About to build a couple new rods - one a baitcaster for throwing plastics and shakey heads and the other a spinning rod for dropshots etc... I was considering using Micro Guides on these rods. Would you guys recc. Micro Guides, especially on a spinning application. Also what brand are the best to use and how do I go about selecting sizes especially for the spinning rod. Any ideas on wrapping these or suggestions. Never used MIcros before and was curious to test it out on a pair of personal rods for me. Thanks guys

Jay,

You'll likely get many answers, but for ME, I'd absolutely use micros for both rods unless there were an application reason not too, something like passing knots with leaders would make me stay with 6mm's

If we're talking bass rods, for the spinning I'd go something like: 25mm, 16or12mm, 8mm, running micros to tip

Casting, 6or8mmDF, 5mmSF, 4mmSF, and micro's to tip

Most all of the micro brands are good guides, look at them cost wise and buy the ones that suit your budget

DR

Jay
What reel you going to use on your spinner rod and what are the blanks specs?

I just built a split grip, split seat, 7' MH casitng rod with micros on a North Fork Composite IM mag bass blank and it is awesome! I built it for t rigged plastics with flouro and I've fished it 3 times at a power plant lake near my home and love it. I used AT NIMG-3's after a couple reducers and they're working great so far. Have not tried the micros on a spinner, but the only time I probably won't go with them on any bass casting rods is when I'm using braid with a flouro leader. Let us know how it turns out....

The blank will be the Castaway 842 (white blank) that I just picked up from Swampland. Its a 7ft medium action blank. Will be matching the spinning blank with a Quantum Energy Pti20. Just wasnt sure on how to bridge the micro's - do i use normal guides leading into the micros? Again any info is awesome. For the casting blank it will be on the same blank for plastics trigged etc for bass. Would be using Flouro or mono, defintely wanna try the micros. What was the set up you used for guide sizes on the casting blank you built Eric? Any pictures...

Jay,

I used an 8mm, 5mm, 4mm, and then the 3mm micros static tested for placement. I've got a pic of the grip - used rattlesnake skin in the split and as a dec wrap. Sorry, trying to get the pic loaded...

Eric Green



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2011 10:24PM by Eric Green.

For the spinning rod, refer to the article in the library to set up your guides. For runners, simply use micros. My typical build utilizes 25Y-16Y-10Y-7V- and then 3.5 Batson micros as runners. I use a 4.5 micro fly guide for the tip to save weight. The reason for the bigger 4.5mm size is so 10 - 14lb test mono and fluoro won't get pinched.

Minima 4's and a 20,12, 8 with 4's to the top for your spinner will deal with up to a 2500 series reel with nylon.
The minima 4's ring is as big as the next size up regular insert type guide so that would be like a 25 16 10 6 in regular insert type ring sizes.
Get the TICH guides for that lovely 842 blank.
I only use braid on this rod so my black 842 is set up with 16 10 6 and 4's to the top, aero seat,ALPS 6 ring tip, split grip and is very nice to fish with.
I have built that same style rod with micros from fuji regular sic's,fuji K's, Batsons, and ringlocks and for my own i used minima 4's in TICH. But its a personal taste.

The article in the library is an excellent way to set up you spinning rod.

I've had great success using 25mm-10mm-5mm-3.5mm runners to the tip.
Also built several using runners down to 1.5mm

Note; if you plan to use smaller then 3.5mm runners I would suggest still using a 3.5mm for your choker guide

On your bait caster you also have several options as noted above. but unless to plan to use this rod for flipping, pitching or with a round style reel opposed to a low profile reel.
There is no need to start with a stripper guide larger then 6mm
Depending on the set up personal choices are;
6-5-4-3.5 (or smaller) to tip
or
5-4-3.5 (or smaller)to the tip

On a spinning rod you should look hard at the super high frame Match style guides for your transition guides. You can get them in both Minima and ceramic ring styles and they allow you to use a smaller ring while still having the height you need for transition guides.

I am building a dropshot rod right now and was able to get the entire guide train with 8 guides down to 1.6 grams, for reference a single #25 Alconite Y frame guide weighs 4.5 grams by itself, or 3 times what all 8 guides on my rod weigh.

Call Lance back at Swampland. He has the Fuji K series guides. I've built 2 of the 842's as a spinning rod for shaky heads and used micro's on both. Pretty cool looking rod and fishes great.

Todd

If I was planning to use the American Tackle Ring Lock A Frame Guides (Nanolite) - possible sizes 20,12,8 and then run AT Ring Lock Micro Guides NCRLMG-4. Any reccomendations on possible different transition guide sizes, figure I will get a few extra sizes as well to make sure it flows well. What tiptop and size do you recc. with this setup?

Mike Harris wrote: "a single #25 Alconite Y frame guide weighs 4.5 grams by itself, or 3 times what all 8 guides on my rod weigh."

Mike, what size guides did you use on your drop shot rod, and what size reel?

Greg

My first 2 guides are high frame match guides a #12 and a #6, the other 6 guides are #3 micro guides. Admittedly this is a fairly extreme set up and not what I would use if I was trying to get maximum distance with stiff 20lb line. The technique is called drop shot not cast shot, when you drop your bait you don’t get large spools of line coming off the reel at high velocity into the first guide so it can be radically downsized. Also I will be using either fairly limp mono of 8lb or less, or braid for the main line so it will go through the guides fine. Just because I wasn’t concerned about how this rod would cast doesn’t mean it won’t cast well, it will, I build spinning rods all the time using #16 match guides for the first guide and they cast like a rocket. As long as you can get the height you need going to smaller rings works great.

Mike,

Just out of curiosity, which match guides are you using, minimas or ceramics? I'm just curious, I have some of the Batson match guides, and when I compare them to the Alps XY guides of similar height, I can't tell much of a difference in weight. I still need to put them on the scales to see which is lighter. I just know that the XY's have a much thinner ring and less substantial frames that seem to level the playing field a bit.

Depending on the reel, I bet that setup casts just fine. I built up a backpacking rod on a SB720-4 for a buddy. He wanted to be sure it would fit in a 1.5" tube, so I ended up playing it safe and went with a 12mm XY for the butt guide. The penalty in casting distance wasn't much with 4lb. mono, even using an UL reel that sits out further from the blank than most.

Joe

I prefer the Batson / Alps XY guides for spinning also.

Mike,

I just put some on the scale and the M frames are indeed a bit lighter, and by a fair amount on the larger sizes. My XY 25 was 3.5g, compared to 2.6g on the M 20. I did not expect such a large difference from handling them alone.

Joe

I call my scale the no @#$%& device, it’s always good to be able to put a number on something. I bring it to the rod show every year to check out blanks and parts I may be interested in.