Hello to all, I am new at posting here and I thought this would be the perfect
place to ask for advise.
I have a 10ft Seeker Sps 100 that I need to purchase guides for, but I am kind of lost as to what size guides to buy? I already have a brand and model of guide
that I want to use ,Fuji svsg. The blank has an 8 tip and I will probably use a Penn
650 0r750 with it.
Any help or advise is greatly appreciated many thanks.

Bill

Bill,

You could take a peek at the library above and consider the concept guide appraoch to sorting out your guide sizes. If this was my rod, I would look to fit 7 running guides and a tip top. The tip top would be a size 10. I don't ring using the concept approach, that's not to say it does niot have merrit it's just that I don't personally use it. I also tend to use smallre guides than many builders. OK so here would be my starting suggestion.

Fuji SVSG

Size 8 2 off

Size 10 1 off

Size 12 1 off

Size 16 1 off

Size 20 1 off

Size 25 1 off


Tip Top Fuji PST 10 x x no of 64ths


Where to put them I would look to be placing my butt (stripper guide )somewhere between 24 and 38 inches from my reel. The first size 8 intermediate about 4. 5 to 6 inches from the tip top. I will confess to heracy now and say I don't do static so called distribution tests anymore. I actually then place the rest of the guides based on long experince onto the blank by eye. To be on the safe side I would suggest you plumb for the static distribution test method outlined in the library above or of course the concept system. If you go for the concept system remember it does not matter which guides you use. You do not have to buy guides labelled concept Guides.

Hope this helps


Regards

Mike O.

Mono or braided line? Or both? If braid you can use a smaller stripper guide, if Mono you "might" need a larger stripper.

If you are using this for surf fishing, and plan to tie on a piece of shock leader, I would not go below size 10 guides anywhere.

shock knots tying 10lb flouro to 10lb Fireline will knock on size 8 guides.

My preference for all saltwater fishing is nothing smaller than 10, including tip, and that is for Light or U/L stuff only.

On rods using 15lb mono and up, i seriously recommend size 12 as minimum...

Good luck.

Agreed Biily. A size 30 could be considered. But truth is when I stuck a 30 on the rod it did not actually perform one little bit better but it did confrom more closely to the concept ringing set up. The 30 ring cost more money and the rod lucked ugly and yep the 30 ring cost a few cents more.

Regards

Miike Oliver

Many thanks to everyone for thier input and time regarding this post.
I was planning on using a size 50 ring for the stripper guide, but my
problem is what size guides to purchase from that point on . I havent
seen an 8 tip with a 10 or 12 ring. I know fuji used to make them on thier
Bnhg series but thier no longer available . I will be using power pro braided
line or Suffix elite with this rod. As far as lures mainly swimming plugs and bucktails.
Again I would like to thank everyone for your help.

Bill.

Billy, I most likely to use Power pro with this rod. I am going to use
Bombers and wooden plugs from the open surf for Bass n blues.

Thanks,
Bill

Bill Ewing - Opinions, experiences and preferences will vary here. Consider this:

IMO, the Penn Spinfisher 650 and especially the 750 would benefit from a ring size bigger than a 25 mm ring in the Fuji SVSG guide series. Like Billy Vivona said, if you use a slick and softer braid line, you can get away with a smaller ring guide at the butt. But if you use monofilament nylon line in cold weather, you may want a bigger ring in the butt guide.

FUJI SVSG = SiC (Silicon Carbide) Ring with Double-Footed / Tri-Legged Frame, in Gunsmoke color. Butt Guide = SVSG in at least the 30mm size. Running Guides = probably a 20 mm, followed by 16, 12, 10's and 8's if you go that small. This guide does not have the highest-frame ring, so the height-off-the-blank is good, but not the highest.

