I am looking for some advice on a new 11ft Surf Spinning Rod build, reel is a 5000 size Penn. Guide train consists of a 30-25-20-12-10-10-10-10-10-10-10TT, with the stripper guide ~29in from the reel face was moved this morning so I don't have the exact distance. I did a couple of test casts this morning and the rod casted fine with no line slap or chatter but on retrieve the line was only contacting the bottom third of the stripper guide. I am fairly new to building rods with this being my first surf rod. I wanted to check to see if this all sounds reasonable or if the line should be contacting more than just the bottom third of the stripper guide.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/2024 05:54PM by Jacob Muras.

You don't want the line making a full circle around the inside circumference of the butt guide. On the cast the guides should control the line and be reduced in coil size by the first couple or three guides. The only way to get the line to travel along the entire inside circumference is to use a unusually large guide and/or slide it a long ways out from the reel. This was the basis for the old Cone of Flight guide systems. They worked, but not nearly as well as newer guide systems do. The newer systems get the line under control sooner which translates into less windage and greater distance.

I do think you have to many different sizes on your rod. Try the info in this article and by all means let the line path dictate where the guides should be located and how they should be sized. [www.rodbuilding.org]

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Thanks for that information, the only reason that I questioned the stripper guide was based on a previous forum post, but I hadn't read that anywhere else before. Also thanks for the article, that is where I got my layout from yesterday.

Jacob,
It is interesting that you ask this question.

Over the years, I have built many many rods for various users and for fishing for various fish.

In times past, I had a client that was consistently fishing for large northerns and muskies with a spinning reel.

For his style fishing, he much preferred the use of a spinning reel and also the use of rather heavy baits.

He asked me to build up a test rod, where he could test various sized butt guides in both diameter as well as the height of the guide itself.

After testing a dozen configurations, he agreed with my tests that found - that for him - a butt guide that was sized in both diameter and in height and in placement so that on a cast, the line was controlled quickly, but also had an appropriate height to keep the line off the rod blank. i.e. no line slap.
Then, on retrive, on a taunt line, have the line just barely touch the entire circumfurence of the butt guide as the line was reeled in.

The experiments revealed that if the guide height was too tall, the line was consistently rubbing on the bottom of the guide during retreive. If the guide height was too short, or the guide size was too small - the line would rub on the top of the guide during periods of line retrive.

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Note:
This testing was concerning ONLY the butt guide with respect to spacing, height of the guide and diameter of the guide ring.

But over the years, I have stayed with this same design criteria - even though the transition and runninng guides changed a lot with the different thoughts about guide transition and running guide requirements.

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So, run your own tests and draw your own conclusions.

Best wishes.

Roger,

Thanks for your input in this topic! I still haven't determined the guide placement or size yet but am planning on during further tests to determine the best guide and placement. I will definitely keep your comment in mind when going about the testing.

Thanks again for the input.

The line path will tell you what sizes guides you need to use and where to locate them.

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Ditto on Mr. Kirkman's advice.