It's been forever since I've built a bait casting rod and I have a few questions.
First, I fish mainly for smallmouth on med. to small rivers here in the semi-midwest (Ohio) and would like to use the baitcaster for throwing buzzbaits, spinnerbaits & such. I've pretty much decided on the blank. But, I have a question about guides and set-up. I was thinking of using the spiral wrap and was wondering if this would be a good idea on this type of rod? Also, I was thinking of using single foot, low profile guides. Is this too weird? Does it provide any benefit other than a bit of reduced weight? Or, would they be a hinderance in some way to the spiral wrap? I won't ask about the spiral wrap bcs I'm pretty sure the technique is covered in depth on this forum . Mostly curious about guides.
Thanks guys,
Todd

Todd-
Look several posts down the page-question about micro guides and spiral wrapping. Along with technique, guide sizes are discussed at length in the links Steve Gardner suggested. Probably where you could access the most information in the fastest manner.

The spiral wrap is almost always a good idea, since that's where the guides want to be in the first place. Tape up a set of guides on top of your casting rod and then go out and use it a bit. They'll end up all spinning to the bottom. That's where they want to be.

Single foot guides will work fine.

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

I just finished up a casting rod for just such a purpose. I built it on a SCIV extra fast tip rod with all Micro's. the blank is 6'10" and I used 9 micro guides all on top. I tested several different guide spacings, in the end I was able to keep the line off of the blank under load and the trick was to push the stripper guide up as far as I could. I used a #5 micro for a stripper and then stepped down to 4.5 , 4.0 and then 3's the rest of the way. I probably could have gone 3"s the entire way. This thing casted like a rocket. I was able to almost cast out the entire spool on the reel. I can't see myself building casting rods with anything other than micro guides. The action that these light weight guides offer to a quality rod blank are amazing. I actually got goose bumbs when I casted this rod for the 1st time. I just wish I was building it for myself.

P.S I ordered the same blank for myself so I could have one too.

Steve

Steve Bro
(BroCo Custom Rods)

One the one for "Mr. Self" use the same size guides all the way out and the bumps will grow to Gander Size when chunked! Then you can use your new holo decal paper for a "Gander Moon Rocket" split grip dress up! Let me know and I will set up a jpeg for you!