Micro or regular?

[troossien1]

I love the micro guides on my kistler rods! They feel so much more sensitive and castability is way better! I especially like the KAM microguides that they have on the rods (kistler advanced micos) because of how they are all one piece and directly attached to the rod rather than attached via the guide mounts. Becides my excitement about the kistler guides. My point is. Is there any hidden advantage to the normal guides that i may be over looking? It may be ignorance that I can't see it but are the micros the end of the regular guides?
I'd like to hear your opinions!

[djkimmel]

The people who make micro guides do have lots of good things to say about them. I haven't tried any for myself yet so I don't know.

Most companies are still making 'regular' guides on most of their rods. Looks like it will take a while if this is an evolution occurring.

When I first saw your topic, I thought this might be a post about coffee.

[troossien1]

haha nope, i have micros and love them so im not sure what advantage might be of the others

[bassfan586]

I have micros on a spinning rod and i feel the line slaps and hangs up a bit.  But it is light so i can overlook that.  I have 2 cranking rods that have spiral wrapped micros and i love em.  Cast a mile and light.

[djkimmel]

Seems like you definitely need more guides and proper spacing for the micro guides. Spiral wrap would probably be the way to go for casting rods but that has never caught on with the 'mainstream.'

[thedude]

i've been using micros almost exclusively for almost 5 years now. IMHO - they are a no-brainer. They are cheap (typically less than 2$ per guide), durable and light weight. I do spiral wrap a lot of my casting rods, however, you can use the exact same number of micros on a conventional casting setup - the trade-off is typically that you will get some line rub on the blank when its under load - not a functional issue so much as a cosmetic one.  The only issue i've found with them is passing knots - i will typically run a size 3 or 3.5 guide with the exception of spinning gear (i use braid/floro leader) and use size 4s on those. 

If you've never used a spinning rod with micros and braid, you don't know what you're missing. The micros paired with properties of braid allow for super small guides to effectively rifle line off the spool.  Most conventional setups use a size 25-30mm as the first guide - micro rods will use the same larger guides for the first three before the micros start - however with braid, you can go down to a 10mm.

Not sure whats so scary about spiral wraps - they are superior in just about every regard, especially when comparing stability under load between spiral wrapped vs conventional rods. It also will allow you to use fewer guides near the tip, thus cutting back on tip weight.

As a side note, its a shame many of the factory rods are charging a premium for micros - the cost savings is immense for them, i would like to see it passed on to the consumer and spun off as some crazy, new, high-dollar fad.

[djkimmel]

I have never used a spiral wrap rod but I like the idea. It just hasn't be adopted by a company with enough clout to make it mainstream. That change is tough thing mostly.

If you can get away with charging a premium, why not? Of course, I would like to see savings passed on too. Sometimes it works that way. Sometimes it doesn't.

[Lightningboy]

Spiral with micros is just astounding.  Makes a rod super light, and slightly faster in action.

I agree about the fluoro leader knot too.  I find 4's are about as small as I can go and not have the knot catch in the guides.

But 4's are pretty tiny.  Small enough that threading line through them is pretty tough to see.  At least for me.

[Genie]

Sorry - what is spiral wrap?  I guess I'm old - thought there was fiberglass and graphite.

[bassfan586]

Did you guys see the nano micros that mh is selling.   I have a hard enough time threading line through a micro.

[thedude]

[Genie]

Never seen that before ... weird at first glance ...

[thedude]

this pic illustrates the primary benefit of the spiral wrap. The rod on the left is upside down because the forces exerted on the guides from the line and weight naturally draw the guides to the bottom of the blank (like a spinning rod). So if you're holding that rod, it's trying to twist in your hand any time under load - so you are not only fighting the fish, but also the tendancies of the rod to roll left or right in your grip. The spiral on the right is positioned and loaded correctly - transitioning the line to the bottom of the rod will negate this twisting action.



another good reason to have guides on the bottom - line slapl

vs

[Genie]

Is there a direction of spiral that is better than the other - spiral to the left or right?  Ex. All my rods are setup where I cast right handed and reel left handed - baitcasters and spinning.

[Lightningboy]

In most instances it doesn't matter right vs. left.  I usually wrap the spiral toward the direction of the reel handles.  That way when the rod is siting on deck, the handles help keep the rod from rolling the side transition guide into the carpet and bending it by accident.

Spiral solves a lot of problems.  Less guides are needed to keep the line off the blank when bent.  The guides can be smaller since they don't need to keep the line from hitting the blank.  Sits very naturaly in your hand when fighting a fish; no side torque.

Only problem people have with them is they look funny.  Until you've used one for a day...

[djkimmel]

I always thought you could tell which party someone leans towards voting for by the direction they wrap their guides? There are many real good jokes possible in this thread but I will resist the temptation.

I have always liked the concept but have yet to try it. I built a few rods back about the time Genie was a babby but did not try the guide wrap. I did not have a lot of trouble being different but there were limits... I do remember the master rod builder I learned from taught me about finding the 'spine' of the rod and how to tell when the guides were not aligned with the spine. Extra torque that wasn't necessary.