Making a 10" 5 wt rod. But it will be a spinner. The guy in Pa uses it for steelhead pretty soon. They use 6 lb test. So can I use a 25 for the first guide and graduate down. Single foot probably alconite. My thought that a 30 would be too big.

Thanks,Bill

Bill that should be fine. If he is using braid you could go with a 20 or maybe a 16. Why not use the microwave? they would work well too look at the M frame guides for the height



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/13/2013 06:35PM by john timberlake.

Check out the Fuji fast reduction system with the tall guides and you can save a lot of weight along the blank, and first guide would be no bigger than a 20. Only disadvantage I see is if he wants to carry it in a tube, he'll need a pretty good sized tube to fit the tall first guide. Click on Anglers Resource - Fuji on the left.

Actually any system designed for braid or 6 pound mono should be able to use a 20 with no problems.

Another lightweight option is Microwave by Amtak.

25 might be overkill with something as supple as 6lb line. If you do use a 20, select a high frame model.

.................

Bill -

Loved the wood grips article. Thanks for doing it.

I have built several of these type rods for fly or weightless platic worm fishing under bubbles and floats (although mine have been mostly 9 footers). In my experience, you will be super happy with a size 20 K-style high frame guide as your first guide.

One other thought - braid is typically easier to mend and manage for this type of fishing than mono (which can sink and has a larger diameter for test and therefore more drag). Mono also tends to coil and have exaggerated memory in cold water. Hard to beat a 15 or 20 pound fused superline (which wont absorb water and freeze and get wiry like regular braid) connected to a fluoro leader fir steelhead pink worm fishing under a float in my experience. Again, a size 20 is plenty for this.

Good luck - hope this helps.

Bill

I am now building an 8'6" travel spinning rod on a 5 wt. fly blank. The first guide will actually be a PacBay Minima high frame #20. Recently I also built a 7'6" UL spin rod and successfully used a #16 high-frame guide as the first one. In both cases I used Fuji-style fast reduction, but for the longer rod I will be using a train of slightly higher-frame guides (not the L-type guides lying flat on the blank) to prevent line from sticking to the tip.

Also I think a #20 high-frame guide will be better than #16 with mono, while the latter will handle braid with ease, though perhaps choking mono a wee bit.
#20 it should be :-)

Cheers,
Michal

I have built bass rods for use with 8lb floro and used a fuji 16H with no issues, however that is with a 2000 series reel. I would personally base my decision on a 20 or 16 depending on the spool diameter of the reel.

Thanks everyone for your input. The rod will have a Pitt. Steeler theme so will probably go woth 20 high frame alconite and scale down

Michael Roz: Just a reminder (that I forgot last travel rod build), you'll need a large diameter rod tube when you build with high frame guides. Here's where a folding guide would be nice.

currently, am building something similar, using a 9ft 3wt 4pcs MHX fly blank as a travel spinning rod. i will be using a size 2000/2500 shimano reel with 6 or 8lb braid, and have used a size 16 Fuji YSG as the butt guide on the last few rods (6', 6'6 , 7') without much issue.

For mono, probably a 20 is best suited as mono seems to be 'springier' and would probably need a slightly larger butt guide to tame it.. braid, on the other hand, is more limp and thinner for the same line poundage and could do with a smaller sized butt guide.

reason i picked up rod building in the first place was that i always hated the guide sizes used by commercial manufacturers.. they tend to be oversized in my opinion.

-
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day..
Teach a man to fish, he'll be broke!

As for rod tube. I went to carpet store and got the cardboard tube the is inside the roll. Nice give away and the guy was a fly fisherman. 3 1/2" inside diameter. Should be ok.

Rodtubewise: sewage pipes come in various sizes ;-)