# What size guides?



## buzzed bait (Mar 12, 2014)

Im wrapping a 7ft rod and I want to put wire guides on it. What size guides should I buy?


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## cajun creationz (Aug 17, 2012)

id start at 50 for a 7fter


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## buzzed bait (Mar 12, 2014)

thanks. so if I have 5 guides what should each of them be?


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## nb&twil (Oct 2, 2007)

What reel do you plan to use?


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## timeflies (Oct 3, 2007)

um, what kind of rod? What are you going to be using it for? I am assuming its a spinning rod but other than length you haven;t given us much to work with. Certainly not enough to give you an exact size for a guide. 

Do you have the reel seat on yet? Put a tip top on, and mount your reel to the blank. Tape the guides roughly about where you want them, and thread the line through. Now tie off to a doorknob or something and bow it up. Reel a few turns and watch the line inside the guides. Adjust the guides up and down the blank or adjust the guide sizes until you get rid of "flat spots". You want the line to just barely trace the ring all the way around.


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## cajun creationz (Aug 17, 2012)

agreed...some more details on the setup you are using and how you plan on fishing the setup..im personally steering away from wire guides


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## buzzed bait (Mar 12, 2014)

Im wrapping a king rod and I will have a penn 750ss on it. Im not sure what kind of blank it is, it's an older key largo rod that my dad has had for a while.


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## cajun creationz (Aug 17, 2012)

Really all you need is the first 3 to be stripper guides then the rest running guides..6-7 total..here is my personal layout on an 8-9 ft pole..fuji k..50,25,16,12,12,12,12,tip..i like to have my runners matched to my tip..if its a 12 or 10 or 5...just depends on the blank...i have steered away from wires for personal reasons..they are ugly and heavy to me


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## fairpoint (May 9, 2013)

buzzed bait said:


> Im wrapping a king rod and I will have a penn 750ss on it. Im not sure what kind of blank it is, it's an older key largo rod that my dad has had for a while.


Is it yellow..? probably a slow taper blank...perfect for slinging cigar minnows...size 50 should work as the first guide and a 10 before the tip....I would put 2 quides in between them....just pick out the ones that step down the same.....that's all your going to need.....less guides = less friction = longer cast.......what you don't want is line slapping the blank
in between the reel and the first guide during a cast,which can happen if the first guide is too far from the reel....get your guides and tape them on
like has been mentioned,but tape the line to the spool lip not off of your bail because that's where its coming from when casting.....OLD SCHOOL
but works great....good luck with it......


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## lowprofile (Jan 6, 2013)

50 is huge. you want the first guide to starts pulling your line into the second guide and so on. a 50 will get very little friction and the line coils will pass through and then bunch up on the suggested size 25 guide. that why on some of those cobia and king rods you can hear the line slapping the guides and the guys can't cast very far. 

40,30,20,16,12,10,10, tip. you can even take out one of the 10's. id also recommend not using wire guides, especially the oversized one seen on many cobia/king rods. the feet are spaces way to far apart hindering the blanks performance and line, mono and braid, digs into it quite easily. 

that's just my $.02 but I'm a born and raised west coaster and we do things a little different.


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## cajun creationz (Aug 17, 2012)

Low profile..he is building a pier style king rod..the gulf coast style..i agree on the wire guides simply because i dont like them..but what your recommending to him is a thin fast finesse inshore style setup..that is not the rod he is building..and just for the record..i own zero rods with the big wire guides..i like my k guides..i have mostly the rods you are telling him to build...i dont like the action the wire guides changed my blanks to..so i sold or rebuilt all of them..however. .a lot of people like that style and it has worked for them for decades...im a local and fished them for years also..until companies started coming out with the lighter ..thinner..stronger equipment. .i have since switched to "new school"..so 50 is a great size to start with for the style he is building


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## Jhamilton814 (Mar 28, 2014)

How do the bigger k guides like the 50 do with mono?


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