I've never used or tied micros. I do have some that I look at and wonder how my fingers can hold one. So here is the question. We are talking bass rods. If a typical guide layout for a rod might be a 12-10-8-8-7-7-6-6-6, now look at micros that go from 5.5 down to who knows how small,
what is the problem with a rod with say an 8-7-6-6-6-5.5-5.5-5.5 wih a 5.0 tip. I have fishermen asking / telling me they want smaller guides but not necessarly all micros. What are your thoughts?

As long as a rod has a guide to direct the line down the rod, and keep the rod off of the blank, it will cast and catch fish.

It is up to the buider to build the rod the way that you want it.

Many builders are building rods, just as you envison. i.e. The builders are going with a bit smaller guides to save some weight, but still leave nice sized guides for easy threading and no hassle with lines, leaders and swivels.

One of the things that happen, if you want to keep the line off of the rod on a conventional rod, you will need to add guides if you go to shorter - i.e. smaller guides. So, some of the weight advantages that folks speak of when they speak of micro guides get eliminated by the addition of more guides.

But, your proposed guide set will work fine, will be hassle free and will catch fish.

Good luck
Roger

One thing, you don't need all those sizes of guides in the setup. For a crankbait rod I make, I am using all micro guides, 3's out to the tip. You could start with lets say the 8 and then use the 5.5's out to the tip. If you really want to get smaller, start with a 6 and then 3's out to the tip. I am just finishing up redoing several rods made years ago with what would have been standard guides back then. It takes so much weight off the rods using the micro guides.

I'm like Mike. No need in all those sizes.
Go from that 8 straight to 5's or 4's or 3's if those guides will pass your knots.

I typically go from a double foot 6 to 5's (as the transitions) and then 4's to the tip on my spiral wraps. For whatever reason, I just like a little larger guide for the turn than my runners.

I built a rod for a buddy a couple years ago, it was the first to leave my shop, and couldn't talk him into a full micro setup. He wanted something more traditional with at least two double foot guides, similar to the guide train on his favorite rods. I settled on DF 10, DF 6, and SF flies in 5mm, all in titanium frames. In the end it worked out well, and he really liked the end result. The guide train wasn't as light as possible, but it was definitely a step in the right direction. Any time you can reduce weight in the tip section, you are making an improvement.

Joe

If you can’t bring yourself to use all micros yet try building a rod with all #6 guides, you will be surprised how well it works. There is no reason to use multiple guide sizes on any baitcasting rod, you are only creating problems for yourself that you don’t have to have for the sake of tradition.

Tradition???

Thank all of you for your comments.

I am not normally a bass guy but I have one customer who is all bass. I just built him a crank rod and I went DF 6 to 4's up. He was very happy with the outcome. I was a bit worried at first just by the sounds of it but once I did the layout and saw the line path I was hooked (no pun intended) I am now building a few more bass rods and will not do anything else unless I spiral it. All the guides I used wiegh less than 1/2 of what I would normally use.