A few have questioned how the micro guides would hold up to below freezing temps, and ice in the guides. I was able to get out and test this today. I was fishing 37degree water in 28degree air temps w/ about a 10mph wind. Yes, it was cold.... I fished several different rods w/ micro's here are the rods fished I lures.

Castaway SWR-T743, 6'2" MF, built with Batson H ring guides, size 6 butt, 5, 4, 3's to tip w/ a size 4 ring tube top spiral wrapped. I was throwing a Jackall squadminnow on this. I got a few hits, didn't hook up with anything. Most importantly I DID have ice building up on my line in front of the guides, but it did not ever fill the guide ring. And it did not effect casting at all.

Rogue SJ703 spinning, Size 16, 10, 6, 3's to tip w/ size 4 tube top. I was throwing a 1/8oz. shakey head w/ 10lb. McCoy braid tied to a 12' leader of 8lb. McCoy copolymer joined w/ a blood knot. This is the rod I caught all of my fish on today. It performed flawlessly. I had the casting distance required for the technique. The guides passed the blood knot with no issues at all. Icing was very similar to the jerkbait rod. Due to the braid bringing more water back to the rod than mono I did get more icing along the rod, but it did not hinder casting at all.


So far it looks good with these guides and ice. Obviously it wasnt quite as cold as it will get for the rest of the winter, but I am optimistic that they will continue to perform properly.

Scott Sheets
www.smsrods.com

Thanks for the info Steve, we don't get many days colder than that in the Pacific Northwest in the winter.

I would think that icing would be a nightmare with such guides? I fish all winter and usually build guides with size 8 and even 10's to help with ice up, but than again maybe those eyes are so small that ice can't fit in there...LOL

Interesting...

"There is a principle which is a bar against all information,which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance--that principle is contempt prior to investigation."
- Herbert Spencer

Scott,
I was also fishing yesterday using a single conventional spinning rod.
The water temp was 34 degrees and the air temp was 26 degrees with about a 30 mph wind blowing.
We were throwing light 3/16th - 1/4 oz jigs in the Mississippi River for Walleye.

Yes, we were both getting lots of icing on the tip and the upper two guides. That is where most of the wiping occurs during aline retreive.
It would take about 15 minutes before the tip would ice up completely, and about 30 minutes before the top tip guide would ice up.
In both cases, my friend and I both have size 6 rings on the tip, as well as the top tip guide.

Since the water temp was 34 degrees, it was a simple enough matter to simply drop the rod into the water about every 5-10 minutes to melt out the ice from the tip and upper guides.

If you waited more than about 15 minutes, the lines would freeze in and you would not be able to either cast or retreive. You always noticed that it was time to melt ice again, when the line began getting tight during the retreive.

I think that one would have to go up to about a size 12 or so - for the tip guide and any other guides to really solve the icing problem. This is what is being done with many ice fishing rods that are intended to be fished out of doors with no heat and or shelter.
The larger guides and tip allow up to about 3/8th inch of ice to pass through the guides without freezing up.

For the conditions that we were fishing yesterday, I think that micro guides would have only cost about an extra 3-4 minutes before one would have to melt out ice.
i.e. I was melting ice about every 15 minutes with a size 6 tip and upper guide. If I was using a size 4 tip, I would be melting ice about every 10 minutes.

If you want to fish icy conditions as we were fishing yesterday, one simply has to do, what one has to do to be able to continue to fish.

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For folks that run tiller boats in the freezing weather there is an easy fix. Many folks who do this through the entire winter, rig a water holder on the side of the engine where the "pee" stream exits the motor. This warm water is allowed to collect in the box on the size of the motor before overflowing into the river or lake. If one has cold fingers or iced up guides, one simply dips his fingers or iced up guides into the bucket of engine warmed water to thaw his finger or melt the ice from the guides.

The other alternative is to really " love" your rod, and "suck" the ice off the guides. Rude to talk about perhaps, be very effective.

It was a beautiful day on the water with lots of life seen on the water. The shad were dying so there were many many many gulls out feasting on the easy lunch of Shad. Thousands of ducks and geese were winging there way south and several pairs of Eagles were seen in trees overseeing the Shad carnage of the gulls and other water birds.

Enjoy the out of doors.

Take care
Roger

Have you guys tried to spray any thing on your guides ? I have read about Pam the cooking spray ??

Bill: Yes I have used Reel magic on guides before, it works to a point, but I didn't want to add anything to to mix yesterday, I wanted a bare bones test of the micro's in icing conditions.


Roger, looks like we were fishing very similar conditions. I just had a little less wind. I really did NOT have any icing issues at all with these guides. I didn't have to dip my rod in the water, hold the guides in my fingers, or kiss my rod (been there during ice fishing season). Every time I would make a cast any ice that had started to form would be thrown loose. I also noticed that instead of the ice forming in the ring it would push down and form around the line instead of the ring.

Scott Sheets
www.smsrods.com

I use large loop fly rod tops and single foot snake guides (last four) for fishing cold weather steelhead in Michigan.