MickD

Great work, great reels. I caution those who send their reels to an unknown for tuning, don't do it. Stick with a person who comes with creds like Ian. I sent a Calcutta to a guy who butchered it, took about $75 to get it fixed. Lesson learned.

With the light lines most likely to be used here the guide setup should work fine no matter how it was set up.

Or paint one of your old ones. Piece of cake.

Keep in mind that they have to be "dried out" occasionally, microwave works.

The problem with changing the spacing is that it is (for me, at least) impossible to finish off the old guide positions and to have a decent looking rod, the whole rod will most likely have to be refinished. If the old positions are about right, keep them, even with different guides. If you do a simple spiral the 90 degree guide will be an added guide between #1 and #2, so will not introduce any finish problems. The simple spiral positions all guides the same as conventional exc that your second guide and all others to the tip will be at 180 degrees. An added guide, placed at 90 degrees, is positioned half way between #1 and #2, and its only function is to keep the line off the rod. It will have no torque on it, will be loaded directly toward the blank, so it's not under high stress. Make it the same diameter as your running guides. (all guides can be the same, small, size, exc #1 which needs be no bigger than a 6. Think Fuji reverse KR (single foot facing the reel).

For a great source try Siebert, sponsor on the right.

Question for DVT, the mid-rod guides, the 2-3 in front of the two or three transition guides, are in the mid-section of the rod. Isn't this where the loading on the guides will be max? That is the area that Fuji recommends the KB's for. I also notice when stress testing a conventional casting rod that if guides rotate during the testing, it is always the mid-rod guides that do so. thanks, Mick

Best way to see what the line is doing coming off the reel is to cast into a setting sun. If you are satisfied with what you have, just use it and be happy. If you're interesting in improving what you have, try some of these systems yourself. No need to theorize on what will happen. Just try them.

One way that helps tangles like you describe is to stop your cast before it hits the water, thus tending to straighten the line/lure as it hits. Not 100%, but it helps.

Why change to Shimano if you are pleased with Pfleugers?

If your spot isn't already marked, it will be difficult if not impossible to get back there. I built a rig out of an old bicycle wheel, cut the spokes and bend them to get hooks, mount on a pole like a swimming pool net pole, and drag it over the bottom. You will be wasting your time with an open stringer or dragging weighted trebles or similar tools.

I agree with others that grease is likely the problem. The reason is that in order for the clutch to work the rollers in the clutch-bearing have to move slightly to lock, and the grease is probably preventing that. Please report back re your success after cleaning the grease out.

I would not use a single foot guide for the stripper. The reason for the BKWAG, the "W," is for proper height. I'd stick with it to retain what Fuji recommends. Either of your proposals will work. If it's a heavy duty kink of rod, more belly guides, if light duty, fewer. It's not critical to anything but taking the stress in the high stress area. I forgot you are making a spiral. If you do a simple spiral with the second guide at 90 degrees it will be loaded directly into the rod, no side load. The belly guide will be ideal; you can even bend it toward the blank to lower it if you want. If you are doing other spiral systems, I'll let others comment on those. Simple spiral is easy, casts well, with no other issues like line stacking to one side of the reel. The spiral can go either right or left. Most choose the direction needed to keep the second guide up when the reel handles are up when the rod is laid on the boat deck.

Two different ways to tie the FG.

I love the look without all those gaudy unnecessary winding checks that are so popular now. These are much cleaner looking.

not as small as the FG knot. Easiest reliable knot is the double uni, best for strength and diameter is the FG.

go drop shot, will be more versatile for many other techniques. Bushidos are great blanks at a great price.

I have experienced some of the issues as others, and it is very finicky as to which knots work well. So I just went back to 10-15 Suffix and Power Pro braid and don't have to deal with the issues. I see issues with Nanofil, but no advantages.

I agree with all above (braid to 15, FC leader below.) But most of my dropshotting is in fairly open water and clear water, so I use 6 pound FC quite a bit. Good quality 6 pound FC shouldn't cause problems, and it's nice not having to dick around with a leader, although if you use a swivel, you have a leader joint anyway.

If you will be transporting the rod in a tube, pay attention to how high the guides are on spinning rods. Some of the new high spinning designs won't fit in normal tubes.

For rod wraps I don't recommend anything but products designed for rod wraps.

Any advantage that rod had in the day is less if not negative now that we have such light, small, guides. Also, I expect that the friction of the line in the blank, regardless of surface finish on the blank, would far exceed that of a good set of properly selected and spaced guides. If the idea really had merit, it would not have died. IMHO

Winn has wrap tape now. Very nice stuff.

Just thought of something, the slant on the ramp makes it difficult for me to do a good pull through without dragging the threads off the top. Did you have trouble? Any tip for me on how to handle it? thanks

Metallic thread can be hard to handle. What I do with the trim bands on the ends of the wrap with metallic thread is to use a nail knot, which works for 2 wraps or more. I tie the knot, fit it up to the wrap, pull it tight one last time, trim it, then stabilize it with CP. That won't work if you are using regular thread without cp as the cp on your nail knot will contaminate your full wrap with cp. In that case I use a 4 wrap nail knot just before epoxying (have all the wraps complete and ready for final finish, then do the nail knot as a last step on all the guides just before epoxying. If you didn't use cp on this build you must have used non-cp thread to get the nice green, right? If you want you can use regular thread without cp and you get a more transparent, quite different color than the original thread color. You can evaluate what color you will get by doing a test wrap on the blank and wetting it with alcohol. For example, on that blank you are using, a garnet without cp will turn a rich black cherry color, and with gold or silver metallic trim, looks quite nice. The sky is the limit with custom buidls? Another good forum is http://rodbuilding.org/list.php?2