What would you say is the best ice rod guides? I'm building a power noodle rod with 0.8mm tip. I will put an inline reel on it so a little taller spinning guide first I'm thinking and then regular guides. The problem I Have is to find suitable tip tops for this small diameter blanks that still have bigger rings..

Just wrap a fly guide for the tip. Most tip tops add extra weight to noodles that will make you unhappy

Hello Mattias - Here is a link to tips that have larger ring sizes with smaller tube sizes - [www.mudhole.com] - Thank You

Bob McKamey
Mud Hole Custom Tackle
bobm@mudhole.com

I build a 100 noodle rods a year living in Minnesota.You will want to use light weight fly guides made by Alps or recoil guides in size 2 for the tip and keep that size the next 2 guides then jump to a 3 or 4 till you hit the stripper then use a size 10 recoil guide. So on my 24-36" rods I will go tip #2,2,3,3 # 10 on the noodle rods. non noodle #3,3,4,4,10 or 12. Hopes that helps. Thorn brothers and Tuned Up customs use the same configuration.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2019 03:00PM by Brian Gross.

Mattias,
Actually, you can use virtually any guide or guide train that you wish on an ice rod.

Remember an ice rod blank typically weighs about 1-3 ozs - depending on the length. Typically the length is short. Typically the number of guides is 3,4 o5 5 guides depending on the length and action of the blank.

Because of the short length and small size - the actual guide is really not very important.

Just use the guide size that makes sense to you.

Over the years, I have used snake guides, single foot fly guides, guides with no insert, guides with inserts. Small and very small guides as well as large and extremely large guides.

At the end of the day, every single one of these rods worked well and caught a lot of fish for the person using the rod.

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A couple of thoughts.
If the rod is going to be used nearly all of the time in a heated shanty, then there is really no reason to use a running guide larger than a size 6.
Conversely, if one is going to be fishing out of doors in the upper north country at temps of -20F to -40F and severe icing, it makes sense to use guides that are no smaller than a size 8 or even a size 10.

Also, if one is going to be using a rod out of doors in very very severe cold weather with severe icing, then it makes sense to use well braced guides. For this type fishing, I normally use the VS3 guides which are triple braced guides. Often these fishermen fishing is such severe conditions will have guides freeze shut, and their normal routine is to take the rod and beat it against the ice until it is free of ice. A builder may not like the treatment of the rod that they built, but in fact this is standard procedure for the hardy folks that fish out of doors in very severe temperatures.

Since for most of ice fishing, there normally are not long blistering runs by the fish due to the slower metabolism of the fish, there is virtually 0 reason to use a guide that has an insert in it. the snake guides, single foot non insert fly guides, pac bay minima guides, as well as the more expensive recoil guides all makes sense to use on a rod.

Since many of the fisher folks are going to the low profile inline reels, it is normal to have one guide that is slightly larger like a size 8 and then go to size 6 or 4 for indoor shanty fishing rods. But, another concern is the lack of light in a lot of ice fishing situations. As a result, many folks find it very difficult to thread the line through the guides of an ice rod that has very small guides. Hence, the suggestion that the guides be no smaller than a size 6 or possibly a size 8 for outside conditions.

Remember, for a lot of ice rods that are only 20 inches long, they only need about 2 guides and a tip top on the rod.

For a 30 inch rod, you will likely need three guides and with a 36 inch rod you will normally need 4 guides.

Best wishes and may your hands always stay warm in the cold of winter ice fishing.