I ended up with the Flu bug and had to miss the show, did many vendors have the small single foot guides there for sale? (2.5-3.0?) The ones like I seen on the Vibronics Rod at last years show? I was hoping they would "take off" and be more available this upcoming year......

DR

Duane,

Yep, they did!! Man, you almost have to have a microscope to see the things, let alone wrap them!!! Pat Vinzant had a beautiful rod in the Skinshop booth with them on it. Those things are really small!! The line has to do what you want it to do, it has no other choice!!

Bill in WV

William, did you get to cast it at the show?

DR

Duane,
I was able to cast one of the rods built by Steve Gardner while I talked to him about it. The rod that I cast was his Senko rod and was fabulous. I have what I thought was a VERY nice Senko rod.... so much for that now!!! Thanks Steve! LOL now I have to order up a new blank and some more things to go with it! It was very easy to cast and exceptionally light in hand. Try the little guides, I think that you will be pleasently suprised. I got mine from Bob at Custom Tackle.

Tom Kaufmann
GySgt USMC

They are definitely available at Custom Tackle. I would recommend calling and getting what you want ASAP ... we sold them like crazy at the show and there were not a lot left. At the show we had 3.0 through 5.0 in half size increments.

I believe Steve had one rod there with 1.5mm guides. The rod was incredibly light but I'm not sure that many guys over the age of 40 or 45 would ever be able to see well enough to thread the line through them prior to fishing.

They do cast surprisingly well - reduce the guide weight and casting distance will increase. Provided the guides are still large enough to pass the desired line. Line doesn't require as much room or as large a guide as many might think.

........................

Tom Kirkman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I believe Steve had one rod there with 1.5mm
> guides. The rod was incredibly light but I'm not
> sure that many guys over the age of 40 or 45 would
> ever be able to see well enough to thread the line
> through them prior to fishing.
> ........................

I received mine from Bob last week. I ordered 3, 3.5, 4 & 5mm. Not sure I will buy anything smaller than a 3! I have skinny fingers and wrapping them is one thing, but threading the line through them during low-light in a rolling boat will be another story!

I spent a good bit of time with Steve talking through these rods and guides. The time he spent with me was absolutely invaluable. And that senko rod was beyond incredible. I now have a new personal goal for rod performance.

I did my first rod with small guides last night. It's a 3C66MF that I plan to use to throw a fluke (already had the handle and seat mounted and ready for guides). I did 6DF-6-4.5-3.5-3s. I already noticed a few differences. I didn't have to balance the rod at all. I attribute that partly to the lighter guides. I was also able to use an extra guide to keep the line following the flex of the curve even more. I'm planning to do some casting tests tonight. I'll post my results.

Wrapping the guides really wasn't as bad as you might think. Yes they are very small and harder to hold onto. I'll share a few tips Steve imparted that were true gems (hope you don't mind Steve!) in regards to wrapping:
- Slit a 1/4" piece of masking tape in three slices (long ways) to tape the guide to the blank. This gives enough to hold it on the blank and still be able to get the thread up the foot before needing to remove the tape.
- Place a small piece of cork (and tape it) behind the guide to stop it from sliding when you're working the thread up onto the foot
- Only file down the tip of the guide just enough to get the thread going up - I will say my biggest challenge was holding the guide while I filed the tip.

Again I must thank Steve for his time and sharing info. I was part of why he didn't get to make it around to see all the booths. He really changed my perspective on rod building and what you can do with custom rods. I was pretty humbled comparing my rods to his but it has certainly motivated me.

I'm going to build up the exact same blank, but do one with normal sized guides on top (for a customer) and then one for myself with the micro guides in a spiral. I'll post my results. Stay tuned.

Alex Dziengielewski
ALX Rods

DR,

No, I didn't get to cast Pat's rod. He didn't have any line spooled on the reel. I can tell you this though, as with Steve's rod, it balanced perfectly. I agree 1000% that threading those microscopic guides would almost require a magnifying glass. It would be almost impossible in a boat on choppy water.

Bill in WV

if you can thread a hook, you can thread a guide, lol

I got some from custom tackle, from 3s to 5s and some tip tops to play with as well.

I agree with Alex. I talked to Steve for a very long time about his rods and I am amazed at the fact that he shared all the info of his rods. For sure the craftsman in this trade are not stingy with sharing information that will help with our builds. I think that is what this sport is about.

After a post by Steve last spring, I tried them and remarked to myself that we would see these on "off the shelf" rods in 2-3 years. I am sticking with that prediction because I have enough "totally sold" repeat customers to convience me that these small guides are here to stay.

I use them on all of my bass rods.

I have also found that using the smallest guide size for all the guides works exceptionally well and may even have some additional advantages. Thats right, no transition from larger to smaller.

Bobby Feazel

[www.shockwaverods.com]

Conventional wisdom will not open the box.

Bobby I was hpoing to meet you at the show Sorry I missed you.

OK, I'm intrigued! What are these "Little Guides" you speak of? Are they low frame single foot guides with ceramic ring inserts? Do they come with titanium frames? Who makes them? Living here in Colorado, it's very impractical for me to travel to a rod-building show in N.C. just to see new products first hand.

Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

Torin.

Torin;

No Ti. Frames
The smallest sizes available on the open market presently are 3mm
The only place to purchase them at the moment is from Custom Tackle
The are made by Baton enterprises
Only style available at moment is black with hard alloy inserts.

As far as the show, it may not be particle to travel that far?
But I've met and talked with people as far a Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Minnesota, Washington and many other places that thought it was worth the trip.

couple of pictures
[www.rodbuilding.org]
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Steve,

Thanks for the guide info. Unfortunately, my vacation and travel time/money is limited to summer fishing trips (until I secure the winning lottery ticket), so I have to be quite frugal. I'm currently finishing a 9' 5wt. SCIV with some Am. Tackle 5mm Titanium frame guides. Even though these guides have the light wieght titanium frames, I will have to use a slightly heavier reel than I initially wanted - to properly balance the finished rod. I would eventually like to redo an 8'6" rod with Ceramics and I believe the 4mm guide you speak of could clear the 3wt. line I prefer to use on this rod, but I've never really liked the look of black frames on my flyrods - so I'll likely sit it out until future colors/materials are available in these sizes.

Torin.

Steve

Sorry to be late in answering your question, been practicing for a tournament all day.

I really wanted to come to the show and meet you and the other great builders, but Tom always seems to schedule the show on my tournament dates. Maybe next year.

Bobby Feazel

[www.shockwaverods.com]

Conventional wisdom will not open the box.

Had the same problem last year, but chose the show over the tournament.

Looking back over the last year it was for me at least the right choice.

In fact if it hadn't been for going last year, we would not even be having these discussions about the Micro guides.

When Bill Batson sent me the Micro guides to experiment with some eighteen+ months ago.

His only request was that I bring them to the show for him to see. As soon as he saw them he wanted to put them on display at the Batson's both. It was at that point they started getting the exposure that has lead us to today, if not for that. This show would just now be the start and it would have taken another year to bring them to market.

Steve

Thanks for your dedication to our great hobby?, past time?, business?.

Bobby Feazel

[www.shockwaverods.com]

Conventional wisdom will not open the box.