Hey guys,

I just completed my 2nd build. I've been asking a lot of questions about spinning blanks lately because I've been looking for a blank to fish tubes with on St. Clair. I ended up getting a Phenix M1 7-2MXF and just figured i'd share with you guys my experience so far with the blank and questions for a newbie that I still have after building it.

So as far as the build, I decided to build a spinning rod because I had a broken rod with a set of Fuji Y-frame SiC's and I figured I can build a blank for a fairly low price rather than buy a stock rod. I went with a Fuji VSS reel seat with the threads trimmed off flush with the cap with a reel mounted on it and went with EVA foam grip and butt grip. Overall, this build was a lot easier than the first rod I built. I did a bit of practice wrapping up guides that have broken on other rods and so wrapping this rod was fairly easy.

The finished rod came in at 3.4 ounces and it balances perfectly at the front winding check. The rod feels super light in hand and its a pleasure to fish with.

I ran into a problem when spacing the guides though. I understand that stock rods are a one size fits all type deal. The guides I had, well I forgot, I know the stripper was a 25, I think the second one was a 12, 8, 7, then 6's. What threw me for a loop is that when I plugged my info in GPS it called for a size 25 to be set at 15 inches. I did the table method, same thing. And this just didn't seem right. If I had a size 20, it would be perfect at 20". Well, that defeated the purpose of the build, I wanted to use the guides I had. So I just called Phenix, and got their guide spacing for their stock rods. I didn't want to, but after test casting and everything the rod performed great with no line slap and smooth easy casting.

So my question to you guys, when faced with a situation like this where you might already have a guide train that doesn't really match up with what NGC or KR call for, what do you do? I have a set of Y-Frame Alconites that I might use for my next build and they're the same size as this last build I just did. What can one do to salvage the guides, and get the most out of the rod with a guide train that may not be optimal? I don't mind going at it now because the rod I just built worked great. It cast great and the line is evenly distributed when under load.


Overall, I REALLY like this stick and i'm gonna wear this sucker out!!!

Jose

here use this easy and works very well tweek the guides a little and test cast Also Static test for spacing
A stock spacing chart is Only a Start

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Bill - willierods.com

Line is flexible. Almost anything will work. In most instances you're looking at good, better and best. And the difference between good and best is slight, but obvious. It just boils down to how good you want the rod to be. If what you have works well enough in your estimation, then make the next one just like it and go fishing.

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