I have found that the size of the roller guides are very important. The guide must let a splice move freely through. If a splice hanges it causes a backlash or a line break or alot of un forseen things to happen. If ya are the paddler, a splice could put the hook in you. I have found that the most important guide is the tip. An aftco big foot for the tip is the only way to go. I use aftco big foot guides due to the guide being wider. I also use regular boat guides between the foot and the tip. Will showed me some guides that his friend makes and they looked like great stuff. The mildrum guides let the splices pass until the tip. the tip mildrum will hang a splice. the smaller aftco guides will also hang a splice. I use 130lb. The smaller stuff will usually pass through any guide just fine.
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Good post Earnie and oh so very important .Remember folks them big foot Aftco's are the guides to use when building or buying a shark rod; important when using that 130 lb test because the small guides will not let a splice go thru and you will lose a big shark when your splice gets stuck in the roller when the beast is ripping out line .Also very true about the danger of hooking the person paddling out the baits if the line gets stuck in one of the rollers,,,,,,,,,,very valid points to remember.Always use big open guides Aftco bigfoot,Stuart industries rollers, Fin Nor or American are the very best.Most folks use foul proof guide inbetween the roller tip and the stripper guide but i used to build my shark rods with braced guides and they always lasted longer then the foul proof (snake guides).My expierience has taught me that the foul proofs get bent up and twisted over time,sometimes when we are loading up the pick up with 3 or 4 shark rods on top of each other,,,,,,it's the worst time for any shark rod .Imagine traveling hundreds of miles and 14/0 on top of 14/o all in one corner to conserve space for the rest of the gear.They take a beating no matter how careful we try to be.
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