I am trying to build a light surf rod for casting lures up to 2 oz. It will be a spinning 9' Lamiglass GSB108-1L blank. I have a couple of questions on what type of guides I should use.

Do I really need double footed guides for this rod?

I was hoping to make this as light as possible so I wanted to put on single footed concept guides. But these only went up to size 30 rings. If I could get away with using single footed guides can I mix match double footed with single footed concept guides? Let's say I use a BMNAG 40 and the rest being BYAG's. In other words are the 2 guides compatible with each other?

Thank you in advance.

checking them out also, I went with 12 double fott on a 10 ft for 3-5 oz. here is some reading if you care to: [rodbuilding.org]
And: [rodbuilding.org]

Bill - willierods.com

Thanks for the response Bill. I see that others have used the single footed one on a surf rod. But I still would like to know if I could mix match the two.

Feel free to mix and match. Some of my best performing surf rods have a mix of three different guide types. I use single foot with no problems at all as long as I use a Forhan locking wrap.

Just make sure the knots will pass thought the guide rings.

Bill - willierods.com

If you are building a spinning rod, I'd use the New Concept System with double footed spinning guides for the butt through transition guides, then single foot fly guides for the choker and running guides.

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Jaime,
I am just now building a similar spinning surf rod and had asked Tom K for some advice, which he kindly gave me. I ended up using Fuji Alconites with a BVSAG #40 butt guide, a BYAG #25, and a BYAG 12, followed by 7 BLAG#10s as choker and ru. I also had considered BYAG #30, as a Butt Guide, BYAG #16 as transition guides, BYAG #10 and BYAG #8 as running guides, but felt that the BYAG series didn't choke the line down enough. As a result I have three different styles of guides and needed very little tweaking when I test casted the rod. I hope this helps.

Mike Blomme

Great! Just what I was looking for. Thanks a lot guys!

I would allow the line path to dictate the actual guide sizes needed.

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Thanks Tom. Is there a place where I can find the guide height measurements without having to purchase a whole set of guides?

I think Mike Barkley had set something up showing all the heights of popular guides. Do search under his name.

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Use of SF guides on surf rods is becoming more popular. I would advise the Forhan lock wrap to solidify the guides in place. This makes it almost impossible to knock one out. I would limit the use of SF guides to only light surf rods though, and move to lower frame casting type guides for the choke and running guide on mid to heavy surf rods.

How large of a reel are you using and how wide is the spool? You may be able to get by with a 30 or even a 25 catch guide, especially if you are using braid 30# or less. Just because it's a 9' surf rod doesn't mean you need a 40mm catch guide. Match your reel to the rod. I would agree with Tom on double-footed guides for the trans and then go to singles if you wanted to. You could even look into titanium guides to keep the weight down, but save your pennies. Billy Vivona has some titanium guides that are perfect for runners and are very strong and pass knots very well.

I am going to be using a small reel for now, but I might want to upgrade later on. It has a 47 mm diameter and I am using braid on it.