I am building a St Croix 4SRS90MMF2 surf rod and need help with guide selection. It is a 9ft 1-4oz, 10-20lb fast action blank and I will be putting a 6500 or maybe a smaller penn squall 15 on it. I'd like to put Ti guides if my budget allows to keep weight down. I'm looking at the KWAGS and TKWAGS in 16-12-8-6's or stay with 8's. Does this sound like it will work? Is it worth putting the extra buck into Ti guides. I have used another brand before and had them break on me. Recoils are another option and nearly half the cost of the TKWAGS. If you guys have any other option let me know.

You would be fine with just BKWAG's. Ti is nice and I do prefer it. I will suggest if you are going down to 6's go with LDBs they come in Alconite black or Ti with Sic. Great little guide I use on alot of my surf rods for years! The layout sounds good to me and I will add you need to keep in mind that depending on the tip size you might not find a small ring large tube size tip top so that might make your desision on 8's or 6"s!!

If you are going with TLDBSG's, let me know since I only have a few left. I sold a bunch last week to someone on here looking for them.

16 stripper on a 9ft rod...excellent. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. I suggest you make your final reel decision before laying out the rod. it could impact guide position depending on how different the reels are.
A couple of years from now you will realize what a good decision Titanium was.

I suggest using the smallest running guides which allow your knots to pass easily.
I used size 8 LDB's on a 10'6" rod with good results.

I use American Tackle for as many of my titanium guides as I can. For this kind of rod, Typhoons will be just about perfect. If it were me, I'd forget the K guides, use the Titanium Typhoons, and be done with it. The AmTak guides have worked very well for me, even on surf rods.

Thanks guys. The reason I chose the Fuji guides is because I have put Amtak titanium on a rod and had a couple of them break. With a taller guide it is bound to get knocked around. Maybe someone will chime in as far as durability in the Fuji's. As far as the reel goes, I am planning on an Ambasedeur 6500 for now and possible a slightly larger reel in the future. This rod won't see much surf it will mainly be used for making longer cast to Reds. I plan on using 6 running guides(all DF) if I can find a 6 top.

On another note, does anyone have any experience with Akios reels?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2012 06:26PM by Brandon Gay.