I am going to have a buddy of mine who does a fair amount of rod building replace the eyes on 3 of my favorite rods. Since they are my most used rods and he’s going to take the time to replace then I want to go with something decent. What type/brand would you suggest I have him use. I don’t want to go with the highest end ones but also don’t want cheap ones.
LZR guides from Mudhole
Alps Y Guides. They are sweet. I really like them.
If you want traditional stand-off guides, American Tackle Aframe
https://www.americantackle.us/product-page/titanium-nanolite-a-frame
I am going to have a buddy of mine who does a fair amount of rod building replace the eyes on 3 of my favorite rods. Since they are my most used rods and he’s going to take the time to replace then I want to go with something decent. What type/brand would you suggest I have him use. I don’t want to go with the highest end ones but also don’t want cheap ones.
What is on the rod now for a guide? What is the reason to replace? bent? broken ring? worn out ring? wrong color? too large? too small?
Identify the problem and have your friend choose a guide which will correct that particular issue.
I’m a big fan of micro guides. They cut down a bunch of tip weight and make the rod much lower profile for storage. As time allows I will be swapping most of my regularly used bait casters over to micro guides, possibly do some of the spinning rods as well. The Artus RingLock Micro are what I use and really like them.
What is on the rod now for a guide? What is the reason to replace? bent? broken ring? worn out ring? wrong color? too large? too small?
Identify the problem and have your friend choose a guide which will correct that particular issue.
I agree with Huntindave. You need to identify the problem first before you can pick a guide. And if there is not a problem with your current guides, why are you replacing them?
For open water spinning rods I normally use Fuji or American Tackle and for casting I normally use Fuji, American Tackle, or Sea Guide. In this case I would not recommend the MicroWave guides since they most likely wont match up to the same locations as your old guides. (Changing the location will change the feel of the rod.)
The reason I’m replacing the eyes is simply because due to the age and use there are various issues. Loose inserts, cracked inserts, cracking epoxy. I just wanted to replace/update to all new eyes since I have a buddy willing to do it for me at little cost other than the cost of the new Eyes. The rods are:
G-loomis – probably 20-25 years old
St Croix tourney – Probably also around 20 years old.
A custom made Batson rod blank – probably 10-12 years old
I’m a big fan of micro guides. They cut down a bunch of tip weight and make the rod much lower profile for storage. As time allows I will be swapping most of my regularly used bait casters over to micro guides, possibly do some of the spinning rods as well. The Artus RingLock Micro are what I use and really like them.
One of the rods is one I had custom built for dropshotting. I had it built with wrapped eyes. I believe it has 8 eyes + the tip. The first 4 eyes are to complete the wrap from top to bottom of the blank. Has anyone built a rod with micro guides in the wrapped style? Most of the micro guide rods that I’ve seen tend to have extra eyes added. If I were to use Micro guides can I use the same # and spacing, or would I need to add more eyes and change the spacing.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>munchy wrote:</div>
I’m a big fan of micro guides. They cut down a bunch of tip weight and make the rod much lower profile for storage. As time allows I will be swapping most of my regularly used bait casters over to micro guides, possibly do some of the spinning rods as well. The Artus RingLock Micro are what I use and really like them.One of the rods is one I had custom built for dropshotting. I had it built with wrapped eyes. I believe it has 8 eyes + the tip. The first 4 eyes are to complete the wrap from top to bottom of the blank. Has anyone built a rod with micro guides in the wrapped style? Most of the micro guide rods that I’ve seen tend to have extra eyes added. If I were to use Micro guides can I use the same # and spacing, or would I need to add more eyes and change the spacing.
Mine are wrapped as well. If I remember correctly I use the first guide at 0deg, then a 90deg bumper then 180 degree the rest of the way. Will have to look again when I get home tonight and try to post some pictures. It works great and didn’t notice any difference in action. Factory guide placement was used with it just spun on the blank.
If you’re not wrapping the guides I agree, micro guides will need to be spaced differently.
Alps Y Guides. They are sweet. I really like them.
I think I’m going to go with the Y guide titanium in the chrome /blue for the St. Croix rod. I really like the look of those.
I’m leaning towards the alps casting titanium guides for the G-loomis and either the alps fly guides or the alps mini guides for the batson with the wrapped guides. For some reason I like the look and design of the alps guides. my budy says he orders almost weekly from a place called Getbit outdoors – They have all the guides I’m interested in.
Mine are wrapped as well. If I remember correctly I use the first guide at 0deg, then a 90deg bumper then 180 degree the rest of the way. Will have to look again when I get home tonight and try to post some pictures. It works great and didn’t notice any difference in action. Factory guide placement was used with it just spun on the blank.
If you’re not wrapping the guides I agree, micro guides will need to be spaced differently.
Here is one. It’s a standard size first guide, then the 90deg bumper and first 180deg guide are size 4 micro and the rest are size 3 micro. The whole setup works awesome!
20210331_171029-scaled.jpg
Munchy – how many eyes did it take to complete the wrap. How many total eyes are there? Do you fish with the rod in your left hand? Your wrap is the opposite of mine.
9 guides plus the tip. And it’s just the standard bumper style wrap. So 1 guide at 0deg, 1 at 90deg, and the rest at 180. This is a 7’6″ heavy jigging rod.
I’ve found the Acid/Helix type wrap isn’t needed.
Yes I mainly hold the rod with my left and reel with the right. I put the bumper guide on the right side because the reel handle is also in that side. Figured that would allow the rod to set flat on the boat deck keeping the bumper guide from touching the deck and preventing a pressure point on the blank.
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