I am going to be building a light swimbait rod that uses a Abu 5600 reel that has a moving pawl when line is being cast. Is there a general rule of thumb for sizing this guide with moving pawl reels? I know for spinning reels, some say to use half the reel diameter as the first guide, so would this guide be sized based on a percentage of the total side to side travel of the levelwind? The reel will be loaded with 15lb or 20lb mono, and depending on the first guide size, I will be using 1 or two additional transition guides to get down to size 5 or 4.5 fuji running guides.

Butt guide size depends on several factors - the width of the reel, whether it has a level wind, the height of the butt guide, the location of the butt guide, the amount of flex in the butt section of the rod, etc.

You don't want the line to get down on the foregrip or your hand when the rod is flexed. You don't want it down on or below the blank. You can remedy either situation with a higher framed guide, larger ring or moving the guide closer to the reel. You really don't need a large ring for the butt guide with that reel and that type rod.

You don't need a bunch of transition guides. One at the most and if you simply drop from your butt guide to the running guides you'll have an even straighter line path.

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