I have built several spinning rods following the primer from this page, and both have line slap when reeling when reeling in slack line. They are fine when the line is taught and on the cast. One rod is a 7' medium light rod with a 25 CYAG as the stripper using 8 lb fluorcarbon on a Daiwa 2500 Advantage, and the other is an 8' heavy rod with a 30 BSVLG using 15 Big Game on an Abu C806. On the light rod, the stripper is 20" from the reel face and on the heavy rod it is 27". Is this normal, or do I need to go to a larger stripper guide or move it further from the reel? I know switching to braid would solve this problem, but is there anything else I can do?

I think if you move the guide further from the reel, the line slap on retrieve would be worse. That would give more room for the line to bellow out as you retrieve. I would think shortening the distance to the reel would make the line slap less or go away. But then you need to make sure things are still good on the cast. I am not sure you can have it both ways or not. I know using some of the guidelines for spinning rods to determine the size of the first guide based on the spool size, but you might also have to go smaller to not allow the line to bellow out as far on the retrieve.

Line which has no tension on it is going to slap or touch the rod between the reel and the butt guide. Just about anything you do to reign that sort of thing in will ultimately hurt you on casting and retrieving.

Since most casts are retrieved with either a fish or the tension of the lure or bait on the end, reeling in slack line shouldn't be a common occurance. It's not really anything to worry about and it harms nothing.

A smaller ring in a higher frame may help (may help casting too) so if you do anything that's the direction I'd go.

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I've seen the same thing before Andrew and most of the time moving the butt guide CLOSER to the reel even 1" may take care of most of it, if not all. I'd toy with it a little, but like said I wouldn't make it a huge issue you're trying to completely cure.

DR

Andrew,
As several of the other posts suggest, I think that line slap on a slack line is a don't care condition.
What difference does it make to anything to have line slap when the line is slack.

When ever I get into this situation, such that the line has a lot of billow due to wind, drift or some other condition, I just routinely, grab the line in front of the reel, while holding the blank in front of the reel, and reel in the slack. I hold the line, to keep tension on the line so that the line lays nicely on the reel of the spinning reel.

When the line gets taunt, I resume my normal hand positon, and continue to reel in line in a way that is consistent for the type fishing that I am doing.

Take care
Roger