Hi Everyone,
I am going to start building a sturgeon rod for ice fishing. I have all the components 7' heavy action rod (cutting down to 50"), my grip is extra long (about 16") to fit under my arm for more leverage and my guides. For my guides I went with smaller sizes (16, 10, 8, 7, 6, 6) as I will be fishing out of hub shelter and not worrying about them freezing up. My question is for my tip top I am thinking about wrapping my guide on since I cant find a tip top to fit the rod with a small enough ring. The only ones I can find are Ring 12/ Tube 14. But with wrapping my guide there will be a hole at the end of the blank because it is a hollow fiberglass rod. What are my options for plugging that hole? Also any info or help with guide spacing for this rod would be great I know I probably wont need or use all 6 guides just have them just in case.
Thank You,
Brandon

You can plug it with paste epoxy or a silicone caulk.

Brandon,
Do yourself a favor.
You are talking about an ice fishing rod, so weight is not an issue and casting line is not an issue.
So, rather than using the guide train t hat you mentioned, just use a size 16 and then run size 12 to the tips and put on a size 12 tip top.

The rod will fish just fine and the guide size is really not important on such a heavy rod. Just simplify your life and enjoy. You will also never have to worry about icing if you do fish out of doors.

I have built many many ice fishing rods. For all of the rods that are going to be used outside, I go down to size 10 and then run size 10 to the tip with a size 10 tip top.

But, the size 12 guides will be just fine on this build for your use.

Since you are talking about sturgeon fishing, I assume that you will be building the rod as a casting rod with a casting reel seat won't you? I would be thinking that you would be running 30 - 80 lb test line on the rod if you are fishing for the big fish.

By the way - since the rod is only 50 inches long and you are going to have a long butt cap, I would NOT wrap the rod as a spiral rod if you wrap the rod as a casting rod.


Take care

Trying to get my head around this, your going to remove about 40% of a rod from either the tip, butt, or a combo there of, what do you expect to have left over that will be what you need? Have you done the testing of the blank, without removing the rod parts first to get an idea? 40% off the butt wouldn't give you a heavy action blank any longer and it may have durability problems. Wouldn't it be prudent to look into say a tuna short that is already close to that length and build straight off the blank?
Not trying to ruffle feathers, just trying to understand what you would have after all the cutting. Something I never thought over doing before, when I was stationed in Michigan saw lots of ice rods built off 2 piece rod tip sections, some worked, some not so much.

Spencer, i think some feathers need to be ruffled because you got inexperienced builders getting these ideas from so called "experienced" builders..three things scare me, atomic bombs, torching finish to get the bubbles out and cutting blanks, and maybe not in that order..i saw a friend take his favorite 9' bass bug rod and cut an inch off the tip and two inches(who just cuts off two inches?) off the butt for reasons i just don,t feel like getting into..he fished the rod and it felt different and it took more effort to get the distance he used to get..i said you took three inches off the tip, you have less leverage..he said he only took one inch off the tip..i said no because your foregrip is now two inches closer to the rod tip for a total of three inches less of casting leverage..so you actually shortened the rod tip by cutting off some of the butt and the rod feels different because it doesn,t have the same taper and taper is what gives a rod most of it,s feel..he ended up building a new rod..so maybe giving bad advise is good for rod building industry. LOL.

Phil Erickson Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You can plug it with paste epoxy or a silicone
> caulk.


Silicone caulk? Wouldn't that be just asking for trouble? Why not just pack some rod-bond in there?

How is an ice fishing rod for sturgeon used? Do you jig it or does it just connect the reel to bait on the bottom? Form follows function.

Phil,
Reel with line on it. Line through guides and tip and the line goes to bait on the bottom. No casting and normally no jigging. The bait normally just sits on the bottom. Wait until the fish picks up the bait and you just reel in the fish.

That is way, if you wish, you could use a broom stick for this rod with little difference in function.

Good luck