To all you hard water fisherman and rod builders. What would you recomend as far as guide sizing for , say, a 40" medium rod or an ultralight 40"
Just curious. Richard G. I will ask you the same when I speak to you on the phone.
Thanks in advance,
Mark Schulte

The biggest problem with ice rods is freeze up so use the largest you can get away with, without overloading the blank and robbing it of sensitivity. For the med. I would start with a sz 25 and work your way down, drop one size for each guide, depending on the blank i can<t say how many guides you will need. On the ultra light I would start with sz 16 and work your way down. I hope this helps.

Mark,
I guess you forgot to ask about the guide sizing when you phoned, and thanks for the blank order by the way.

Two ways of looking at this. One is the perspective of dealing with freeze ups and using eversized rings. Most situtions with ice fishermen is they are in heated huts and don't really have that much issue with the tips or guides getting iced up.

The other is for those who go trecking out with snowmachines to they favorite out of the way ice hole and being in exposed conditions. Again, with portagle clams (ice shelters) the build up of ice in the rings is less an issue.

For light or even ultralights, I also like using the largest ring size you can get away with even up to size 20, but you'll also interfere with sensitivity if the guides are too bulky or too heavy. Also, as mentioned you can just size down to the tip as we aren't dealing with a rod for casting performance (no need to think of concept guide spacing here). I also like using quality ceramic hard ring guides to keep smooth line flow (the tigold are very nice for this purpose for your 'special' ice rods).

If freezup is an issue, suggest getting oversized top sizes if anything else. That is where most of the problem begins and ends, and not so much further down with the other guides. Better yet, just turn up the heat in your ice hut and get more comfort for a longer fishing day! makes sense to me.

Rich
Richard's Rod & Reel