Good morning / good afternoon,
I am in the process of building a 4-piece surf rod on a Rod Geeks SRF100MMF4 blank. This is a medium power, moderate fast action 10' blank for 8-20lb line and 3/4-4oz lures.
This rod is going to built for a purpose which will reveal when it's done (need to keep this post interesting :d )
I'm building this as a spinning rod using Fuji guides. Currently still deciding on guide size. Right now I have a size 25 for the stripper guide, then 20-16-12-10. I'm still debating if I should go with a 30 for the stripper guide. Current stripper guide placement is a 26" from the lead edge of the red seat. This is due to where the joint between the 2nd and 3rd section are. The line lay from a slammer 560LL makes a slight bend on the stripper guide before going to the first reduction guide. I am open for suggestions here.
I plan to post the progress of this project as I go. Can't wait for the big reveal. Also I need to thank Thorhammer for helping with this project. He sourced the blank and donated it for the cause. :al
The decorative wrapping above the fore-grip will be a tiger stripe wrap. Base layer is all size D pro-wrap gold, blue, and yellow. The top wrap is still up for debate. I may do one section as blue and the other as yellow, or all one color blue or yellow. I will be using two sacrificial threads.
My irrelevant opinion is move the bottom guide further up, like closer to 36" from the seat, and I'm fond of the casting I'm seeing using a 30-20-10-8- reduction with sz 6 runners.
That opinion and $1.50 will get you a cup of coffee somewhere.
Jason,
Thank you for the input. Is that same reduction and stripper spacing for a 10' rod? The 30 already feels huge spaced at 26" but the line lay is right. I'm used to a huge stripper guide using Fuji BVSOGs in a cone of flight layout.
Luckily I have a bit of time to figure out the guides and spacing (bought more guides than I needed because I'm learning this happens every time).
Just put the first layer of epoxy over the base wraps. For those who have done tiger stripe wraps (I've only done one and I loved how it came out) would you do two epoxy coats on the base wraps even on a lighter rod? I'm using high build so I think it won't be necessary and I'll still get nice distortion.
Nick
I should add I plan on doing a sort of modified COF layout. A 10' blank is long enough to do a COF layout as if it was a 9' rod then add a runner or two. I've done this setup on another spinning rod and liked how it casts.
The coolest thing about taping your guides on is the ability to mess around and try different things. I have one rod I built that the guides are placed great for the angle between the spool and the rod as well as for static load but it is aesthetically troubling. It casts great... it will eventually be tore down and rewrapped to alleviate the frustrating appearance
One thinvg I have found out about all folks that get sand on their feet to cast and fish, is that they thrive on maximum distance attainable. Here in Namibia, all our surf anglers have a huge desire to fish in the coastal waters of Brazil!!
Cone of Flight system isn't wrong because it is dated, but there are more advanced schemes that provide a huge increase in distance performance such as NGC and KR Concept. Since we started playing around with both these concepts on our dedicated distance surf rods, we have adapted to challenge some of the essentials prescribed by Fuji, to the point that we have greatly extended the distance between the reel seat and the first guide, and found that with pretty much every step that we have taken, that distance increases, and only when we start to get seriously radical in that first dimension, do we start to suffer some fish fighting power loss. Admittedly, we are building and fishing with much longer rods, some 14' and 15'long, but we have found also that the same principles work and apply to shorter rods.
Before commenting on what we have achieved, a point worth noting is that we have noticed a huge drop in blank performance when using 2 leg guides over 1 leg guides, to the point now where out standard is to use a couple (2 or 3) 2 leg guides, then switch to 1 leg guides for the whole of the top of the rod. People comment that this is 'finding power', but in actuality it is just removing the damping effect of 2 leg guides.
On a 12' 2-3oz surf spinning rod that we developed, we went through typical CoF layout, then full KR guides with NCG, and finally we ended up with a full single leg guide KC Concept layout - the final variant was casting near 50% further than the original designs, and with absolutely zero incidence of line wraps during casting. We have since transferred that design with small changes to an 11' rod of similar design, and still the same results - big distance and trouble free casting and fighting of fish. The same extended first measurement has also been applied to a little ultra-light 5-20 gram rod, that is just 7'-8" long, and we are getting huge distances with that design as well.
For the 12' and 11' designs we are using KL20H, KL16H, KL10M, KT6x5 for use with braid, and have no problems what so ever. With a first dimension between reel seat and first guide of 58" - and while it looks unconventional, it casts like a dream - 140 metres (420 feet) with just a 3oz sinker. Even on the ultra-light rod, we start the guides at 30", using a spread of KL16H, KL10H, KL8M and KT5 x4.
