Fishing Rod Guide Placement

[Steve]

Hiyas,
Now that this new website is finally up and running I'll soon be fixing up a mates favorite old 10' blackfish rod (I've had it on the 2 do list for months).
It has been some time since I've built or even rebuilt a rod and I thought I might see if I can rattle someone's brains as to how the guides are best placed.
The way I used to do it was only 1 of a few ways that I had heard of.
I used to work it out by securing the rod against a wall by the winch (normally with someone's foot), with the backbone facing the correct way.
Hold a piece of cardboard or paper over the winch with the end touching the wall and mark the center of the winch diameter on the sophisticated measuring tool (cardboard).
From that mark I'd add more marks (1 for each guide) evenly spaced at 1"-2", depending on how fast the rod action is.
Hold the new measuring tool near the tip at 90degrees to the wall and tie some line to the tip of the rod and pull the line down till the tip reaches the mark for the last or tip guide.
Holding the rod in that position slide the measuring tool along the wall keeping it at 90degrees and mark the rod each time the appropriate marks line up with the center of the rods diameter.
I'd than check to see the guide marks actually looked ok and if not I'd repeat with the marks on the tool a little closer or further away.

I have heard of other ways but this way seems to make sense to me because the action of a rod varies from 1 to the next.
If anyone would like to share their ideas I'd be very interested to hear them.

I may even snap a few shots and post it in the articles when I'm done.

Thanks
Steve
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Fishy Fishing Administrator
http://www.fishyfishing.com

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and feed him for life.

[Cutter]

Hi Steve,

It may have been a while since you built a rod but it sounds as if you have maintained your skill and attention to detail. The method you have described is, in my opinion, the most accurate way of determining an individual rods behavior under load. As you said, every rod blank has it's own characteristics. When you take two of the exact same rod blank and apply this method you can end up with very different guides spacing. The down side to this method is that most people will need to see pictures of it to understand it, and it is rather time consuming. Many people have come up with ways to simplify this process and still produce a superior rod.

There are two parts to guides spacing. The first is determining the initial guide spacing. The second is verifying that spacing. There are some short cuts to the first part but I have found no short cuts for the second part.

Almost all the rod manufactures provide guide spacing charts for their rods. (Some even require that use these charts to the letter in order to maintain the warranty. I recommend you check with your manufacturer before fiddling with their spacing.) For the most part this is not the case. The spacing charts are a good place to start, but must be adjusted to optimize the performance of the rod. Needless to say, using their predetermined spacing charts can save you a great deal of time with the first part of guide spacing.

If no guide spacing chart is available there are a couple of automated methods for locating the initial guides spacing. Here is a link to one on line http://www.uwm.edu/~stetzer/guideN.html.

I generally start with the recommended guides spacing and adjust from there. I spine the blank and temporarily secure the guides to the blank with tape. With the first part done it is time to verify the spacing. I secure the rod, (I have a standard boat rod holder mounted to the end of my work bench) run a line through the guides, and load it. With the rod under load I examine the curve of the blank. It should be smooth and consistent. If the rod appears to have a kink in it, I need to tighten up the guides spacing a little. Once I have the curve looking good I take the rod outside and cast it. This is important with all rods but it is paramount with fly rods. An unseen variation in the graphite can cause the rod to react erratically. It may be necessary to shift the guides off the spine to increase the rods performance.

The method you describe Steve is more labor intensive for the first part. The second part, however, is much easier and is more or less just a cursory verification because you have already placed the guides according to the rods unique characteristics.

Wow!! Long post. I hope this helps.
_________________
Tight Lines

Denis Cutter
www.cutters-ak.com

[Steve]

Hey that was great Cutter,
Thanks for your help with this mate.
You also reminded me of another way I had heard of when you mentioned about verifying the guide placement.
The other way was to place the guides on the rod (opposite side of the back bone on rods used for spinning reels etc) fix the guides with tap or small rubber bands, load the rod with line through all the guides and attached to the winch/reel also, load the rod and space the guides so the line is at an even distance from the blank between each of the guides. Loading the rod so the line is almost touching the blank.
Something like that any how.

I may just see how I go doing this as an article, with a few pictures included
Looks like I have another job to do first though, something to do with classifieds.

Thanks again mate
Steve
_________________
Fishy Fishing Administrator
http://www.fishyfishing.com

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and feed him for life.