Lami GSB 132 2M

[numbskull]

That blank isn't going to fail no matter what you do to it.

Rewrapping the whole tip section to throw an extra guide into it, particularly if you are going to put a 50mm 40" out the rod, seems counter-productive to me. I'd leave it alone and fish it, if you have braid overwrap issues rebuild it with K guides. An NGC option is not very expensive if you use alconite K guides.

The handle looks heavy. Are those hypalon grips? If so it is not a very big deal to cut all that off and rebuild with a NPS seat and xflock.

The GSB132m is a wonderful blank, but a bit heavy and slow to start with. Putting large guides out the tip like Lami does is a poor choice. It makes the rod too heavy and too slow. Free it up with light small guides and it will compete favorably with any of these new blanks.

[Pierless]

I really appreciate the assurance that the blank won't fail simply because of only 4 guides. That being the case, I'll leave the rod alone for now, except maybe replacing the 16H with a regular height 16 in the same place, just so it won't bother me to look at it. If the rod doesn't like braid, I'll just use mono.

I believe the grips are hypalon. I made a balance scale out of a coathanger to weigh the rod. I used bank sinkers as counterweights. According to this precision instrument, the rod weighs about 22oz. It balances 4 1/2 inches above the foregrip.

As it is, the rod will probably do just fine for what I need. That's probably just a little beach fishing with bait someday on the Emerald Coast. It could sit just fine in a sand spike. I could probably get by with it for a very infrequent surfcasting session. Thanks to your suggestions, I'll have a modification plan if I ever need to do some serious surfcasting with it on a consistent basis.

Thanks so much for the insights into surfcasting rod design.