I'm wondering how you guys hold your micro guides during guide prep. I'm struggling to be consistent on my micro guides as I prep them. Plus, I think I'm doing a "no-no" by holding the guide with needle nose for prepping.

AC
FishinFreaks
Rogers, MN

IT's not neccesary. Size A climbs right up the foot.

Have to agree with Billy on this one. I've never felt the need.

Bobby Feazel

[www.shockwaverods.com]

Conventional wisdom will not open the box.

On my Batsons I just touch the tip with my Dremel & polishing disk. I hold the guide between my thumb and two fingers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2008 09:01AM by Chuck Mills.

Bobby F. - Are you now building spirals or are you putting micros on top? If on top how many and what size are you using on a flipping stick?

Bill

All my rods are on top. Haven't done a spiral in a couple of years.

All my rods including flipping sticks have 9 Fuji LSG 3.5 guides (or ten if it's long enough and an extra fast tip). I don't transition from larger guide to smaller.

I'll go ahead and answer the un-asked question:

When I static load I allow the line to JUST touch the top of the blank at each interval under full load.

Bobby Feazel

[www.shockwaverods.com]

Conventional wisdom will not open the box.

I tried no prepping, but when wrapping, the thread (size A) pushed the guides out from the tape. I tried a “blocking” band of tape but that couldn’t be done for the tip (also SF 3.5). I use a small brad (nail) which allows me to roll the guide and ramp the leading edge. Btw, the metal of the brad is much softer than the guide material, so scratching is not an issue.

I didn't have that problem at all, but that might be because I was using size 2.5 & 3 guides from Fuji. I use a tad of teh guide foot adheasive, and no masking tape or surgical tubing, so just carefully start teh wrap, step on teh pedal, and it goes right to where I can do a Forhan special. I HAVE knocked the guide off while starting the wrap, ergo I keep a magnet close by.

I slide them onto a scribe. Holds them real nice with enough room to dress them up a bit with a file.

BOBBY F....
You said you always use nine guides on all your rods. are they all about the same length? how long are they? I have a small diameter GUSA that I would like to experiment with and I also prefer guides on top.
Thanks,
Steven

I hold them in my hand use a diamond file and just bevel the edges down. The feet are so small I don’t remove any more then is necessary for a smooth transition.


Steven
The guides are inexpensive enough for you to buy some extras to test with. It’s also a good idea to have a few extras around incase you drop one, and the fleas get it for one of their rods before you find it

Steven

The vast majority of my rods are between 7'0" and 7'6".

Bobby Feazel

[www.shockwaverods.com]

Conventional wisdom will not open the box.

Steve I do the same. Just a few quick strokes with the file and they are ready. I usually hit the sides at an angle and across the tip. Only takes a few strokes on each side then black with a Sharpie. I am currently working on a St Croix 4C79HF which is a beefy blank. I have tried the Alconite BLAG 4's but went up to 5's to get a longer foot for some more wrap length on the heavy power rod. Anyone using 4's or smaller (4 is smallest Alconite at present) on a heavy power rod? Also I tried several combonation for the bumper area and even a size 6 leaves the line very close to the blank. I have a current setup of a BLAG 8 for the first guide, 6 for the bumper and 5 for the bottom and running guides. I have done some test casting (size 5 runners) with a Curado 301, 20 pound mono and 1.5 ounce weight and can toss it 70 yards!

Thanks Bobby, thats about where I stand with the blank I'm planning on using, 7'. I haden't seen many posts regarding the use of the micros in a conventional guides on top set up. I just figured that you coulden't do it. But like Steve Gardner said, I should just start doing some tests and find set ups that work for me. I'm used to rules and structure from going to sea, those are two things that do not apply here.
Steve

Bill;
I’m not sure how beefy you are talking about. But I am using 3mm guides on flipping and pitching sticks with braid up to 50 lb and have not had any problems with feet or guides or wraps at all.

Off topic: I build mostly spinning rods. I am starting my third simple spiral soon and was wondering if I'm doing things right.. I basically use the static guide placement (as in the library above) and then I flip the guides beyond the butt guide 180, then add a bumper in between the butt guide and the first 180. My question is... for an average 7' bass rod what distances are you guys seeing between those first guides? I'm not sure my line angle is optimum.

Thanks!

I normally end up with my first and second guide 20-23cm (¡Ö8-9 inches) apart, then I put my bumper half way between them.

I hold the micros in forceps and lightly file the feet with a small file, it doesn¡¯t take much.

To hold the guides on for wrapping I use pieces of tubing cut into small bands, I try to cut the bands to half the length of the foot. The important thing with the micros is to put a second piece of tubing behind the guide so it can¡¯t slide back once you start wrapping the thread up the foot.

Steve you convinced me! I will go back to the size 4's (smallest in the Alconite). This is a swimbait rod and chunking 4 ounce baits will be the limit. I have seen a test with a 50 pound class boat rod where we hung a 10 pound weight on it and measured the force at the guides. As I recall most were 1 pound or less. Still need to figure out the combination for the bumper but I think I will just wrap it up and give it a go. I can see no performance negatives. Holding those little 3.5's well that is another matter!!

Bill, think about this. A 50# boat rod will be fished at a drag setting at 1/4 - 1/3 the line rating, figure 12#'s. Spread that over 10 guides, and you will have about 1 # per guide on average. The max load will be where the blank has the most "action", and that depends on the way the blank bends. Most XF and F rods will put most of teh stress further out towards the tip than a slower parabolic action rod where teh line pressure will be distributed more evenly.

re post



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2008 07:12PM by Steven Loughery.