Charles,
With respect to guide size and placement, I suggest that you simply place, test, change, and test to get the optimum spacing and setup for your setup.
My favorite reel by far - for this particular setup that you are running is one of the bass pro, or us reels large spool reels.
These are very light compact reels, with very very large shallow spools. The small reel gives 31 inches of line retreive per revolution of the handle. The result is a very very quick retreive. Also, due to the very large diameter spool there are fewer total wraps of line for a given cast, and hence- further casting distance with the same casting effort.
I used to be an advocate of the small diameter long spools, which were a big improvement over the short, small shallow spools.
But the new large diameter light reels are an even bigger improvement for casting distance.
But, as a result of these very large spools, I tend to go to a large size butt guide to avoid line and guide line slap. I seldom go any smaller than a size 25 and generally use a size 30 or even larger to mitigate these issues with this particular reel.
For distance, I generally use a rough guide of butt placement of 20 inches from the face of the spool. Then, depending on where the line ends up hitting the guide, or guides, on a straight pull off of each side of the reel - I will adjust the guide up and down the rod.
I generally look for a straight line from the top of the spool to the tip of the rod, and look to see that the line can run from the top of the line spool to the tip of the rod, without actually touching any guides. The same holds true when the line is on the bottom of the reel.
I have found that if I set up the guides in this fashion, I have maxed out my casting distance, as well as minimized my line retreive effort on a light load or non fish load. i.e. when retreiving my line with little line pressure from the lure, I would like the line to flow cleanly from the tip of the rod, to the reel face without being deflected by any guide along the way. I beleive that if a guide is deflecting the line as it is being retreived, it is taking extra effort and thus tending to minimize casting distance.
An example of the reel of which I speak:
[
www.basspro.com]
or
[
www.basspro.com]
or
[
www.basspro.com]
This reel comes in three price ranges. The basic difference is the number of bearings in the reel, or some other fit and finish differences. All essentially the same dimensions, just different mechanical and or cosmetic differences.
The us reel is essentially the same reel as the bass pro reels. I don't know which came first, but if you like a different brand reel for essentially the same model, the us reel spinning reel is essentially the same reel as listed above:
[
www.cabelas.com]
Again, as I pointed out earlier, the use of the short compact body, large diameter shallow spool allows for a very light reel design with extreme casting distance ability and very quick line retrieive.
I find this style reel vastly superior when I am fishing pods of fish at some distance from the boat or my casting position. I can cast past the school of spooky fish, slowly work the school, and then quickly retreive the long distance that I am away from the school to avoid spooking and make another cast. When I used similar tactics with a small size 20 or 25 sized reel with a typical line retreive of 15-18 inches per turn of the crank, I would come home at the end of a long day with a sore wrist due to the amount of cranking done during the day. This doesn't happen any longer with the much quicker retreive of these reels.
Give one a try and see what you think.
--
But as noted before, due to the relatively large diameter of the spools, a different butt guide is really in order when using such reels to optimize your casting ability. Either higher butt guides, further from the spool, or larger diameter more conventional butt guides at semi standard distances from the spool.
Take care
Roger
