Running Guide Size - Beginner - Rogue 9"6" King Salmon Rod - Medium Moderate Action

Layout looks like - 25mm, 12mm, 10mm, 8, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5 ,5, 5 tip 5

Hi guys,

First time Posting.

My brother and I started building Rods for bass and KIng Salmon river fishing.

We made some really nice Bass rods using the micro wave guide kits.

But now we are building up some 9'6" Rogue Medium moderate action salmon rods for the river.

We river fish in northern Michigan and regularly encounter 20-38lb+ kings.

The question is what size running guides should we use.

The CRB assorted titanium kit we went with came with size 6 runners. We have also purchased size 5's

we are seeing a steep transition from the 6's to the 5's, our 5's are a lot lower profile then the 6's.

We were hoping to run like 3- 6's and then 3 - 5's at the end.

1. How do we address this transition?

2. Should we just run all 6's on one rod and all 5's on the other?

3. Are these even the right size guides for this length of rods and the size of fish?

All feedback is welcome


25mm, 12mm, 10mm, 8, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5 ,5, 5 tip 5

Here's the guides - Black - Performance
[www.mudhole.com]

You have too many guide sizes in play. I can't tell you exactly what you need without having the reel and rod here so I can plot the line path and see what it calls for, but I'm guessing you could be going from 25 to 16 to maybe a 10 or 8 and then 5's on out. But having 10, 8, 6 and 5 on there just isn't necessary. Too many sizes and all too close in size. You should easily be able to do this with just 4 guide sizes.

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Hey Tom,

Thank you for the quick reply!

Ok so we're going to take your advice and cut back on the sizes. We also discovered that the size 6's we had were transition guides and not runners. However we did find our size 6 runners.

We're already tied on at 25 and 12. but we're going to change the top half to 8, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, and 5 for the tip. We don't have enough 5's to do all 5's or we would abut we're running out of time.

I know it's not four sizes but does that sound better?

It's not really about whether it sounds good or not - the line path will dictate and show you what sizes to run. You don't have to guess.

Figure the choke point, put your smallest guide size there, which in your case I suppose will be a #5. From there you know you will use additional size 5's on out to the tip, as many as needed.

Then tie a line to the reel spool spindle (or use a table edge) and align that with your choke guide. Now you select whatever size guides and placement are needed to conform to the straight line path between the spindle and the choke guide.

..........

Ok so can I ask the best method to find this choke point?

[www.rodbuilding.org]

You can also consult the Anglers Resource page for their version of similar.

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Look this is great information! Thank you for your time and feedback today!

I can't wait to get out of work and apply this method.

we were just going to use guide spacing charts and call it a day.

Would we have been close with the spacing charts?

According to this guide our running guides should be a size 8 or 10.. are the 5's going be to small for a 20lb mono?

The spacing charts would not have taken into consideration the reel size and height.

20lb mono will easily pass through a #6 and most likely a #5 as well. If you have some spare 8's you can aways tape up the sets and give them a try.

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You picked a good blank, the one I built was bought from me on it's first trip out.