Greetings,

I've been building rods as a hobby for the last year and half. So far I've gotten guide spacing for my builds from the Rainshadow Recipes. I have a NFC ST-1305-2(IM) blank that I'm working on turning into a medium heavy centerpin rod for big steelhead and kings. I was hoping I could get a little assistance on determining guide spacing?

Thank you,

Matt Hehn

Matt,
A very easy and simple rule of thumb is to simply have a guide on the blank, any where it is needed so that when a blank is fully loaded - the line will follow the contour of the blank.

You need no more, nor no fewer than those guides required to keep the line in that alignment.

The size of the guides simply need to be of a size that does not slow the flow of the line during casting.

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You can use a dozen different systems, but at the end of the day - they all effectively emulate the two items listed above.

Good luck

We have to have someplace the start, what are you using for grips and reelseat? Can't set the first guide if we don't have a start point. Have you looked in the archives for center pin posts using the search function?

So far I have a 12 inch rear grip, 5 inch lone reel seat and 5 inch fore grip on the rod. I'll look into older post also.

Thank you,

Matt Hehn

Since your using a 12 inch rear grip, the guide spacing chart for the Rainshadow IST 156 2F should be a good start.