Conventional Rod Building - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

Rich R · 03-29-2002, 05:42 PM

I'm building a heavy stick for bouncing lead between the bridges in Niantic and in the breachways. It's a stout 9' Sabre blank marked "E900 - 9 B" and it'll be matched with an Ambassadeur 7500C3.

My question is on average, how far up the blank is reasonable for the first guide? When I built my Sabre 1088 the first guide was 28" from the reel. This isn't for any casting contests so I'm not sure if a little line slap would be a problem. I figured on using 6 guides but could add another and reposition to close the gap. Right now I have about 34" between reel and guide.
First time I've built a specialized rod to be used for only certain places. Thanks in advance for any and all responses.

mikecc · 03-29-2002, 06:34 PM

9'Eglass black color lots of backbone good tip.That Blank i would not go more than 30" from the center of the seat.
Tape the guides on.lay the line thru the guides and place a good bend in the rod if the line touches add the 7th guide.
you did not mention which type of guides your using ,that will make a differance.

Rich R · 03-29-2002, 07:35 PM

Oh yeah...sorry! Fuji BHNLG

True, with the stiffness in this blank, I could probably get away without adding another guide.

Multo graci Mike!

Saltheart · 03-29-2002, 11:16 PM

This would work Rich. From the tip 10 , 10 , 12 , 12 , 16 , 20 , 25 . I would use BNLGs. 10 tip. Place the guides with this spacing from the tip 5 , 5.75 , 6.5 , 7.5 , 8.75 , 10 , 11.5 . then 30 to the center of the reel seat and a 23 inch butt (reel seat center to butt) for the short italian guy!

Rich R · 03-30-2002, 03:53 PM

My mistake...they ARE indeed BNLG's. I bought the danged stuff from Mike T 2-3 years ago and never got around to making the rod. If the rod didn't have the Sabre stcicker still on it, I wouldn't have known what it was either.

I found that I could space a bit differently and get away with one less guide Saltheart. You're on the money with going for the short Italian butt length though.

I'll probably use the thing twice. If it's done when I come to pick up my rod from you, I'll bring it along!

Hey, one thing I just tried and it worked out real nice. To tone down the flashiness of metalic silver thread, I did an underwrap between the feet of the guides with 1 silver and 1 black thread side by side so it tempers the silver a bit.

I've got the bug!!!

Saltheart · 03-30-2002, 04:16 PM

Yep , you got the bug Rich!

JohnS · 03-30-2002, 08:47 PM

Rich you always have had the bug!

JohnS