I am building a 5'10'' 80 pound class rod with an Aftco unibutt. Customer wants a roller tip and roller stripper guige both Black and gold. He does not want rollers in the middle guides what do you guys recommend? This rod has a Florida State theme so I really want Black and Gold. Should I try and talk him into all rollers?

Normally I would say Turbos, But do not know how they would stand up to 80#. and they come Black / Gold

Find out what he has against roller guides. The maintainance? Good SIC guides will do the job even on an 80lb rod, but at that point I think I'd try to steer him to all rollers if possible. He may be against them due to some misconception he has. A little education could go a long way.

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Thanks Tom that is the way I wanted to go too!

I have used both on 80lbs rods. Both will work. I am in favor of rollers, but ring guides will do the job. You see that set up a lot on 30-50lbs rods. Maybe it is a holdover from that.

One person I was talking to said that the roller guides were taller and as
he packs the rods in a tube for transport on a plane he gets fewer rods
in a tube. I have not built any heavy rods yet and I have not had the rollers
of various types & mfr's to compair to so I'm just going by what was said.

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

Hi Dale,
For an #80 I would go for a full set of rollers, but thats me. As an alternative there are the Fuji RSG series in Sic. These are a true three legged patern, one guide foot at the front and two at the rear that are bound on the side of the blank-if you look at the model youl see what I mean. These are designated by the manufacturer as guide for this line class. They are very stable and will stand up to #80lb with out a problem. They are available from some of the sponsors on the left, Mudhole carries them in a gunsmoke finish, but they can also be obtained from Matagi in a gold model-Merrick handle Matagi in the US.
Though it maybe a radical solution, there is also the "All American" Spiral roller Guides. . I have not handled these, but they may well have a lower profile than the standard roller models as they are specifically designed for a spiral wrap.
Earl

In the past my most popular standup rod was with ring guides and roller tip. Since the crank on leaders have become popular many are having me to change their guides to Wind On Roller Guides because the crank on swivel chips the inserts on the ring guides which in turn cuts the line. I just finished converting i5 rods for a charter boat at 175.00 each because of this. Aftco regular and heavy duty rollers don't have enough line clearance for the swivels so you have to go to wind on or big foot guides if you stay with Aftco. Stuart regular roller guides have more line clearance and you don't have this problem. Jesse

In the past my most popular standup rod was with ring guides and roller tip. Since the crank on leaders have become popular many are having me to change their guides to Wind On Roller Guides because the crank on swivel chips the inserts on the ring guides which in turn cuts the line. I just finished converting i5 rods for a charter boat at 175.00 each because of this. Aftco regular and heavy duty rollers don't have enough line clearance for the swivels so you have to go to wind on or big foot guides if you stay with Aftco. Stuart regular roller guides have more line clearance and you don't have this problem. Jesse

All American rollers work with Wind-on leaders also.

We still see a fair amount of Roller/Ring "Hybrids" being built. Some of the big factories offer them. In fact, I have two factory 40-100lb. Calstars that are ring guides with roller strippers & tops.

If your customer decides to go that way rather than full roller set-up, I'll make you a HECK of a deal on a set of Black framed, Gold Nitride ringed boat guides to match his Black/Gold rollers. I just came across them the other day. Special ordered for a guy over a year ago that we haven't seen since.

Mark Griffin
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C&M Custom Tackle
San Dimas, California