I’m building myself a set of 50-80 rods and I am a bit uncertain on the guides that are going to suit me best. I am going to be doing a fair amount of swordfishing with 80 lb mainline with wax thread marks and possibly wind ons. I will also be using the rods for Marlin fishing and Wahoo fishing in the Islands. The guides I'm looking at are either
1 All Aftco wind on roller guides.
2 Or an aftco wind on roller tip with the rest FUJI Sic guides.
3 Or should I get the Aftco wind on roller tip top and Aftco wind on bottom guide and the rest FUJI Sic
4 Winthrops are a bit to expensive
And for the Aftco Guides should I get the Wind on Guides or the Aftco heavy duty guides?
I believe the heavy duties are big enough to fit a pencil in the roller tip. But the wind on guides are not nearly as big, but will fit a wind on and a wax thread mark
Answer:
I would definitely go with the WindOn set. There are three sets of Aftco rollers...
BigFoot---The biggest, too big for a standup rod, unless you want to have to shave down the actual foot of the guide when you wrap them...that’s what I had to do with do with the Winthrops-at the time it was worth it because wintrhop did not have their newest windon set out. I’m glad I did it but they were hard to wrap that’s for sure.
Windon- Huge clearance in a compact frame with a foot that will fit rods with a tip down to a 12/64. Which is what your 50/80 will probably be--
Heavy Duty--These guides are a lot smaller and different style than the Windon and BigFoot. I do NOT recommend them if using windons and wax loops, even though their clearance is probably enough for 2-300lb windons. There’s no point in taking a chance.
Good Luck...if you have any other questions bring em on..When it comes to building sword rods..I know a lot... I researched every option for about 6 months before I built mine
--I also would not recommend using the ring guides if you are going to do marlin fishing because marlin at the boat are typically going to pull your windon in and out a lot, and the serving on the windon will get a lot more abrasion from ring guides because it sticks up off the line and can get roughed up a lot easier--then your dead.
