Has anyone built a freshwater trolling rod and used aftco lightweight roller guides. Thinking about building a rod with them.

Ive built a few salmon trolling rods for a charter operation with them based on the captains request and they work really well. It is really important that you make sure you get the right size guides as the guide feet are convex and fit specific diameters according to where it is along the blank you are going to put them.

Below is copied from the Aftco website [aftco.com] :
"All of the LW rollers are designed to fit a certain range of blank diameters. This needs to be considered when selecting rollers for a custom built rod. The LWGUIDE6, 5 and 4 will all fit just about any diameter of blank. The LWGUIDE3 will fit blank diameters from .170-.210", the LWGUIDE2.5 .140-.170", the LWGUIDE2 .100-.140" and the LWGUIDE1 .075-.100". The LW tops are also sized by 64ths", just like the larger tops. In most cases the LWGUIDE1 and the associated SLW tops are only used on the lightest freshwater rods."

Best of luck, let me know if you have any specific questions
Nick

Thanks. Most rods would be 7’ to 8’6” in length.