This anomalous scheme that we have developed had given me a lot of concerns as and engineer, as it is so unconventional, but is best explained that first guides so close to the reel face have a huge amount of circular energy, and hence need big heavy guides to cope with all the energy, and this can at times lead to line/guide wraps as the guide cannot cope with the energy. By pushing the first guide dimensions out, more of the circular energy is dissipated, and the line flow can be accommodated by smaller guides without problems.
Just some of our experiences shared. Even our 15' long rods look seriously unconventional, with the first guide set at nearly 8' (96") from the reel seat, but attain distances of over 200 metres with 6oz sinkers.
make sure you wrap and apply finish to both male and female ferrules before you try whipping it
Quote from: Jeri on April 24, 2022, 08:06:20 AMOne thinvg I have found out about all folks that get sand on their feet to cast and fish, is that they thrive on maximum distance attainable. Here in Namibia, all our surf anglers have a huge desire to fish in the coastal waters of Brazil!!
Cone of Flight system isn't wrong because it is dated, but there are more advanced schemes that provide a huge increase in distance performance such as NGC and KR Concept. Since we started playing around with both these concepts on our dedicated distance surf rods, we have adapted to challenge some of the essentials prescribed by Fuji, to the point that we have greatly extended the distance between the reel seat and the first guide, and found that with pretty much every step that we have taken, that distance increases, and only when we start to get seriously radical in that first dimension, do we start to suffer some fish fighting power loss. Admittedly, we are building and fishing with much longer rods, some 14' and 15'long, but we have found also that the same principles work and apply to shorter rods.
Before commenting on what we have achieved, a point worth noting is that we have noticed a huge drop in blank performance when using 2 leg guides over 1 leg guides, to the point now where out standard is to use a couple (2 or 3) 2 leg guides, then switch to 1 leg guides for the whole of the top of the rod. People comment that this is 'finding power', but in actuality it is just removing the damping effect of 2 leg guides.
On a 12' 2-3oz surf spinning rod that we developed, we went through typical CoF layout, then full KR guides with NCG, and finally we ended up with a full single leg guide KC Concept layout - the final variant was casting near 50% further than the original designs, and with absolutely zero incidence of line wraps during casting. We have since transferred that design with small changes to an 11' rod of similar design, and still the same results - big distance and trouble free casting and fighting of fish. The same extended first measurement has also been applied to a little ultra-light 5-20 gram rod, that is just 7'-8" long, and we are getting huge distances with that design as well.
For the 12' and 11' designs we are using KL20H, KL16H, KL10M, KT6x5 for use with braid, and have no problems what so ever. With a first dimension between reel seat and first guide of 58" - and while it looks unconventional, it casts like a dream - 140 metres (420 feet) with just a 3oz sinker. Even on the ultra-light rod, we start the guides at 30", using a spread of KL16H, KL10H, KL8M and KT5 x4.
This anomalous scheme that we have developed had given me a lot of concerns as and engineer, as it is so unconventional, but is best explained that first guides so close to the reel face have a huge amount of circular energy, and hence need big heavy guides to cope with all the energy, and this can at times lead to line/guide wraps as the guide cannot cope with the energy. By pushing the first guide dimensions out, more of the circular energy is dissipated, and the line flow can be accommodated by smaller guides without problems.
Just some of our experiences shared. Even our 15' long rods look seriously unconventional, with the first guide set at nearly 8' (96") from the reel seat, but attain distances of over 200 metres with 6oz sinkers.
I always look forward to Jeri's rod building posts!
This makes so much sense. With no guides, the coils will be the largest shortly after leaving the spinning reel spool, diminishing in size toward the sinker. The farther from the spool for the first guides, the smaller the coils, the less energy is lost to coils impacting the first couple guide frames and rings. The tradeoff is that you will be less able to load the bottom end of the blank, but with a longer surf rod, the bottom end should be acting more as a lever, so the tradeoff favors a very aggressive placement of the first guide when casting distance is the primary goal.
But folk want their rods to look like they expect them to look, so it is always difficult to find the first couple pioneers in a new region.
-J
Quote from: jurelometer on April 24, 2022, 05:56:17 PMBut folk want their rods to look like they expect them to look, so it is always difficult to find the first couple pioneers in a new region.
And there is the rub, 'conventional or traditional rules'. This is very similar to the negative approach towards 'acid wrapped' rods - folks not prepared to accept a visual challenge to their view of what is acceptable, irrespective of the loss in performance.
