In Ron Arras' and Curt Garfields' book The Ultimate Guide to Surfcasting pg. 53 states. "Guides on spinning rods should be on the spine and conventional casting rods work best with the guides mounted directly oppisite the spine" This book has a lot to do with distance casting. Does this apply to all surf poles or only distance casting, or am I just not reading it correctly. If someone has an explanation please let me know.

This is a big debate. Basically it would come to a priority of fish fighting vs. casting. By placing the spine on the bottom of the rod (as relation to holding in hand) you are placing the spine in front on the forward cast. Some believe this method increases casting distance "having the backbone of the blank to recover quicker" during the forward portion of the cast. The supposed drawback to this is while fighting fish the spine will want to rotate to the top (just like when we try to locate it by hand), but if you have a guide on bottom setup, this does not hold true. Many have found that it is more the guides on top that want to rotate to the bottom, rather than poor spine choice causing it to rotate.
Placing the spine on top, is supposed to give better fish fighting capabilities, having "the backbone to lift the fish" is the argument. The supposed drawback is you lose recovery on the forward cast.
You may notice my verbage is very non-definative. I have not tried enough different setups to give you confident information on this. I just built a flyrod with guides on spine (this would be spine on bottom). I have always built them the opposite. I thought I would try this setup to see if a noticeable difference is achieved. Personally, I believe much more gains can be achieved by meticulous and accurate guide placement, test cast, test cast, test cast.......
My suggestion. Temp place the guides one way. test cast, then try them the other, test cast. See what you like and if you can notice a difference and go with it.

Remember that guide position determines rod stability. No spinning rod will ever rotate the guides to the top under fish fighting load, and all casting rods will at least want or try to twist if the guides are on top. You cannot position the spine in any manner that creates rod stability, you do that with the guide position.

Another misnomer is that by using the opposite of the spine you are utilizing the rod's stiffest axis for fish fighting. This is not actually the case as the softest and stiffest axis' are not exactly opposite each other, except in rare cases.

I would suggest doing exactly what Jon has mentioned - try it both ways and see which way you prefer (I have an idea which way it will be). That way you can get a better idea what the different placement options have to offer in each situation.

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