Have you considered the Fuji YSG Series? These are also SiC-ringed guides, but are Single-Footed / Two-Legged Frames, in the highest frame-style available for Fuji, their SiC-Ring Concept-style Guides. A 30 mm ring in the YSG frame has a center-point that is about as high off the blank as the 40 mm ring in the SVSG frame. And the YSG guides weigh less and cost less than the SVSG. At each point along the rod blank, you could probably drop from the larger SVSG size down to the next lower ring size in the YSG series, and get the same casting performance with a smaller ring and less metal frame. You save valuable weight toward the rod tip, and maybe a few dollars in cash. I still recommend a PST tip.

I don't know much about the blank you plan to use: the "10ft Seeker Sps 100" . I couldn't find the specifications in the one catalog I looked at (Mud-Hole). I don't know how weight-sensitive it is. But it does not sound like that heavy a blank, so saving weight toward the tip is probably well worth the effort of saving a several grams of guide and thread and epoxy finish weight toward the tip.

If you want to use this rod for repetitive casting (like, of artificials), I would recommend the Fuji SiC YSG series of guides. If you are worried about bending or banging around the single-foot YSG 30 mm butt guide, then use a double-footed SVSG 40 mm ring, if you can stand the price (~$20). Single-foot guides after the butt guide would be a general recommendation to save lots of weight.

The truth be told, if you are willing to use a series of guides other than SiC / SVSG, then the Hardloys in the BHVLG series, or the BSVLG series, or the BYLG series are really very comparable in performance and durability, at considerable savings in price. Also, the original Alconite-ring Concept-frame guides are, of course, a slightly better quality ring than the Hardloy, and you may prefer the color of the Alconite to that purplish color of the Hardloys. The SiC rings are definitely tops, if that's what you want to stick with.

As far as guide placement goes, follow a Concept or Cone-of-flight type placement of the butt guide, and a Concept and Static-placement approach to your running guides. Your first guide will be about 4 - 6 inches from your tip-tip, no matter what size ring or style guide you choose. And your butt guide will likewise be somewhere around 30 inches from your spool (not from the foregrip's hosel).

Hopefully, that doesn't confuse the issue, but offers some useful alternatives to save you some weight, and some money, while still building a first-rate surf rod.

Best Wishes, -Cliff Hall, Gainesville, FL +++

Bill Ewing -- Now that you have mentioned bigger rings, consider:

BHVLG-40HH; then 25H; then BYLG 20 or 16; then BYLG 12's all the way out. PST-12mm. Look at SMRW for even more choices. -Cliff Hall-

Tommy,

I used to think the same way as regards to size 8 rings verses size 10. This was until I decided to try this same ringing arrangement on a Zziplex 11 feet 1to 3oz surf rod which was used to cast 2oz Bucktails and 3oz plugs into the surf in the USA for Stripers. Now I do not use a shock leader when spinning. I use 50lb Power pro straight through so no worries with casting crack offs or darned shock leader knots. The horrid truth for advocates of old style spinning rod design with massive butt guides in the 50 size was that my tiny ring set actually cast as far when using a spinning reel, a VS 200. It surprised me. This is why I have suggested a smaller than what would be considered conventional butt guide and running guides set up. I am certainly not saying you are wrong far from it, I also sometimes use size 10 on fresh water spinning rods. The other reason I decided to move away from conventional wisdom is that size 50 and bigger butt guides need very large rod tubes when travelling by air. And even if my motives initially were not driven by technical reasons I fluked upon a ring set that I found could be much smaller and yet compromise not one jot in performance. The difference in weight between a conventionally sized set of guides used on surf spinning rods is very considerable compared to the one I am proposing and the smaller set enables better rod handling.

I have used this ring set on mono lines to up to 20lb test and again it was ok. But there is no way I would argue against your size 12's too strongly

Bill is correct Tommy when he says opinions and experience will vary. Whilst this is great on the one hand it must be desperataly difficult for rookie builders who are asking for advise to know which one to take.

Bill what ever decision you take it is not set in stone you can always change it. So go with whatever feeels right for you from the above and see what cooks. The worse thing would be to be held up because you could not make your mind up.

Regards

Mike O.