We see a lot of anglers coming into the shop with conventionally built factory surf rods for braid and spinning reels complaining about lack of performance, and invariably the rod has been built with K guides, and the first is very close to the reel, my response to just cut off the first guide seems very abrupt to them, especially as in some cases they have spent the equivalent of US$600+ for the rod. For those that do brave this solution, they almost always find an instant 10% improvement, and I then offer another 15-20% improvement by replacing all the guides with a new scheme.
The old concept of big guides for spinning reels and nylon was disproved many years ago with the Omura Theory - 1960's, but still tradition prevails, and persists to those using braid. A fellow 'long spacing' surf angler in the UK, starts his first size 30 K guide at a full 96" from the reel seat, he hasn't yet built a new rod using the much smaller guides, but it is his next project.
I've discussed this conflict between visual aspects and performance with a number of very specialist blank manufacturers, and even in carp fishing there is this huge resistance to change, to the point the manufacturer built 4 rods, 2 conventional and 2 with long first spacing, and held an open day for casters to come and sample his latest blank design for carp fishing at distance - irrespective of the performance shown, he took 80% more orders that day for the conventional built rods, which over a wide range of casting skills averaged out as 20% down on distance.
Perhaps you can't give the market what it doesn't want?
Quote from: Jeri on April 25, 2022, 06:50:11 AMQuote from: jurelometer on April 24, 2022, 05:56:17 PMBut folk want their rods to look like they expect them to look, so it is always difficult to find the first couple pioneers in a new region.
And there is the rub, 'conventional or traditional rules'. This is very similar to the negative approach towards 'acid wrapped' rods - folks not prepared to accept a visual challenge to their view of what is acceptable, irrespective of the loss in performance.
We see a lot of anglers coming into the shop with conventionally built factory surf rods for braid and spinning reels complaining about lack of performance, and invariably the rod has been built with K guides, and the first is very close to the reel, my response to just cut off the first guide seems very abrupt to them, especially as in some cases they have spent the equivalent of US$600+ for the rod. For those that do brave this solution, they almost always find an instant 10% improvement, and I then offer another 15-20% improvement by replacing all the guides with a new scheme.
The old concept of big guides for spinning reels and nylon was disproved many years ago with the Omura Theory - 1960's, but still tradition prevails, and persists to those using braid. A fellow 'long spacing' surf angler in the UK, starts his first size 30 K guide at a full 96" from the reel seat, he hasn't yet built a new rod using the much smaller guides, but it is his next project.
I've discussed this conflict between visual aspects and performance with a number of very specialist blank manufacturers, and even in carp fishing there is this huge resistance to change, to the point the manufacturer built 4 rods, 2 conventional and 2 with long first spacing, and held an open day for casters to come and sample his latest blank design for carp fishing at distance - irrespective of the performance shown, he took 80% more orders that day for the conventional built rods, which over a wide range of casting skills averaged out as 20% down on distance.
Perhaps you can't give the market what it doesn't want?
Perhaps you can't give the market what it doesn't want?Agree, you cant! Advertising, marketing and business preferences tell consumers how it should be. I sometimes use a shortish acid wrap rod that works perfectly and others laugh and ask "
what I had been smoking"Just something else, Years back one of my friends held the view that 5 guides on a rod was all you needed as it cast far superior and was lighter. This also resulted in the first guide having to be a long way from the reel seat.
With a conventional setup, reel at the back and on top, if it's a strong fast action rod that hardly bends in the rear all's fine, until you have a large fish on the end of your line. The line ends up over your hand and under the rod!
I now use softer and more parabolic rods that are more Medium/Fast action. For the same reason this becomes a far bigger problem because it flexes too much. I need to place the first guide closer to the reel and use a very high guide as well to avoid the line cutting my wrist :-\
So there are other considerations, we don't all use spinning reels.
This is a fun one. I too look forward to Jeri commenting, i tend to learn stuff.
The reason I said 36" was because it's probably a good idea to distribute the load a bit across the blank, while still maximizing the distance between seat and first guide. So for a 4 piece rod I'd likely skip the 2nd lowest section entirely and start my guides at the bottom of the 3rd section. Also more than anything, test your placement! Throw some casts and see if you can see the line ever slapping the blank, and adjust placement til that reduces to zero. That's where you'll lose more momentum than anything to do with guide size or material. I've been known to shortcut the process by attaching the end of the line to an empty spool that prior braid had been purchased on, attaching that to a high rpm drill, and stripping off line as fast as possible while watching the line flow through the blanks, and using slow mo mode on my phone to assist. If the line doesnt touch the blank doing that, it definitely won't touch on a cast. So far so good.
