I am looking to build a walleye spinning rod on a 7ft MLF st croix blank. For guides I would like to run Fuji KR guides. Does this sound right in terms of guide size? Stripper 16h, 2nd guide 8H, 3rd guide 6L, with 3 5.0 belly guides and 3 5.0 running guides with a 5.0 tip top guide.

Sounds good to me, some people start out with a 20 but the other half start with a 16. It would depend on the reel size anything bigger then then a 2500/3000 I would use a 20L

With that size rod I see no need for belly guides, we went decades before without them and did just fine.

What you have will work fine. I assume you will be using a 1000 to 3000 size reel with braided line. I usually use a 16H, 8H, and 5.5M guides for the reduction train. I will also use 1 or 2 KB guides with the remaining runners being KTs. Nine guides total should give a good static test and allow for a nice progressive guide spacing layout.
Norm

Yea I plan on using a 2000 reel, thanks!

What line? Assuming braid no more than 15# what Norman suggests would be perfect. If mono heavier than 6# I'd lean towards the 20H, 10H, 5.5M.

Yup, no need for more than two KB guides. One, or zero, would work too:)

Russ in Hollywood, FL.

The difference in sensitivity and weight between 20-10-5.5 and what you propose is insignificant. But not insignificant to working well with bigger reels and stronger lines if you decide on them later. The 20-10-5.5 is much more versatile.

Trying different set ups provides a lot more information and subsequent knowledge than simply asking others what you should use. I do recognize that not everyone has or is willing to acquire additional guides to set up and try different guide set-ups. But if you're going to be in the custom rod building craft for awhile, it will do you a tremendous amount of good to do more on-your-own testing.

...............

Matthew,
With some guide sizes and setups, I was unable to eliminate line slap if using light mono line. This was with either a standard size 20 or a size 20-h guide.

However, if I replaced either of these guides with either a size 16 match or a 20 match guide - which is a taller guide - 100% of the line slap was eliminated.

As a result for all of my walleye rods, I always use a high match guide for the stripper guide. Then, never an issue with line slap on the rod blank.

Best wishes.

There is probably some correlation between guide size/spacing and casting efficiency, but I have been unable to find any actual data to confirm this assumption. Could be feet, could be inches. Your guess as to which guide size/spacing is best is as good as anyone else's guess.

Phil,
I suspect that when you speak of efficiency, you must refer to the ratio of energy expended in return for results of such energy use.

Or, to put it in simply words, does a guide train let one cast for more hours without getting as tired?

I would suspect that that would go back to a study of friction of line on a guide multiplied by the number of guides multiplied by the degrees of rod change through a specified amount of itme.

Or - can you fish for two weeks using your rod however you wish to use it with one rod with a particular guide train - rather than a different rod with a different guide train.

So, if we are speaking of efficiency and guides - one might take the stand that the fewer number of guides on a rod - the more efficient the rod will be because there is less potential for friction.

However, if one has too few guides the line is less in control and may then be troubled by other issues like line slap etc.

So, my put on a study of guide efficiency would be that if rod A makes you happier when you go fishing compared to rod B - a study of guide efficiency is not important to me personally and I will simply use rod A if I wish to be more happy when fishing.

Best wishes

In my mind casting efficiency refers to casting distance. [I doubt any model rod or line or reel will make you or me a more accurate caster.] If any brand or spacing of guides will allow me to cast farther I would like to hear about it; not in vague terms like "longer" or hyperbole like "booming casts" but in simple feet and inches. Nothing but the fear of false advertising stops fishing tackle makers from accurately stating the superiority of their product, and rod builders are apparently too modest to state the superior distances their rods cast?

Of course, there has to be a standard - "Caster". So to properly evaluate this one would need to use a machine driven casting machine that would be 100% repeatable. I would think that it would be pretty straight forward for a spinning reel. For a casting reel, one would have to let the spool over run and birds nest, or have a clamp on the spool, or an electric brake that could be applied when the weight hits the ground.

It would not be reasonable to use a person to do the casting, since it would be impossible to insure a 100% level of repeatability from one cast to the next.

Good luck making a machine for fly rod casting.

Take care

If it's a jigging rod where distance is not as important as sensitivity I have gone smaller yet lost very little if any casting distance.

Roger: No worries about a rod for a fly casting machine. The fly line turns out to be more important than the the fly rod when it comes to fly casting.

I will leave all this conjecture, debate, and planning for what others must do to gain what most likely is a miniscule advantage to others while I go build my rods which work perfectly well, then go fishing with them.

If you don't mind them not being Fuji, I am a HUGE fan of the newer MicroWave 25's. I use them on light freshwater Trout rods and inshore bottom fishing rods, and everything in between! I particularly like the black version, and Fuji no longer produces black guides.

Michael: I agree that "happiness" [AKA - satisfaction] with the make, size, number and spacing of a guide train - without casting distance measurements - is chiefly the product of personal tastes and advertising. There is no accounting for taste - and no substitute for measured performance.

My set up for 7' MLF: 20 KH, 10 KH, 5.5 M, 4 KB, 4 KB, 4 KB, 4 KT, 4 KT, 4 KT and 4.5 TT. Stripper spacing depends on reel to choke point and running guides depend on static testing.

Lance, that is exactly what I do except only two KB's. I guess I should invent and build a casting machine to see if replacing the third KB with a KT might give me more distance. Never know until you measure it.