I'm wanting to build a 6'6" med-fast spinning rod - 4-10 lb test and would like to know what size guides I would use in the Fuji Concept Guides. Either the titanium frame or plated single foots. I don't really want to buy 2 or 3 of each size in order to mix & match. Is there a good baseline I can start with?

Thanks,

Todd

If you want the best possible performance, you'll have to set it up as the article on the online library page specifies. Otherwise you're going to be asking the line to conform to a pre-conceived line path instead of the other way around.

If you want to go ahead and choose guide sizes first anyway, then I'd use the Fuji recommended sizes and spacing. The rod will still cast okay, just not to the very limits of its potential.

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I would guess that if you set up the rod with a 2500 series Shimano and wanted to use a size 6 intersect guide, you would end up with 25, 16, 10, and probably four 6s to the top. Smaller reel might goto 20,12, five 6s. Bigger reel and/or line might go 30,16, 10, four 7s or 8s to the tip. When I set up rods for Shimano spin reels in the 2500 or 4000 sizes, they almost always fit the 25-16-10 intersect.

Todd, when I was building my first rod, I went through the same thing you're going through -- I didn't want to spend a ton of money on a bunch of different guides, knowing that I was going to be using only a small percentage of them.

My solution -- and one I recommend to any rodbuilder -- is to buy a bunch of the cheapest guides that you can find. I settled on Fuji concept aluminum oxide rings, and got a few in ring sizes 50 through 8 (I didn't go smaller because I only build saltwater rods, and rarely use ring sizes smaller than 10). For less than $50 I have all the guides I'll ever need for determining guide placement. I do all my test casting and static distribution tests with the aluminum oxide guides, and then once I've determined the number and size of the guides I need, I order the ones I'm actually going to use on the blank. That way I only have to pay for what I'm actually going to use, and with the prices of some of the higher-end guides, this is a good thing.

This process has worked great for me, and Tom K, in another post, suggested that a good rationalization for this is that you can consider buying a bunch of guides a "tool" that you're going to be using in building rods. You can probably find guides similar to what you'll eventually be using for less than I paid (I got Fuji's BSVOG because I'm lazy, because they're available in all the sizes I needed, and because they're similar to the ones I use on the finished rod (SVSG). But having them around has saved me a lot of aggravation with guide placement -- I don't have to worry, during testing, about needing a guide I don't have -- and I recommend the method wholeheartedly.

Also to add, the concept guides have a higher ring height then the all purpose guides I don't beleve the aluminum oxicide come in a concept guide height

Hi Todd, I too struggled with the notion of having to buy extra guides to follow the New Guide Concept primer. So I taped several pieces of white poster board together and drew a straight line lengthwise on one side, with a few short parallel lines at each end. Since most reels (and all of mine) have a 4 degree upsweep, I then drew another line angled up toward's the first line at 4 degrees (which created my intersection point). Now instead of laying my blank and reel along a table edge, I can lay them down on my alignment grid. I center the blank over the first straight line and in between my extra parallel lines. I slide it up and down until the spool's spindle aligns with the 4 degree upsweep line - duh - this is easier than a table top to me.



I also simulated a line next to the straight line to represent roughly where an average blank's edge would rest. Then I got the Fuji Concept guide heights from www.fujitackle.com and superimposed the 30mm - 6mm guide heights between my two lines. Its no big secret but a Fuji 25mm guide only fits in ONE SPOT between these two lines or any blank sitting on any table edge.



If I were building a lightweight rod with a small reel, I would slide it up further until the smaller spool's spindle lined up with my 4 degree line. My only problem with the primer process is the difference in guide heights between the different manufactures and guide styles. A Fuji 25mm Concept Y guide is 51mm high and sits about 26 3/4" from a Shiman 4000, Daiwa 3500, and 4500 series reel face. A Forecast 25mm VS guide is 39mm high and fits exactly at 35" from the same reel - that's an 8 1/4" difference for two 25mm guides from different manufactures.



I just finished 3 spinning rods for Steelhead and Salmon and really struggled with guide placements based on the primer with my reels so I said to heck with it and built them exactly to the Fuji recommeded sizes/spacing. I'm more concerned with landing fish with these particular rods than trying to figure out a setup that will cast a few feet further than the rest. Good luck.