After returning for 3 years working in Asia I'm back in US and setting up my hobby rod shop. I'm engineering 2 spinning rods both on 6 foot NFC blanks.

Rod #1 is a fast UL to L and I'll use with a Saros 1000 and 6 pound FC for white bass and crappie to throw 1/16 oz roadrunners. I want this rod to be as light as possible - which guides for this purpose? I'm thinking Recoils.
Rod #2 is a fast M and I'll use a Saros 2500 with 12 pound FC for dock skipping senkos for bass. Probably won't load braid, but have used braid + leader for this purpose in the past. Rod has some backbone cause I need to yank the big girls out before they tangle me up. I prefer the shorter length around the docks I fish. I need some help on guide selection please, I want light but strong for this.

I've been researching for several hours here and am still not sure, so suggestions are welcome. I have to say that microwave guides came out while I was overseas and I'm not quite there yet....

Thanks in advance,

Eric

G'Day Eric if you use the microwave setup you will not be sorry .They are easy to setup it all comes on the packaging .As long as you put the first 3 from the butt as per instructions & the rest spaced to give the best static spacing you can achieve every thing will be ok .I make somewhere between 30-50 rods a year & about 70% finish up with microwave the other brand with about 15-20% are Pacbay minima 3 & the rest fill the guide spectrum.

Regards Baz

Bundeena
NSW Australia

Eric,

I would second Barry's suggestion. Give the microwave guides a try....you will not be disappointed!

Don Campbell
don@sensorfishingrods.com

If weight is important the Minima 4 guides are worth considering.

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

For Rod #2 - I would highly consider the microwaves. They are very smooth and very easy to set up to get the maximum casting distance. They do work as advertised. They offer considerable casting distance over the cone of flight set up, and cast as far as any of the other guide train theories, 27x, KR theory, etc. They also offer the tidalwave that have titanium runners.

For rod #1 - Based and what you have said, I would go with pac bay minimas if I were building it right now because that would be the lightest offering. I build many panfishing rods with them. American Tackle introduced some new guides at ICast, airwaves, that will be considerably lighter and without an insert, very similar to minima 4. I'm not sure when they are set to come out. If you're in no hurry, you may give don morse a shout to see the eta date on the airwaves. If they perform like the microwaves, I'll be using them on my future panfish rods.

Jeremy Reed
Reed Rods



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/02/2014 03:50PM by Jeremy Reed.

Thanks for the feedback guys - much appreciated. I'll go with the microwaves on the heavier dock skipping rig and the minimas on the lighter rod...I'll make another when the airwaves come out.

Eric

Eric Green



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2014 03:21PM by Eric Green.