rod with the guides on top. On the ones I do that way, I use a 12 butt guide followed by a 10 and the all size 6 guides. So the bumper rod I did was exactly the same. A 12, a 10, and then all size 6 guides. The 10 and the size 6 guides are all on the 180 degree axis. I installed a size 8 in the bumper position. It works as advertised. No problems.

Don't have the rod but thinking maybe a 12 V if needed to keep the line off the foregrip then 8 as bumper, 8 at 180 then 6's??

I have built many spiral wrapped rods that are just used for trolling only (not casting). I had always used a 10, 8, 7, 6's on out to the tip on those. The next one of these I build will be the 'bumper' simple spiral and this is interesting to me, too. I'll have to play with that next one for sure!

I just pieced together a rod using an 8, 7 bumper, 7 and then 6's the rest of the way out. I would have used another 6 inplace of the 7 but I ran out of 6's. I put a Shimano Curado 200BSF on the rod. If I were fishing for bigger fish and had to grasp the foregrip the line may toucn my thumb. I think this set up will work if you're not using the foregrip to help fight the fish. BTW, I used all single foot Alconite fly guides.

Right. On rods for larger quarry you'd want to increase the size or height of the butt guide. The same rule for sizing and placing the butt guide would hold true whether you're building a guides-on-top rod or a Bumper type rod.

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