In Toms book he says when using the Fugi guide concept that from the choke guide to tip use the same size guide. Question is, Will it hurt to change down one size? On one surf rod I'm building I'm going from 12 size choke,12,12,to 10, 10 ,10, tip 10. I have test casted yesterday and all seems fine. I figured he had a reason for saying so in the book . Should I just switch the 12's out for 10s??

From what I gather from reading about the concept system, once your past the choke point use the smallest guides possible to lessen the weight of the rod. Basically saying size 12's would be overkill but they will still work fine.

So unless you have a reason for having 12's use the 10's to save weight. If the 12's work good for you and you don't mind the negligible amount of added weight then keep the 12's.


Just fyi: for surf fishing I like to have at least size 12's to the tip unless its for throwing plugs or using braid. The reason I like this is because of the large shock knot that has to pass through the guides when casting. obviously when using plugs you shouldn't have a shock knot or when using braid the knot is much smaller. If you or the person you are building the rod for fishes around a place where sea grass/weed is a problem you might want to consider using size 16 running guides, esp if its a dead sticking weight and bait.

Please let other chime in on the concept system because I am new to rod building, so I might be a bit off course but I think I got the general idea down.

Switch out the 12's for 10's. There is no reason to use so many different sizes. It won't likely hurt anything, but you don't gain anything either and the 10's will be ever so slightly lighter.

You do want your line and any connections to easily pass through your guides. If the 10's won't do it (it seems they already have) then try 12's or 16's. Otherwise, stay with the 10's.

The choker guide and the running guides should be all the same size.

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I would go with the smallest size needed to pass knots (all the same size) , like James said. I don't build surf rods but that's what I do on all of the rods that I build. BTW, the Fuji system is quite different than the "New Guide Concept System" outlined in the library and Rodmaker magazine

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

This isn't really the question you asked, but I'll add this: a couple of months ago I realized that I've been using, for surf rods, running guides that are unecessarily too large. This is for bait and plugging rods. If you don't need to pass knots (like shock leader knots), and you're using braid (50 lb. test or less), you can probably get away with size 6 or even size 5 running guides. I've found in tests that 30 lb. braid will easily pass through guides even smaller than these, but I've stayed away from the micro guides, because any debris on your line, like seaweed, can give you a real headache if you're using tiny guides.

Braid is very, very thin, and you don't need a size 10 or 12 running guides if all that's going to be going through them is the fishing line. If you're using mono, you can likely get away with 8s or even 6s, depending on how heavy a test you're using.

Most surf rods are big and heavy enough that the difference between size 6 and size 10 running guides is not going to be gargantuan. But despite this, I've been pleasantly surprised that even surf rods fish noticeably better the less weight you put on them, especially in top-most two feet or so of the blank. So don't go any bigger than you have to.

Ok! Thanks guys! I'll change out the 12s for all 10s. This rod is for plugging and I really don't use a large leader(5ft on this rod) that passes through the guides although I like to have the option which is why I use larger guides. Most of my bait rods have 16's or 12s due to the long leader which I use on my soaking rods.
Chris I'm with you on the weight thing that's one reason I started building my own. Thanks again.