Ok guys need some help with guide train on a 7'2" casting rod. I'm currently at 11 guides using 5.5 for runners. Does this sound like an excessive amount of guides? Thanks

How about a little more info? Line and lure weight ratings, How far from the line guide of the reel to the butt guide at present?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2018 09:33PM by Lynn Behler.

Probably 20 lb braid throwing to snook and reds. Currently butt guide is 23" from line guide

Jason,
If you are using micros, it is about the right number,
If you are using size 6 runners, you could reduce that to 8 or 9
If you were using size 10 runners you could likely reduce it to 6 or 7.

If you were doing a spiral wrap you could likely be using 7.

If you don't care about the line rubbing against the blank, or going under the blank - which some rods do, then 6 or 7 guides would be fine.

Good luck

Jason,
I don't think that is excessive. The last build for me was a 7' MHF NFC MB705 with the butt guide 19" from the reel guide and I had 10 guides not counting the tip. I used KW10, KW5.5M, and KB : KT runners of 5.0. I thought 10 was excessive also, but with the static load that's what it came out to. I probably could have dropped to 9 but the line would have rubbed. In the library is a good article for static load testing. I'll see if I can link you to it.The rod casts great with 10 guides and no issues so far. Hope this helps.

Thanks so much guys. Just don't want to mess up the performance by putting on to many guides. I'm trying top keep the line off the blank as much as possible. I am finding that near the tip of the rod some of my guides have ended up about equal distances apart to keep the line from connecting the blank. Should there be equal distance from line to blank between all the guides or will this vary some throughout?

With 5.5 mm guides, you are likely at a guide or two more than you need. I try to keep the relationship between the line and the blank the same between each pair of guides on a casting rod. However, it may vary just a bit down toward the reel.

With single foot fly guides of 3mm - 4mm, I let the line just touch the blank between each pair of guides during the static test. Making sure that the line never drops below the blank. With 5mm - 6mm guides, I'll try to keep the line a couple mm above the blank between each pair of guides. If the guides near the reel are larger or taller double foot guides, I may keep the line a little higher off the blank between the guides. It really depends on how the line path is looking.

With 5.5 mm guides, I would say that you are definitely 1 guide, possibly 2 guides on the side of too many.

When you do your static test start at the tip and work back. Don't start with a presupposed location for the guide closest to the reel. Let the guide closest to the reel land where it may. The line is already leaving a 4mm guide or so on your reel, so you aren't trying to gather and/or tame the line the same way you are with a spinning reel. You can do some test casting to determine if you need to shift it around later. When starting from the tip, I typically find that guides 2, 3, and 4 or so back from the tip end up with a little closer spacing than the last guide to the tip. Those guides fall in that 10" - 20" range where your guide is most likely to fail during high sticking, so a little closer spacing there is a good thing. Then as you go back toward the reel, the gap typically widens between each pair of guides.

If you don't like the slinky look of that guide, that is where adding in that extra guide and tweaking the layout a bit helps. You can space the guides equally with about the smallest gap that you found in that first 18" - 24" and then go to a progressive spacing after, or even tweak things a bit so that there is still some progressive spacing near the tip.

There you go Jason, great advice and It saved me a lot of very slow typing. Good luck with it.

Guy guys are awesome. Thanks a million!!!

So, here's where I'm at. I've pulled the 11th guide and now at 10. After some tweaking and moving around I've got guides spaced to where the line is only lightly touching the blank between running guides 3-7 or so. Question now is, do i add the 11th guide back in to get the line off the blank more or just go with it? Butt guide is 23" from level wind of reel and first guide from top is about 3" with the next 2 or 3 guides about the same distance apart. How am i doing?

Would a spiral guide configuration reduce the number of guides?

Phil,
Compare the number of guides on a rod blank that is wrapped with casting guides in a conventional fashion.

Then, take the same blank and wrap it with a spinning reel seat and spinning guides.

Now, take the number of spinning guides and add one additional guide and that is the likely number of guides that you will use on a spiral wrap.

If you are doing your conventional casting rod with micro guides, you will likelly be using about 3-5 fewer guides with a spiral wrap compared to a conventional casting rod set up with micro guides.

Take care