On rods that have more of a C than a J curve I tend to do a double foot guide as the bottom guide. I'm trying to explain what I see as undue stress on the guide and the blank, but i lack the wording to express myself. So I drew a pic instead.
The stripper guide should be about half of the diameter of the width of the spool you are using. Jeri is spot on with everything. I have been building using the NGC method and when you figure it out, it is a great a guideline. If you move things up and down a little, you can really maximize distance. This guide I've attached explains a lot. I've built on a couple of RodGeek blanks now, I think they are fantastic and this one is on my list! The perfect surf rod that I can stow in my Outback and always be ready!
Quote from: Breadfan on April 25, 2022, 01:54:21 PMThe stripper guide should be about half of the diameter of the width of the spool you are using. Jeri is spot on with everything. I have been building using the NGC method and when you figure it out, it is a great a guideline. If you move things up and down a little, you can really maximize distance. This guide I've attached explains a lot.
Stripper guide sizing is not my personal criteria, the smallest I can get away with before actual choking happens in the cast is what I'm working on. The likes of my personal 14' surf rod with a Cabo 60 reel (65mm diameter spool), has the first guide as a 16MLCSG - the height is more important to get the coils away from the blank during the cast.
I personally have a dislike for 'rules', as they are never precise enough to be fool proof. Rather I check by field casting a test rod with guides taped to the blank, then modify until satisfied. Lines touching blanks? Easy, dust with chalk dust and see where it might be happening, or not - you soon see - very low tech and effective.
With the 16M, set at 76" in front of the reel seat, I get no line slap on the blank, and a reverse coil of line coming back from the guide towards the handle, that at a guestimate is bout 16-20mm diameter - true harmonic line flow. Get a similar effect with LC20 as the stripper guide, but set at 70", though better distance with the smaller guide further up the rod.
Ultimately, all guide spacings should be working to the line exiting the blank in a straight line, on rods for spinning reels. This small fact is often overlooked and you can see coils flying beyond the tip. Hence, on a much earlier thread, I muted that the guides nearest the tip are usually my first consideration.
Quote from: Cor on April 25, 2022, 09:41:39 AMAgree, you cant! Advertising, marketing and business preferences tell consumers how it should be. I sometimes use a shortish acid wrap rod that works perfectly and others laugh and ask "what I had been smoking"
Couldn't agree more, wrote a long detailed article in one of the leading SA angling mags about a surf casting design with acid wrap, and the only feedback I got, was that folks assumed it was an 'April Fool'. As a concept for surf casting with nylon and multipliers, it was superb, and near essential for rods handling large fish or sharks. We built a few for clients, and they now treasure them, as they work so well, but people still comment about the drunken rod builder............. ;D
Quote from: Jeri on April 25, 2022, 02:16:58 PMQuote from: Breadfan on April 25, 2022, 01:54:21 PMThe stripper guide should be about half of the diameter of the width of the spool you are using. Jeri is spot on with everything. I have been building using the NGC method and when you figure it out, it is a great a guideline. If you move things up and down a little, you can really maximize distance. This guide I've attached explains a lot.
Stripper guide sizing is not my personal criteria, the smallest I can get away with before actual choking happens in the cast is what I'm working on. The likes of my personal 14' surf rod with a Cabo 60 reel (65mm diameter spool), has the first guide as a 16MLCSG - the height is more important to get the coils away from the blank during the cast.
I personally have a dislike for 'rules', as they are never precise enough to be fool proof. Rather I check by field casting a test rod with guides taped to the blank, then modify until satisfied. Lines touching blanks? Easy, dust with chalk dust and see where it might be happening, or not - you soon see - very low tech and effective.
With the 16M, set at 76" in front of the reel seat, I get no line slap on the blank, and a reverse coil of line coming back from the guide towards the handle, that at a guestimate is bout 16-20mm diameter - true harmonic line flow. Get a similar effect with LC20 as the stripper guide, but set at 70", though better distance with the smaller guide further up the rod.
Ultimately, all guide spacings should be working to the line exiting the blank in a straight line, on rods for spinning reels. This small fact is often overlooked and you can see coils flying beyond the tip. Hence, on a much earlier thread, I muted that the guides nearest the tip are usually my first consideration.
The NGC is a good way to get me started on the rod at hand, making changes along the way, test casting until it was right where I wanted it.
