Am building a 7' spinning rod using NGC. Thinking that a 30, 16, and 6's the rest of the way out ought to work. Will be using 8-12 mono line. What are your thoughts and ideas on this?

Thanks in advance

Larry

I once gave up fishing. It was the most terrifying weekend of my life.

It depends on the reel you'll be using. Guides are reel and line specific, not rod specific.

Then, if everything lines up properly, it will work. If not, it will still work although not as well.

.........

The butt guide (30) is slightly larger than half the spool lip diameter. My real concern is whether the 6mm guides will handle 12 lb mono.

Larry

I once gave up fishing. It was the most terrifying weekend of my life.

They will. You may find that the cast is noisier with 6's than 8's, but the distance result will be just as good with the 6's as the 8's. Try it for yourself.

...........

They will handle 12lb. mono just fine. I regularly use 12lb. mono in 3mm guides.

Joe

I would reccommend that with 12 pound mono you use two transition guides instead of just one. If you put a 30-20-12-66666666 or whatever it might work better. Always test cast to make sure.

Larry,

What size reel will you be putting on the rod? I would drop the 30 for a 25 or possibly a 20 (?). I never use a 30 anymore.

Bill

Ohio Rod Builders

Canton, Ohio

Well, 12lb. line diameter can vary by model/manufacturer. If it's .36mm mono/fluoro or less, I'd use:

25Y - 16Y - 10Y - 7V - and then the smallest running guides you will use out to the tip.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/25/2011 01:52PM by Gary Snyder.

Larry,
I think your guide size could be perfect depending on the lures that you are going to throw.
If you are going to be doing a lot of pitching of heavy lures - say 3/4 - 1 oz lures - it is likely that the size 30 stripper is just right.

I had a couple of clients that did a lot of northern pike fishing where they did a lot of pitching heavy spoons using spinning gear.

The first couple of rods that I built for them, I used a size 20 or 25 size stripper guide. They broughr the rods back and asked me to replace this guide with a size 30 or 35 - depending on the rod.

The thing that they wanted - had nothing to do with casting, but only on the retreive of these big spoons hundreds of times per day. They were typically casting with 80 lb braid, to give the same line diameter as 15 -20 lb mono. They wanted the stiffness of the line for better lure action, and the toughness of the braid.

But, the bottom line was that during retreive, they wanted the stripper guide to be of a size and height so that during the retreive of the heavy lures on a relatively straight rod, that the line would just bursh the intire diameter of the stripper guide as the line was retreived, and the spinning spool was making its rotations.

The thing that happens if the guide size is too small or too low for this situation - the line will touch the guide for about 1/2 of the rotataion, and then simply drag agasinst the guide for the remainder of the roatation. This drag caused increased retreival effort as well as line wear, and the client did not like this to happen.

So, by going to the larger and taller guide, the problem was eliminated, the line retreival pressure was reduced and the client was happy.

As a result of these clients, I have tended toward this method on other spinning rod builds and find that the rod does really perfom better - no matter the line weight.

So, the guide size is determined by you, the client and the needs of both.

Good luck
Roger

Larry,
Do a bit of research and get the answer that suits you best.
Take your planned guides and wrap them on the rod, but don't finish them. Then, put on your planned reel, planned line, and a 3/4 oz casting weight.

Go out and make about 100 casts, both upwind, cross wind, and downwind. Do gentle, moderate and severe casts - grade the performance of the rod.

Go back to your shop, cut off the first stripper guide, and change it to a different size - larger or smaller as you see fit. It only takes a few minutes to cut a guide off a rod, and tie on one of a different size - as long as there is no finish on the rod.

Repeat t he test and record the results.

Go back to the shop, cut off the first stripper guide and change it to again a different size and repeat the test.

You might even make a radical change in the stripper guide for one of these tests, to see if you see a perceptible difference, in line handling, casting distance, retreival effort, or overall rod satisfaction.

Let us know what you find and report the results.

So often we do what others tell us and the results are what they are. But, if we do some testing and research for ourselves, we will have that information for the particular blank and setup that we are using and will have even more information to become a better informed builder.

Roger