Looking at building a few 5’ UL for the next gen. My question is how low can you go on guides as they are going back and forth from spinning and spin casting at this age. And trying to get guide height as low as possible to minimize damage from tornados.
Panfish and trout.
How much distance is lost going from a 16h to something like a 12 or even a 12 casting guide to runners.

Not trying to be controversial like cutting triggers off casting rods ;)

Tanks!

You can use an underspin and get the same results without having to worry about guide selection between the two, that said I have use a 12 match height guide as a first guide with no issues on light line rods.

Tim,
I am a bit puzzled about your statement about using a different guide height to prevent damage from tornadoes???

Having said that, one should be concerned about being out on a big body of water when weather is threatening and the chance for lightning is immanent.

This is a sort story of an event that happened to our fishing party in my boat one day many years ago.
Several friends and myself were out in a big lake in north central MN. As the morning progressed, the skies began to look more and more threatening. I cautioned my friends, that if the time came, we would be leaving the area immediately - with no questions asked.

But the fishing was good, so we kept fishing. I did notice, that the hair on my arms began to stand on end. Then, I made one more cast. However, the line didn't come down to the water. Yes, the jig was cast and it hit the water and sunk as it was supposed to do. However, the rest of the line remained in the air. So, I thought -- "I wonder?" - I began to feed line off my line spool and as I pulled line off the reel, the line left the end of the rod and simply went higher and higher into the air. I told my friends that I think it was just about time to go. Suddenly, there was a crack of lighting and the boom of thunder was almost at the same time, so the lighting was uncomfortably close. When the lighting went off, the atmosphere became discharged and all of the fishing line fell into the water. I yelled to the folks to reel in their lines, get the rods all flat on the floor and for everyone to sit down on the floor to be as low as possible. I started, the engine, firewalled the throttle and headed off the lake. As we roared by other boats who were still fishing, some of whom had women with long hair - I noticed that everyone without a hat had all of their hair standing straight out from their head. Fortunately, we cleared the lake with no further incident, but we waited for the weather to clear before going back on the water.

So, yes - do be aware and cautious of lighting.
I don't know that guides have anything to do with tornadoes, but in any event, stay well clear of tornadoes - because they can kill equally well.

Best wishes.

Sorry Roger, was making a joke about the damage a youngster can cause. Should have said a 4 year old tornado;)

Agree on weather, many moons ago, we beached the boat due to a huge thunderstorm that came in. Way to rough to attempt the launch. As we hit the beach towards the tree line, a bolt hit, knocking us off our feet. My ears rang for a year.

Thanks Spencer,I had never heard of an underspin. Learned something new.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/09/2023 07:23AM by Tim Scott.

Tim, I taught my oldest kid at three years old how to use a spinning rod and it took about 10 minutes for him to cast good enough for me to let them do it by himself. You may want to try that instead of switching them on reels.

I built an ultra lite 5 1/2' spinning rod with a #10 as the first guide. Works just fine.

Thanks guys.
picked up an extra 12 and a 10 from voodoo and will do some test casting.

On a side note, while playing with the lengths, I took an NFC APFG 710-1 and cut a whopping 2’ off it. My wife came through and promptly claimed it for trout. Back to the drawing board we go. :)

Tim,
2 FEET!?!?!? You are a brave, at least bold, man!!!

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.