I know, I know...another one of these. But here goes anyways!

I am building on this rod [www.getbitoutdoors.com] with these guides [www.mudhole.com].

I have a 12 inch rear grip with about another inch or so for the gimbal. The reel is a Shimano Baitrunner 6000OC. When using the table top method or the 27x method, the choker goes out past the tip of the rod! So I adjusted the angle on the table top method. It's a bit sharper of an angle than lining up the spool's shaft. I ended up with a layout that puts the stripper at just under 22 inches from the lip of the spool and a roughly 27" reduction train starting with size 30 (still doing static test adjustments). Does this sound reasonable? I'm not looking for a specific number for stripper placement (because I know it depends) just whether or not you think I'm in the right ballpark. This is my first heavier spinning rod.

The use of this blank is primarily going to be letting live macks or sardines swim around with the bait runner feature of the reel, but I may tie a 3-4 oz surface iron and chunk it once in a while if the situation dictates. Target species is yellowtail amberjacks.

Make the tiptop your choker guide and work back from there.

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That's an interesting idea; never would have thought of that! I have your CD with collection of articles on guide placement and never saw that mentioned. I'll have to try this tonight. Good thing I bought one of every size!

Sounds roughly correct to me. Might move the stripper in a couple inches. Might shorten the reduction train a couple of inches.

Jim Ising Wrote:
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> Sounds roughly correct to me. Might move the
> stripper in a couple inches. Might shorten the
> reduction train a couple of inches.

In? I posted this topic because I was wondering if it was already too close.

Randy,
For 7 foot rods, I place the stripper at 20 inches from the reel and it has always worked out very well.

Good luck

This is a heavy, short, saltwater spinning rod.

You want to use the butt power in that rod for fish fighting so you don't want the butt guide out to far, although I suspect your butt guide is okay, although you might move it out an inch or two and retry. I think this is what Jim may have meant to say.


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OK. I'll look at a couple different layouts, including the one suggesting using the tip as the choker (which sounds like cone of flight to me!?!?).

No, Cone of Flight would require very large guides to frame the "cone" of line as it comes off the spool. You could do that, but you'd be looking at very large guides all the way down the rod.

If your reel is very large and the rod relatively short for that reel size, then the tiptop is as far out as you can put the choker, thus it becomes your choke guide. Moving it in just for looks or to try and force something into an area that will not accommodate it, may not give you the performance you're after. If every set up for your reel, line, etc., place the choke guide beyond the tiptop, then the best you can do is use the tiptop as the choke guide.

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Thanks Tom, I'll definitely look into this.

I'll record the layout I got now for reference in case it works better. This is the results of static testing (image link below). The guides near the tip are rather close together. From the tip, they are 4.5, 4, 4 and 4.75. I had them a bit further apart withe a previous layout; the fourth guide from the tip (in the photo) was the third. When static testing, the line bent pretty sharply with the guides about 5.5 inches apart. So used a larger guide about two inches further from the tip, and added another running guide. This layout follows the blank much better, but the guides seem a bit tight to me. Maybe that's just the nature of it being an extra fast rod?? I'm going to record these distances, and then see how the layout does with the tip top as the choker. I imagine, those last 17 inches will still need to be tight to get the line following the blank.

BTW, I used the two-line method. One tied to the tip top, and a one ounce sinker tied to the reel's line.

[c1.staticflickr.com]

Wow! Very educational for me. I have run across similar situations and tried to deal with it without this knowledge. Thanks Tom and Jim!!!!

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

Tom, if you're still following this, I tried using a layout close to what you suggested. Locating the choke guide at the tip top put the stripper at like 30 inches, so I brought the choke guide back in a bit (though not near as much as my first layout). It resulted in one fewer guide with the line decently following the blank on static test. Not quite as well as my first layout, but the guides were pretty close near the tip on that layout like I mentioned before. It did however, put my stripper at 23 1/2 inches from the lip of the reel seat.

Thoughts?

I like the layout, but the suggestions so far have been to keep the butt guide a bit closer to the reel seat.

Randy,
When I set up a rod as you are using, I put the stripper at 20 inches from the reel seat and then I start at the tip and bend down the tip. At the location, I place the first guide near the tip. Then, I continue bending, until the line would be too far off the rod without an additional guide and place a guide at that location. I just continue the process until I am back to the stripper.

I will admit that I really don't worry about a choke guide or other system.

Bottom line, at the end of the day, as the rod is loaded, I check the line to be sure that the line follows the flow of the loaded blank. If it does, the guide are in the right location and I wrap them at that location.


Typically these days, I will use one stripper - two transition guides and then runners to the tip with the tip the same size as the runners.

Good luck

Randy,
When I set up a rod as you are using, I put the stripper at 20 inches from the reel seat and then I start at the tip and bend down the tip. At the location, I place the first guide near the tip. Then, I continue bending, until the line would be too far off the rod without an additional guide and place a guide at that location. I just continue the process until I am back to the stripper.

I will admit that I really don't worry about a choke guide or other system.

Bottom line, at the end of the day, as the rod is loaded, I check the line to be sure that the line follows the flow of the loaded blank. If it does, the guide are in the right location and I wrap them at that location.


Typically these days, I will use one stripper - two transition guides and then runners to the tip with the tip the same size as the runners.

Good luck

I think you need to go cast the rod a bit and get a feel for what either layout gives you. Don't worry so much about what it looks like, worry more about how it feels and performs. Since the primary consideration on this rod seems to be fish fighting rather than all out casting distance, I wouldn't worry about trying to reduce the number of guides on the rod. If you have to err, do so on the side of one too many rather than one too few.

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