My first heavy saltwater build.
Would single foot running guides work on the following blank ?
It will be a simple spiral wrap.

Hercules GTS70H
9-20oz rigs
50 - 60lb test
Stripper guide American Tackle Virtus Heavy
If I need double foot running guides could I get away a single foot for the 180 guide ?

The rod was advise from Seeker
The lure and line weight advice from a tackle store
This rod will be used on party boats out of Maine and N.H.

Why would oyu use single foot guides, what advantage will they give you on that rod fo rtha tapplication? IMO 7' is too short for a PB Cod rod. I have several Seeker blanks that are designed for Cod fishing up there, take a look: [northeastrodbuilders.com] The 70H is good for jigging, but from a private boat, most guys are using 8' rods on Party boats

I just finished a spinning rod on that blank it will be used for sharking. I used double foot Fuji K guides because I want to be sure that I'm not going to have problems should I be fortunate enough to hook a Mako Casting performance isn't as important as it's ability to fight fish so I didn't worry about additional weight or adding stiffness.

If I were building a spiral on that blank it would be used for deep water jigging with heavy jigs for large fish, sharking or trolling for tuna or bills. I would use all double foot guides but at a minimum, the transitional guides and the first guide before and after the transition guides would be double foot guides. Those guides get torqued in multiple directions so I want as much holding them down as I can get.

Bananaboat Captain

I'm in wisconsin and up to this time I have not built a heavy rod.
Thats why I asked if I could use single guides. If single foot guides would work I see no advantage to double foot. Sounds like single foot won't work so I will go with double foot no problem.

I called Seeker and told them what I was building and how and what I was using it for. They suggested the GTS70H.
The line weight on the GTS80H 30-60 verse 40-80 was a little on the low side as suggested by a tackle store in Maine.
If the GTS80H would be better suited I will use that.
I specifically asked Seeker if this was the best choice in a blank.
They said yes.

Just trying to gather information to build the correct rod.

I did not see a Seeker Super Cod blank in my catalogs.

JM

Check out Billies site I believe they are listed there
[northeastrodbuilders.com]

Bill - willierods.com

Jeff, ther eis no advantage to using single foots on tha trod, I was jus tcurious why you'd use them - since you are from WI I know why. On heavier rods teh performance increase with single foots is 0%, but teh possibility to have to replace a guide due to damage is super high (usually you take several rods on these trips and the rods are banged around quite a bit). I'm not saying Seeker's recommendation is wrong, I helped design the Hercules series, and I do recommend that blank specifically for private boat guys looking to jig in less than 300', typically with a 10-16oz jig. All the blanks tha tI have listed, the Classic Cod, Super Cod, CSB 909 - are all Seekers but I anm the only one with them, they ar enot in their catalouge. Unforetunately there are no blanks designed specifically for this fishery, so we have to modify existing ones to get what we need. The advatnage to that is if you know specifically wha tyoua re looking to do, you can trim them up and fine tune the rod and get exactyl waht you are looking for.

If Fuji LBSGs were still available I'd say go for it. I used them on my tuna jig stick on which I fish 80# test and 27# of drag at strike and they work great. But unless you can find another heavy duty single foot, I wouldn't do it.

And Billy is absolutely right. 7' is too short for party boats. 8' does a better job of keeping the line off the hull. Longer than 8' gets to be too much work when you're swinging 16 Oz in 300-400 feet down.

Okay sounds like I need ti switch to an 8ft rod and go with double foot guides no problem.
I was thinking about using a simple spiral. For the 180 degree guide would I want to stick with a double foot there as well ?
Thanks for all the responses.
JM

Jeff, if you want to order any of hte blanks and the components to build the rod in one shot, let m eknow xlrods@yahoo.com. These are some of hte rods which I specialize in building.

The use of hte single foot on any part of this rod is completely wrong. THer eis no benefit, only negatives. THE guide which Dave mentions, weighs twice as much as a comparable double foot guide that oyu are looking to get, even more if oyu go the Titnaium Virtus Heavy route.

Single foot micro guides would make the rod sleeker, lighter, unique, - and much less practical and useful.

I almost jumped through teh screen to kick Phil until I saw his last sentence, lol.

Yep I get it. Double foot all the way I promise really.
I will strike the very words (single foot guide) from my vocabulary.