Hello, this will be my first time building rods ever and thought I start on something small like an ice rod before going to a full size spinning rod and spey rod. I apologize if these are repeat questions, but with ice rods having a smaller tip diameter has anyone ever used a small guide as the tip top? I'm not positive but I think thorne bro rods uses a recoil guide as their tip top, as the normal recoil tip tops are fairly large for a 26 ul. In which they wrapped it on there? That's an assumption I got from reading their component options on their rods.

Secondly, what are other good tip tops to use for small diameter ice rods? Fly tip tops? Anyone have opinions on using snake guides on ice rods?

Lastly, how do you "search" on the forums list? I've typed in "ice", "rod", and a ton of simple words and always get no results. Thanks you very much!

Sid,
Here is a pretty good source to fill some of your needs:

[www.sportsmensdirect.com]

I haven't found guides and tip tops anywhere else at this price that work so well.

Be safe

I use fly single foot wire guides for tiptops. Used recoils on thornebro's rods as well. Its a bit tricky to wrap a guide to 2.5/64 tip, especially if it a soft flexible fiberglass blank. I would suggest you to buy few cheep rods from dollar store, strip them and rebuild, if you are just starting to do ice rods. This will give you experience and confidence in working with small diameter blanks and if you destroy it at any point its not a big money lost. In some cases ice rods are more difficult to build then anything
Good luck

Thanks for the responds! I'll give it a shot!

for your frist couple of rod"s you should """"NOT """ be repeat should """ NOT"""" be a flimy type rod you will go crazy on the wraping of the guides , as Sergiy said get a cheep rod on your frist build or some
old rods from the thrift store ' go to it , you got good info from Sergiy I think ,

William Sidney
AK

Janns sells a wire tip top that is fitted for their microlite blanks. It works pretty well. I use single foot fly guides on mine. Tape or rubber band the guides on and start from there. Good Luck. RK