I am going to build a couple sturgeon rods (spinning) for ice fishing with the rainshadow solid glass blank. The rods will be 42" or 48" I haven't decided yet, they will have 20" handles from butt cap to tip of fore grip. My question is what would be the best guides to use? I was thinking about using the Forecast VD Spinning Guides (double foot), if I decide to go this route do I run them all the way to the tip or just a couple then single foot guides? Also what sizes would you recommend? Or any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Your guide sizes to a certain extent will be governed by the large tip top tube size needed to fit your blank, the short length so the amount of guides will also be limited. Normally, a freshwater rod would have your first guide from the reel about 19 to 20 inches out, heavier rods and surf rods even further out, so you can pull in the first guide a bit I imagine as long as the reel still functions correctly and consistently. You won't have many guides and I would make them all double footed.

Brandon,
Is the rod going to be built as a spinning rod or as a bait casting rod?

I have built lots of rods in this length for virtually the same purpose.

The folks that use these rods are typically fishing the big Canadian lakes in the out of doors with no shelter. As a result I go with either a size 8 or a size 10 tip. A size 20 butt guide, a size 12 intermediate guide and size 8 or 10 runners , depending on the tip.

The setup is generally 4 guides with the first guide at 8 inches from the face of the reel.

I typically use the Alps VS3 guides. When the folks fish out of doors and the guides turn to a slug of ice, they typically bash the rod against the ice to knock the ice out of the guides. The VS3 guides hold up well to this sort of treatment and keep on fishing.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

This is one batch of these 42 inch solid glass rods on the dryer.

This is a picture of the first day of fishing for a client who had caught a nice Lake Trout with one of the ice rods that had been on the dryer.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

This rod will be a spinning rod primarily used in a fish shack unless it is nice enough to fish outdoors. I did order the guides and I baked it off of the tip tops I could get. My guide train should be 20, 16, 12, 12 and tip top 10. I will do a static test first , I just hope it turns out the way t does in my head. Lol thank you!

Those rods on the dryer look ideal for that type of fishing , love the VS III guides , very nice indeed and that Lake Trout isn't just nice that fish is absolutely stunning .

Thats one happy customer for sure .