Micro Guides?

[carolina-rig-01]

I didn't want to hi jack Zookers thread about his Duckett rods but I wanted to hear some opinions on the new Micro Guides that are starting to show up on rods. At first I thought that they would be a fad that won't stand the test of time, but from what I have been hearing it sounds like so far the people who have experience with them don't have any complaints. I was wondering if anyone here that has used rods with the Micro Guides would share their opinions and likes and dislikes. And I would also like to hear if they would have a bearing on what rods you will buy in the future. Would to refuse to buy a rod with them? Or would you refuse to buy a rod without them? If you could buy a rod with or without them what would your choice be?

I am really interested in this because we are working on a line of ThunderStruck Jig rods (built by Tim Knox at Tigerodz) that will be feature rods that I design for different jig fishing applications like Football jigs and Finesse Jigs. I want to make sure that I explore the Micro Guide scenerio a lot and see what customers would or wouldn't be willing to pay for.

[TN_Bassin]

Obviously with any new feature on any peice of equipment, some are going to love it and some are going to hate it. I don't know what the extra cost would be to produce a rod with micros and one without them, but in my opinion I think giving the customer the choice would be the most preferable.

The micros, like I've said in other posts, are extremely lighter than the regular guides. They really shine when the need for detecting the lightest touch is necessarry, such as flipping and pitching.

[bassboogieman]

I don't own any micro guide rods and very doubtful that I would ever want them on any of my rods. Main issue is getting knots to go through them smoothly. If you're only using straight line you should be ok, but I use braid and flurocarbon leaders on many of my rods, so I see a problem with that for me. I don't see offering them as an option a drawback on a custom built rod - give the buyer what he wants (and we all don't want the same thngs) cannot hurt making a sale.

[Jrob78]

I've made my experiences with micros pretty well known too, I am a believer. I have a casting rod with all 4's and one with a double 6 and all the rest are single 6's. I also have a micro spinning rod. In my opinion the casting rods are awesome. I feel like I get more casting distance and the weight savings is pretty substantial, also they don't get tangled and hung up on other rods nearly as bad. The more I fish them the more I like them.

The spinning rod has 3 reduction guides that are regular size and 6 size 4 running guides. I'm not a spinning rod guy so I don't really have anything to compare the performance to.

Where micro guides don't work well is if you fish long leaders, as knots won't pass through them well.

All my rods are rods that I have built, to answer your question, I will continue to build all my casting rods with micros. To me the benefits far out way any possible negatives, although I haven't found any negatives yet.

This is the post I made about them a couple of months ago.

http://www.bassfishin.com/bassfishin...ad.php?t=22933

[CiK]

The term "micro" is somewhat subjective. When purchasing materials from a rod component supplier they box micros into a 3mm to 5mm corner.

I tend to believe micro is dependent on function. You can build a rod that will utilize a braid to flouro leader and build it with the smallest guide you feel comfortable with. If a knot will pass through a 6mm guide without problems then why wouldn't you leverage the 6mm guides weight reduction and resulted increased sensitivity versus a standard store bought rod with 8mm guides on it? Because of the positives, I will always purchase or build a rod using the smallest guides possible for the technique I intend to use it for.

Tony

[rrw4258]

I am not one to usually bring up old posts, but I thought that some of the new members may have some input on micro guides. This post really didn't see a lot of attention at first. Any thoughts on micro guides guys?

Ryan

[bamabassman]

Love them rryan.

[DVT Mike]

Using the lightest, smallest guides that will suffice in a given application allows the blank to retain more of its design features. Sensitivity, balance, reaction and recovery time and casting accurracy are all improved by reducing the weight on the blank especially at the tip. As far as applications go, for bass fishing the main concern is passing connections if necessary. An Albright knot joining 50# braid and 17# fluoro will pass through size 4 guides with no problem. Sub freezing temps and filamentous algea can cause guide clogging.

In the not too distant future I predict the "Micro" dsignation will pass and a guide will be a guide regrdless of size.

[CamG]

I have a few Falcon micros, and over the next year or two I plan on switching to nothing but micros. Haven't found anything yet that I didn't like about them.

[Jrob78]

http://www.bassfishin.com/bassfishin...ad.php?t=30469

Here's a good thread from last week on micros, lots of good info.

[carolina-rig-01]

Ryan, in the time since I made that thread I have had quite a bit of experience with micro guides, not as much experience as some guys but enough to learn that I really like them. I have a handful of rods with micro guides on them and I even built my first micro guide rod over the past month or so that I will be giving to my dad for Christmas. They really do a great job of keeping the blank light and responsive and casting with them is a joy. Of all the micro guide rods I have used I have had one issue with one rod, I had the ceramic ring pop out of the tip top on one rod. I really don't think this had anything to do with it being a micro guide because as we all know this can happen to any guide of any size.