What do you all do when the guide foot is wider then the blank? I can grind it down but there will not be much left of the foot if I did that? Any real issue if the guide is a little wider then the blank if wrapped tight and space filled with epoxy when coating the wrap?

David - I grind the sides of the guide feet to be close to the width of the blank, but NOT as thin as some of the thinnest ice rod tips. Grinding them down to about .045 wide on say a .034 wide blank works fine for me. Be sure to dunk them in water before and during grinding them to not to overheat the guide feet - too much heat can take the temper out of the foot. I also grind a small angle or radius on the top of the feet after grinding them to remove the sharp edge. Just wrap the guides as normal - no need to go extra tight with the wraps. Many use a "double wrap" if wrapping on a fly guide for a tip top for extra strength, and it makes the tip more visible.

Hi Dan, I had the same experience. I finally decided to grind them down and see how the rod performs. Of course, now I have to wait until next ice season.

David,
You can grind down the feet of the guides, or the better solution is to purchase guides that don't have wide feet on them.

Ice fishing does not require a high quality guide. Typically the fish are slow and lethargic in the cold water. As a result you typically do not get blazing runs with the fish that stress the fish. You do not cast with an ice fishing rod, so a simple stainless guide or a single or double foot fly guide work very well for ice fishing rods.

Inexpensive, narrow foot and all is well in the world of ice fishing.

You can do some searches and find an inexpensive set of ice rod guides for about $3 - that fit the bill nicely and last a long time for ice fishing.

Especially with many more folks going to the flat in line reels, one does not have to use large ringed guides. One can start with a size 8 and go to a size 6 down the length of the rod. Especially if one fishes out of doors and not in a shelter when it is -20F with the wind blowing hard, I build ice rods for the hearty that starts with a size 10 guide and goes down to a size 8 and a size 8 tip. The larger guides really help to minimize ice build up. Also, many hard and tough ice fisherman, just take the rod and slam the tip on the ice to knock off ice build up when fishing is fast and furious. So, you need simple tough and virtually unbreakable guides on ice rods for these folks.

Your choice.

I had a guy that wanted the ice recoil guides. The feet were wider then the blank. I ground them down but was getting close to the split in he middle. It worked and all,was good but got me wondering what others did in this case.

I built a doble duty ice rod, 38" long, using AT Airwave guides. Tt works great for ice fishing,; and I had no trouble with the guide feet. The second duty was using this small rod for both small stream brook trout fishing, and still water bass, and panfish duty. On the lake, it casts surprisingly well,. Catching even small fish on it is a hoot, Catching a big smallie is a blast. I now build most ice rods with the Airwave guides. For the rods, Ilike to use solid fiberglass blanks.

Tight lines and frisky fish

RJF