Gin wrote:
I just bought a St. CRoix 10ft med action blank stick
and plan to put a Penn 550 with 20lb powerpro line on it
for the surf.

My question concerns the first rod guide spacing and size
from the reel. I also noticed the reel sits kind of low
on the rod and I'm worried about line slap.

Are there any hard and fast rules for positioning rod guides?

Is there something that raises the reel higher off the blank?

Thanks for your answers.

^Gin^

ps I sometimes need 5 oz and more pyramid to put.

First of all, if this rod is under warranty I wouldn't play with it
by rearranging the guides unless I know if I'd be voiding the warranty.

Also, if you need to cast 5 oz for any distance, then you need to use
conventional equipment instead of spinning. Even the heaviest
spinner is only meant to cast light stuff, like up to, say, 3 oz max.
After that you get performance loss.

On a spinning rod the *size* of the guides will have more to do with
line slap than spacing. The other way around for convench. Spinners
with large guides, especially at the collector and tip areas can create
problems. Make sure the guides have high frame seats with smaller
guides, like say, 40 mm at the collector for your 10 footer and you
should be okay.

Many of us custom builers place the first ("collector" as fly fisherman
like to say) guide between 28 and 32 inches from the center of the seat,
but this is NOT a rule, just a guideline. I have no experience with St Croix
surf rods but if your model is a Ben Doerr I have a friend who has an 8' model
and he also claims the butt, or collector guide is too far from the seat also.


--
Sphynx