Today’s choices for guides and their selection can border on dizzying. For the newcomer & old-timer alike, keeping track of the code letters for the different guide styles is like keeping up with a foreign language. And leaving behind old habits can be hard to do. But CQI – “Constant Quality Improvement†– is the only way to go, and that’s why we are here at the RBO Forum.
For many years, I thought there was only one brand of line guides to trust on my fishing rods. Now I see that I have been walking around with blinders on. Now I am excited to comment on the EXCELLENT QUALITY and SUPERIOR VALUE that BATSON Enterprise’s FORECAST Line Guides offers.
I have recently gotten & inspected all the styles of ForeCast Guides & Tip-Tops that I would expect to consider for my rod projects, which range from 10-20# Spinning Rods to 30-50# Boat Rods. I have examined every style & color listed below, and swept over their frames & rings with my eyelashes.
In every detail and overall design parameters, ForeCast Guides & Tip-Tops offer an excellent first choice in guide design, quality of construction and pricing. All that adds up to performance that is something to write home about, IMO.
Many considerations go into selecting a line guide: Price, brand; ring & frame / color & material; ring size; ring height; guide mass; frame flexibility & stiffness; foot-print (toe-to-toe span; foot length & width); ring & frame strength; ring & frame ruggedness; overall aesthetics; and the guide layout’s dynamic co-operation with the rod blank and your overall design goals. Using more than one style of guide on a single rod is often one trick to getting a rod to be all it can be.
With FORECAST Guides & Tip-Tops, the quality of all the frame plating and the ring polish & coatings is so fine, I think “flawless†is the only word to describe them. The precision in the mechanical tolerances is also astounding. These rings are glue-welded into their frames from BOTH sides – they ain’t going nowhere! – making worries about popped rings a thing of the past. And the strength of the Zirconium rings puts to rest worries about ring cracking. The PVD coatings are so smooth, your eye would have to be an interferometer or electron microscope to detect any imperfections. Your braid and monofilament fishing line will think they are being held in place by a frictionless magnetic field, and not a ring device. The Vickers Hardnesses (VH) for the PVD coatings are ~1600, and are actually higher than the Zirconium itself (~1400). These PVD-Zirc rings are more than able to resist the abrasion of any sand-filled braided line. (VH: Silica Sand ~400.)
A Mini-Review of ForeCast Guide & Tip-Top Series for 10# – 50# Rods:
Forecast “-ST-†Series – The ST’s are the Turbo-style, folded-frame, Double-Foot, 3-Legged, low-medium ring height, “Boat & Trolling†style guides. The most important thing I can say about them is that they are not unduly massive, considering how strong they are. And they are remarkably flexible for so sturdy a frame and ring support. The geometry of the guide frame is such that when held in your fingers and flexed in your hands, they are as flexible as the UD or VD Series, down between the heels, but sturdy as a wall around the ring. This is because the fulcrum for bending is at the TOP of the guide ring, acting like a hinge, instead of UNDER the guide ring, as in the UD or VD style. This results in a longer lever arm to flex the frame, and reduces rod blank stiffening. The ST Series is really the way to go for the heavier duty salt-water rods of larger tip diameters and heavier powers. … Match with “-ST-“ (Turbo) or “-SU-“ (Heavy) Series Forecast Tip-Tops.
ForeCast “-VS3-†Series – The VS3’s are the newest pride & joys of the ForeCast Guides, and it is easy to see and feel why. The VS3’s are Batson’s new High-Frame Style, Single-Foot, 3-Legged Spinning Guide. The VS3’s have a high ring height, a low-mass ring, and a low-mass frame. IMO, the real genius of the VS3’s frame is the 3-dimensional nature to the ring support. This begins as a folded-corner, V-notch shape stemming from the heel, and gives rise to three upper legs. These 3 legs, when viewed from the side, form a slightly non-planar, 3-dimensional base for the guide ring. These legs, though long, are very sturdy and are relatively low-flex, because of this special 3-D design. The VS3 is one single-foot guide which will act less like a spring, and will preserve its shape under higher loads. The VS3’s truly seem suitable for a wide range of uses, from very light fresh-water rods, to medium-heavy salt-water rods. Consider them for all your Concept Spinning Rod Guides, and for the 180 degree Running Guides in your Spiral Casters or Boat Rods. … Match with “-L-“ (Lite) or “-P-“ (Medium) or “-SU-“ Series Forecast Tip-Tops.
ForeCast “-VS-†Series – The VS Series is the classic V-Frame Style, Single-Foot, 2-Legged Spinning Guide. The VS’s have a medium-high ring height, a medium-mass ring, and a low-mass frame. They provide a great choice where a flexible, low-mass, short foot-print, lite to medium duty guide is favored. … Match with “-L-“ or “-P-“ Series Forecast Tip-Tops.
