I'M building a St Croix 4C710HM (crank bait rod) and have a few questions.... I'm using the (9) micro guides but cant keep the line off the blank using 9 guides... my question should I use different guides or add more guide to the blank?? Thanks James

Try spacing it with 10 and see if you are happier. No rule saying there should be 9 for a 7'10" rod.

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Also there has been talk recently on whether you really need to keep the line from touching the blank or not for a casting rod. With using the micro guides this is really going to be difficult with building a conventional casting rod. I would have to say as long as the line is not going below the blank when it is flexed, then you should be ok with the guide setup. The only way I see you not touching the blank with midcro guides is doing some kind of spiral wrap.

If you think about how you fish a crankbait rod most of the time you are holding the tip down either to get the bait to dive deeper or to try to prevent the fish jumping and throwing the hook. In this case the guides are facing the load and it is behaving like a spinning or spiral wrapped rod with the tip held high. That said 10 guides on an 8 foot rod is certainly not excessive and what I use on my own crankbait rods.

As long as the line isn't well down onto or below the rod blank, momentary touch of the line to the blank isn't going to harm anything and 9 guides on an 8 foot rod will certainly provide adequate stress distribution. If you wanted to try 10, that wouldn't hurt a thing either. The kind of weight we're talking with such tiny guides isn't going to change much by adding one more.

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Mike you are very on target - on the outbound cast for long throws the blanks is not loaded either -

Most of these comments are connected to bass technique specific rods and do not imply that it is applicable to other rods. One other thing that is never mentioned on these threads is that the angler is in control of constant blank loading entirely - the only time line touch ever really gets to be an issue is on instantaneous strike or power hook set -

James the link below gets into the line touch issue:

[rodbuilding.org]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2009 10:59AM by Bill Stevens.

All excellent information so far.

I usually get by with 9 guides on an 8'0" cranking blank because my butt guide usually lands farther from my reel than usual. This is because of the spacing technique I use. The criteria I use for guide spacing is that UNDER FULL LOAD I do allow the line to JUST TOUCH the top of the blank at every guide interval. I also apply that criteria to the interval between the reel and butt guide. This usually amounts to a greater distance between the butt guide and reel than one would get by arbritarily setting the butt guide first, thus possibly eliminating the need for the 10th guide.

Guy thanks for all the information....

james:

my understanding is that the Fuji guides the rings are closer to the blank then say Batson guides. The higher batson guides may help to eliminate the touching.

Bill - willierods.com