I just thought of one more thing: we did a few threads awhile back on the "reel seat down" style (reel much closer to the butt than the the traditional style). Another benefit that perhaps I didn't appreciate enough at the time is that this effectively increases the distance from the reel to the first guide. You get another foot at least from the reel to the first guide for the coils to reduce in diameter on their own.
Regarding line slapping the blank during the cast: While this is not beneficial, I think that the from a physics perspective, the greatest guide related energy loss by far is the line coils whacking across the first couple guide frames and rings (force = mass * deceleration). The line skipping off the blank does not cause much deceleration, although it might contribute to the next guide getting whacked.
In order of priority for potential energy loss from the line moving through the guides, coil collision with the guides should come first, line slap on the blank next, and friction on the guide surfaces (compressive force * coefficient of friction- a very small number) such a far distant third that it probably is inconsequential with any ceramic insert. The guide leg shape and overall geometry is probably what makes one modern guide substantially better than another.
To find the best configuration, actual field trials are needed, and this is why Jeri's findings are so valuable. A theory is not enough. Too many things happening at once. It takes trials using the same setups with different guides and placements to find out for sure.
Regarding rod loading, the shorter and/or bendier the blank, the more the lower end of the blank is going to be involved in the cast. And there is also the fish fighting aspect. So for non-surf rods, it still seems logical to me that the best choice may not be to tilt the guide optimization too far toward coil reduction. But you never know for sure until you try...
With fly rods, you need a blank/guide layout that really loads the butt in order to cast for distance, especially with a fast sinking line - the blank is just too scrawny to store much energy near the tip. And for less skilled casters, the easier the butt loads, the less precision it takes to form loops without shock waves. So butt end loading has a big impact on casting performance. Decreasing the ring diameter on the bottom two guides is beneficial, but customer resistance has been an issue. We were previously programmed to believe that large rings were better for shooting line with less friction ::)
-J
I think a point worth making here is that a lot of the guides that we have used for our various surf casting rods (for spinning reels), and deliberate spinning rods have all been of the newer LK - H,M or L variety. more specifically wrt the stripper guide, the frames on a Kl-H are much higher for any given size than some of the more traditional original big ring guides. And it is this very height which has its foundations in the original Omura thinking that allows for much smaller ring size guides to be effectively used.
Omura postulated that a much smaller guide ring, set in a tall frame could be more effective than exceptionally large ring size guides. And, during his trials he found that increasing the distance up the blank only benefitted the better flow of line than more conventional at that time; bearing in mind the relatively low tech nylons they were using and reels back in the 1960's.
Reel up or reel down siting only aids the spread of guides, it isn't a criteria. having built a lot of rods for surf casting and lighter casting situations with the reel up (more conventional), has not deterred placing the first (stripper) guide an appreciable distance from the reel seat, and still getting significantly improved casting distances.
As mentioned earlier, an ultra-light 5-20 gram rod we built on a 2 piece 7'-8" blank, has the reel seat in the conventional spinning position, but the stripper guide is well on the upper section some 30" from the reel seat, and the rod being designed for much lighter and smaller reels like a 30 size, casts a proverbial mile with a 1/2oz sinker. Stripper guide is a KL16H, very small, and does not suffer any line slap, ring crash with coils or any other negative traits, other than looks slightly at odds with convention.
This has been a great post with a wealth of experience and ideas. I'm definitely using this information and adjusting my guide placement.
Thank you everyone and my next post will have pictures and measurements for guide placements
Nick
Quote from: Jeri on April 26, 2022, 12:00:04 AMReel up or reel down siting only aids the spread of guides, it isn't a criteria. having built a lot of rods for surf casting and lighter casting situations with the reel up (more conventional), has not deterred placing the first (stripper) guide an appreciable distance from the reel seat, and still getting significantly improved casting distances.
So if I understand correctly, what you are claiming is that there is a specific optimal minimum offset from the spinning reel to the first guide (for a given reel and first guide ring size/geometry), and that shifting this combination up or down the blank a fairly significant distance does not significantly effect casting distance as long as the offset does not change much.
The obvious assumption to make based on this claim is that a major controlling factor on spinning rod casting distance is how well you are allowing the coil size naturally reduce before reaching the first guide.
Seems kind of logical.
-J
Quote from: jurelometer on April 27, 2022, 05:40:53 AMSo if I understand correctly, what you are claiming is that there is a specific optimal minimum offset from the spinning reel to the first guide (for a given reel and first guide ring size/geometry), and that shifting this combination up or down the blank a fairly significant distance does not significantly effect casting distance as long as the offset does not change much.