ForeCast “-VD-“ Series – The “VD†Series is the classic V-Frame Style, Double-Foot, 3-Legged Spinning Guide. The VD’s have a medium-high ring height, a medium-mass ring, and a low-medium- mass frame. For a given ring size, the VD frame is identical to the VS frame, except that the VD Frame has a 2nd leg brace sloping down from the 6 o’clock position into the 2nd guide foot. They provide a great choice where a medium-height guide in a stiffer frame is preferred, for Medium to Heavy duty rods. … Match the VS3’s with a “-P-“ or “-SU-“ Series Forecast Tip-Top.
ForeCast “-UD-“ Series – The “UD†Series is the classic U-Frame Style, Double-Foot, 3-Legged Casting Guide. The UD’s have a low-ring height, a medium-mass ring, and a medium-mass frame. The UD frame is somewhat similar to the VD frame, but lower. They provide a great choice where a low-height ring in a less prominent frame is preferred, for Lite to Medium-Heavy duty rods. Match with “-P-“ or “-SU-“ Series Forecast Tip-Tops.
ForeCast “-FL-†Series – The “FL†Series is the classic Single-Foot, 1-Legged, Low-Frame FLY Guide. The absolute minimalist, in terms of guide mass and guide profile. Excellent for all fly-rods, and also an excellent choice for the Running Guides of Concept Spinning Rods or Spiral Casting Rods, of Ultra-Lite to Medium power. . … Match with “-L-“ Series Forecast Tip-Tops.
These “-FL-“ Series FLY Guides & Tip-Tops are actually quite sturdy, because of their compact geometry, and fairly broad legs. On the tip-tops, the short wire arms and generous weld of the arms to the tube also make for a very strong tip-top for its size. … I think it took me the longest to see the value of using the FLY guides on lite to medium duty rods. But now I see how the larger ring sizes do progressively lift the line away from the rod blank, and offer another alternative to the other single-foot styles (VS/3) for use in lite-tip rods.
I hope this helps you expand your choices for Guides & Tip-Tops, and gives you some more reasons to think FORECAST for your Guides & T-T’s on your next rod project. I’m very glad I finally did.
All of these ForeCast Guide & Tip-Top Series come in either a Hard Aluminum Oxide Ring (-LG), or a Zirconium Ring with a PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) Coating. The PVD Ring Colors are Silver / Ti-Chrome (-CG); Blue / Ti-Oxide (-UG); Gold / Ti-Nitrate (-NG).
A new line of ForeCast Guide Ring Colors is the CHAMELEON Colors. These are being made available in all of the above frame styles, in the Light Ti-Chrome (LTC-) colored frames.
All of these ForeCast Guide & Tip-Top Series come in a SS304 Stainless Steel Frame and various colors: Black Chrome (B-); Light Ti-Chrome (LTC-); or Polished Stainless Steel (_-). The guide feet are factory ground before final finishing; a lite touch-up may be all they need.
By the way, if a DF guide toe is digging into a rod blank, chances are there is a SLIP condition occurring under your guide wraps. If it were perfectly tight, there would be no cutting action, just flexion of the guide frame and some stiffening of the rod blank. The only way a guide toe can shave INTO the underwrap or rod blank is if it SLIDES fore & aft during flexion. To correct this on future rod-projects, the friction between the guide feet and the wrap thread has to be increased. This can be accomplished by: increased thread tension; using an under-wrap; putting a brushed-texture to the under-side and / or upper-side of your guide feet; and conforming the 3-dimensional shape of your guide feet to the rod blank as closely as possible (so as to maximize the contact area for friction to be established). The only other way to reduce this cutting is to use SFs.
Blank stiffening from the bridgework of a guide’s span can be checked in a variety of ways. One simple way is to flex the guide in your fingers, and then hold it against a scrap of blank (or long wooden BBQ skewer) and flex it there as well. Not very scientific, but a quick way to check for effect before final selection.
Robert Tignor, Ray Brown and Kevin Smith at www.FishSticks4U.com are a FULL-LINE BATSON Dealer. And Batson makes everything needed for any rod project. Their web-site lists ALL the specifications for each ForeCast Line Guide, including: OD-ID; H, L; frame & ring / material & color. With prices and service that will spoil you.
BATSON – Excellent Quality and Superior Value.
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www.batsonenterprises.com]
FISHSTICKS4U – You can’t build just one.
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www.FishSticks4U.com]
Wishing you all a Happy Passover,
Good Friday, Happy Easter
and Better Rod-Building,
-Cliff Hall+++, Gainesville, FL-USA*****
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/2006 08:22PM by Cliff Hall.
