A friend of mine wants a spinning rod with K-Series guides and would like to either replace the existing guides on a rod that he loves or find a blank with the same feel and build a new rod.

The rod in question is a Chinese-made “Camo Stix MB66MS”. The rod is labeled: 6’6” Medium Power, Line 8-17lbs/Lure ¼-3/4 oz.

Simply replacing the existing guides would be the easiest option but the rod has a plastic wrap that gives it its camouflage look. The K-Series guides would go in different places leaving voids in the camo wrap where the old guides were removed.

If going with a new build, how can you pick a blank from a catalog that would match a rod’s feel? I would think it’s impossible. To the best that I can understand it, the CSS applies to fly rods and not spinning or casting rods.

He lives in central NJ and I’m not aware of any blank manufacturers in that area who would allow on site handling of blanks.

The Camo is most likely hydrodipped before the guides are put on. By carefully removing them you should be able to save it.
The CCS numbers apply to all rod blanks regardless oF use so yes you could use them for a new blank if necessary.

Feel is a subjective term. CSS numbers are more objective. With that said, if you change the guide train the feel will change. For example, if the current rod has an older and heavier COF guide set up and you replace it with a lighter KR micro guide set up the feel will drastically change, and in my opinion for the better. I have rewrapped lots of older rods with various types (brands) of micro guide set ups, and the owner of these could believe they were the same rod. They liked them a lot more. So if your friend wants the rod to feel the same it ain't going to happen with a new guide set up.
Norm

The CCS does not apply to any particular type rod - it applies to action, power and speed. It measures those characteristics, not rod types.

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As Vic says, CCS works on all blanks/rods. One can make a CCS outfit without doing the whole pegboard that takes up so much room. If interested, email me for mine. It correlates well wtih PacBay and Point Blank numbers.


All Point Blank blanks have CCS numbers published, are a little pricey, but wonderful blanks.

All Pac Bay Quickline blanks have CCS numbers published, are a little pricey, too, but are very good blanks.

I think CCS is your best option, but one thing you might want to do is to demonstrate one of your modern rods with smaller guides to your friend. Let him cast it side by side with his old rod. He may change his mind about matching the feel. You want to match the power and action, but you can do much better on feel (sensitivity/response).

Feel = CCF.

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Christopher,
Actually, if you want K series guides on a rod, cut off the old guides and put the K series guides in the exact same locations as the previous guides.

If the rod works all right now, it will work all right with the K series guides in the same location. The location may not be perfectly optimized; but certainly the guides will work just fine to cast and to keep the line following the contour of the blank.

Good luck

p.s.
It is really very easy to match a blank.

Just go to a shop that sells a lot of fishing rods.

Bring the rod you want to match into the store with you. Then, just go down the rods of fishing rods, and flex each on the store floor carpet until you find a match in feel, flex and power. It shouldn't take you more than 5 or 10 minutes to find a very close match.

Be safe

CCF may equal "feel," but with relatively stiff blanks, not fly rods, is it not almost impossible for us who don't have elaborate equipment to measure it? If we cannot measure it, we cannot match it. It may be that for most of us the closest we can come is to match CCS numbers with blanks of similar materials (if they weigh almost the same and have almost the same CCS numbers, they should have about the same CCF, right?), then with the same guides attached in the same locations, they should "feel" about the same. Of course the friend in this question wants to "match" the "feel" of the old rod.

Yes, I think the easiest way to give him what he wants is to simply put the guides he wants onto the old rod in their current locations. And if that doesn't satisfy him, you may have to add a little weight to the tip.

But I think you'll find he likes the rod better with the newer (lighter) guides.

Thanks for the help here, lots of great information!!

Two blanks with identical AA and ERN figures can feel completely different owing to the different weight involved. For instance, two blanks, one made from wood and one from graphite, can have identical action and power but will obviously feel very much different.

CCF isn't hard to measure and doesn't require any special equipment.

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Tried to search CCF, but could not find. Looked in glossary for CCF, no luck. Can you explain or tell me where to find an explanation of CCF?
Thanks

Click on the Common Sense Info button, upper left. Then click on Part 5 and read it. When you get done you'll know more than probably 95% of the builders, but you won't be able to measure it.