Just received Rodmaker Magazine. Article does not make sense to me. Measuring from the first butt guide to the tip top of a 6' rod is only 25"?.. I got out my Sage 3wt and measured from the butt of the rod up to the end of the cork grip and got 10". I like my first butt guide 14" above the cork grip so I am at exackery 24" to my first butt guide. On a six foot rod that would leave 48" to the tip top. That is almost two times what is listed in the article!. Also article states plus "one" more for number of guides. It states on a six foot would use 7 guides PLUS a tip top. But picture 3 shows a total of 7 guides COUNTING THE TIP TOP. So that is not 6 plus 1 plus a tip top. So I would be dividing 48" by 7 and get 8.5" increments....more than double what the article states. I am confused...but that is not too difficult to do. What am I missing here?

Jim Williams

On a 6' rod you would need about 7 guides. Trust the information, do what it says and you will fine. You really need to read the article again.

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Your math is off. Please throw out your current spacing. I am not concerned with that. I do not care what the Sage spacing is. Toss it in the trash. It's worthless.

Your butt guide spacing will be about 32" from the butt. That leaves 40" divided by 7 which is about 5.5."

Now try again with 5.5" spacing between your story pole marks. If you will do this your spacing will be perfect,

The spacing between story pole marks is 5.5." The spacing between guides will be progressively more. The story pole will mark that for you based on the 5.5" factor.

Tom,

By jove "I think I've got it"

BTW the Sage reference is still correct. I was not using the Sage to compare spacing of the guides. It was a quick way to measure the distance on an existing rod.....from the butt to the furthest end of the grip (which would include the reel seat). On this rod It is 3.5" of reel seat and 6.5" of cork grip. I was simply considering that if I build a rod with the same length reel seat and cork grip....I would use up 10" of the blank and that is still true. Now.....I do not place my first stripper guide at any pre-specified point going by some chart....or some standard distance for rods. I put it where I WANT it. It is where I like it on "my" rods, which I build to suit "ME" and what feels good for me. I have found that for me that averages out to 14" above the end of the cork grip. So now this uses up 24" of the blank or 2'. Forget the name Sage. Point is I use up 24" of a 6' or 6'-6" rod blank to my first stripper guide. Using the mentioned article on 1/2" increments round down. So on a 6'-6" rod you pretend it is a 6' rod and use 6 guides plus one more guide plus a tip top. On my 6' blank using up 24" leaves me exactly 48" left to place guides on the blank to the tip top. But thanks to Tom making me re-read the article.....I now understand where the "25" divided by seven came from.

Thanks Tom,

Jim

Being that people have different arm lengths. I have been doing this for ages and it works for me. With the reel seat and grips in place. Just using the Butt section pretend you false casting and stripping line. I do this about 6 times. Where the blank hits my hand I go up about 3 inches and that is where I I place my stripper guide. I do not want a sharp angle when stripping line off the guide. Who agrees or disagrees with this statement please let me know . You can email me at balcomberods@aol.com
Good Wraps Bob

Jim,

Good to hear it. You seem to have it well in hand. You can always adjust the number of guides up, or down, to affect how closely the guides will be placed together.

With this method, I sometimes find that the butt and subsequent guide are located very far apart if the blank has a fairly fast action. So I may end up using 1 more guide and trying it again.

Just don't be afraid to play around with it if the final placement looks odd to you. Depending on where you put that butt guide, the remaining distance can be divided by any number of guides to get something that provides good static distribution. With 48" to play with, I might have gone to 8 rather than 7. Try both and see which one you prefer.

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I think Jim is correct about the number of guides - dash lines - on figure #3 of the article. With a total of 7 dashes and one of them is on the tip top, that only leaves dash lines for 6 guides. I had the same concern initially with the article but I do understand the intent.

Right. As mentioned, you can divide by as many (guides) as you want. Since one of the marks is the tiptop, you may wish to use more when you have a longer span than normal. Jim's 6' rod has a butt guide placed a little closer to the butt than most 6 footers. What Bill uses works great on rods with more conventionally spaced butt guides. In Jim's case, better spacing can be achieved by the use of 1 more guide, maybe.

Either way, the method centers around the use of the Story Pole as the "chart" or "plotting device" for the guides. The number of guides used is still up to the individual and becomes a simple matter of dividing by perhaps 1 more, or 1 less.

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Something else you can do to "reverse engineer" your guide spacing using the Story Pole. Take any rod that you've fine tuned the guide placement on and with which you're very pleased. Flex it to the point mentioned in the article. Slide the Story Pole along it and mark the location of each guide on the pole.

Now, on any blank of the same length, you'll have spacing you know to work well. If the actions of the blanks differ, the location of the guides will too, as the pole locates the guides according to the specific action of any blank.

Just something you can fool around with if you have the time.

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I really like the Story Pole technique and am really glad it appeared in the Rodmaker Magazine. I did notice in picture #6 he ended up with the 7 guides plus a tip top as he intended. I just needed a little help with it.

And yes Bob, you have perceived it correctly. My arms are a little short with sorta broad shoulders. According to the golf pro measurements my arms are 1/2" shorter than the standard for a person my size. I no longer golf. That is just a long walk spoiled by a little white ball <grin>. But I think it is why I like the butt guide closer than most other people.

Thanks Tom and all.

Jim