Ok first id like to say this is a great site.. good peps on here!! Im building my first rod ive been working on it for allmost a year now. yea im kinda slow but i want to make shure i build it to the best of my ability, Im building on a 3pc 9ft 4wt rainshadow rx7 i will be fishing pan fish to steel head i know a bit light for steelies but a 4wt is what ive used for years and really like it. and no i dont wear out the fish to were i cant set them free. ok first question I used a spacing chart ive found off this site looks ok after i got the eyes tied on i used a static system to check and it looks like i need to move some eyes around in the tip area were the taper on the last 1/3 of the rod is. will this make the rod weak puting eyes right on top of the taper? I want to be able to use this rod with a spining reel as well as a fly reel on the striper guides i went with a 25 and a 16 witch is way larger than what is recomended. Ive read that larger stripers cast better and i will need to make long casts in the river i fish (Muskegon River Newaygo Michigan) shalow and verry clear will the oversized stripers cause problems? i have the rod all tied up now but no finish on it i will show pics of it as soon as the finish is on i just would like to clear up some of my gray areas before applying the finish. My opinion the best rod builders in the world are on this site i hope my newb questions and bad spelling dont clutter the posts on the forum Thank you Jay Vining

Hi Jay,
Sounds like you are on the right track my friend. I don't understand what you mean by "putting the guides on
the taper" though. Short answer, no the guides can't make the blank weaker although placing them wrong
call cause weak areas due to improper stress distribution. Better to have to many than to few when stress
distribution is concerned. Did you read the article in the library here about the New Guide Concept Primer?
Most of your guides are going to be on the upper section of that blank I believe especially if it has a "fast action".
Hard to say about the ring size as that depends a lot on the reel used and line. Figure a good starting point
for the stripper ring size is 1/2 the diameter of the reel spool. I would bet that unless you have an older reel that
# 25 will be about right. Test cast it before you apply the finish and go from there would be my best advise to you.
I'm not a fly-caster so I cant comment in that area.
There is a post that discusses a free spell checker. I like it!! Do a search and check it out! No one will knock you
if you don't though! NO worries!

Have fun and by all means let us know how it turns out! OK?


Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

For your first rod you sure started out with a good blank. Raymond gave you some good advice. See static testing by Tom Kirkman in the library and like Raymond says test. Whatever you do will be fine because your next rod will be better.
Good luck,

Big John
Rio Hondo, Texas
Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting

Jay, I'm going to rock your boat a bit. One thing for sure is that rod building is an addictive hobby - build one rod and you'll want to (need to?) build a second, and so on and so on. So I'm suggesting you build either a fly rod or a spinning rod for now, and later build the other. You'll be wanting to build a second rod anyway, so why not plan on build two, with each optimized for their unique purpose. You can optimize guide sizes etc. for each type of rod that way.

About where the guides get placed - the guides should make the line follow the curve of a bent blank, so they do wind up mostly near the rod tip where the blank bends the most.

Thanks a lot for the info i did the static guide placement that Kirkman sugests.. found out lots!! had to rewrap 5 guides... it looks like most everything else will fall into place... man thoze litle single foot guides are hard to get to stay in one place with out glueing thiem!! its coming along nicely and i will get some pics up as soon as the finish is on thanks once agin for the info Jay Vining