The obvious assumption to make based on this claim is that a major controlling factor on spinning rod casting distance is how well you are allowing the coil size naturally reduce before reaching the first guide.
Seems kind of logical.
-J
Logic or common sense are exceedingly rare commodities, and occasionally need highlighting. The coils coming off a spinning reel at speed, need time to dissipate some of the circular energy - before being pushed/guided/eased through a smaller opening.
Consider the converse, 60mm diameter spool, then a 20mm diameter guide just 6" away - then cast!!!!
Just put the top wrap on the tiger stripe. Haven't applied epoxy yet but I like how it turned out. I'm still learning how to intentionally get different distortion patterns.
Quote from: ReelFishingProblems on April 27, 2022, 07:00:35 PMJust put the top wrap on the tiger stripe. Haven't applied epoxy yet but I like how it turned out. I'm still learning how to intentionally get different distortion patterns.
Doc Ski is on face book and u tubes . Has done tons of experiments of min ululations strings patterns and some talk of using 60 pound mono on top to get 3 D effects . Worth look into .....
I will definitely look into Doc Ski. The only thing I don't like about doing tiger stripe wraps is the top layer makes me feel like I'm losing my vision trying to keep track of line order, make sure there are no skips, and even the spacing.
Quote from: ReelFishingProblems on April 28, 2022, 03:37:07 AMI will definitely look into Doc Ski. The only thing I don't like about doing tiger stripe wraps is the top layer makes me feel like I'm losing my vision trying to keep track of line order, make sure there are no skips, and even the spacing.
Double vision! That would surely mess with my head if I attempted that! Can't wait to see it with the epoxy!
My vision is better than 20/20 and I have that issue with tiger wraps. It's like my eyes start crossing.
Looking good though. Those are some unconventional color choices, and I look forward to seeing the finished product.
Quote from: jurelometer on April 25, 2022, 07:37:03 PMWith fly rods.. We were previously programmed to believe that large rings were better for shooting line with less friction ::)
-J
my 8wt graphite Sage has big rings all the way up, shoots pretty well.
Then I rebuilt a 5wt splitcane rod, and reused the agate stripping guide which has an inner diameter of about 4mm. I figured it looked good and the rod would be used for stream fishing where most casts are short anyway. Imagine my surprise to find it shot line as well as any of my big-ring graphite rods..
I don't know how to add videos now with the site update. I think I'll have to use my computer instead of my phone and save the videos as a specific file type.
I put down the epoxy on the over-wraps. There isn't as much distortion as I'd like, and there really is only one or two "islands." I used all ProWrap on the bottom, and I used VoodooRods thread as the sacrificial threads on the top. Overall I still like it, but it's more uniform than I would have liked.
My opinion is,-this is why most surf casters and fishermen use conventional reels,
Making more progress. I wrapped the ferrules in black thread to keep them less visible. Once the epoxy dries I will start testing the guide placement. Thank you everyone for the guide placement discussion. This thread is now a treasure for me.
Just a sneak peek on the decorative wrap and a clue on the recipient.
check your texts
How about this? Simple but still shows the tiger stripe underneath.
bang.
Okay,
Update, still going with double foot guides for a more utilitarian design. Since it's a gift and I don't know if this will get banged up on the rocks or not, I figured it would be sturdier.
This isn't going to win any distance contests, but I did move the stripper guide much further up the blank than I'm used to. I did a few test casts and it casts good.
I started to wrap the guides, here is the stripper guide
Just finished the rod (ran out of yellow thread and it takes a while for it to get where I'm at) epoxy will go on this weekend and I will hopefully be able to surprise who this is going to by early next week.
Quote from: BreadfanThe NGC is a good way to get me started on the rod at hand, making changes along the way, test casting until it was right where I wanted it.
For some of us who only make a few rods occasionally this is the only and best way.
I usually start off by taping everything together, go test cast, load the rod to see the bend, adjust guides, reel seat even lengthen or shorten the blank somewhat then go fish with it and sometimes over time still make changes.
Its time consuming but fun and rewarding when you get it right.
Photo of the last Rod I built, started all taped up, ended looking reasonable but I am still not happy with it.
Note the High guide nearest the butt, this is because of the bend in the but section.
Also something I have never seen elsewhere, note the hole in the pistol grip ;D is a hook keeper for the lure.
Nick- I missed this, in my covid fog I guess. Looks great!!