I was just reading the club magazine and they had a cool little snippet about micro-guide rods, which I've never heard of before, but I was wondering if anyone around here has tried one. The principle makes sense, that line wobbling that takes place right above the reel on a spinning setup must do a number on casting distance. Thoughts?

Spinning rods have a guide setup that acts as a funnel to the loop of line coming off of the spool. I also heard a little about micro guides and have even seen them for sale in an on line catalogue. Might have been Mud hole or Netcraft.

The micro guide concept would work much better for casting rods, but I don't really see the benefits to spinning rods. You have large arbor spools and small line guides, it's just two completely opposite things. Played with the idea long before I've ever heard of wide spools or micro guides and it was counterproductive. There's a balance of smaller spools for smaller guides and larger spools for larger guides for casting distance.

i recently bought a quantum smoke with micro guides and they seem to get me farther casts even though the pole is 6'6, 1 downside is braided line kills the micro guides, my buddy had got a 7' smoke and spooled it for frogs, he had casted it 2 or 3 times and we heard a snap, i looked back and saw him almost in tears cuz he had the rod for only 2 day, if u r looking into a micro guide rod, DO NOT USE BRAIDED LINE! it works best with seagur invisx 100% fluorocarbon.

i recently bought a quantum smoke with micro guides and they seem to get me farther casts even though the pole is 6'6, 1 downside is braided line kills the micro guides, my buddy had got a 7' smoke and spooled it for frogs, he had casted it 2 or 3 times and we heard a snap, i looked back and saw him almost in tears cuz he had the rod for only 2 day, if u r looking into a micro guide rod, DO NOT USE BRAIDED LINE! it works best with seagur invisx 100% fluorocarbon.

I have been watching this trend for a while now and have formed some opinnions. This is not new, just look at a fly rod. While you are looking, look at the spool width on a fly reel! I think SB is on the right track about spool or arbor width. I have fished with a guy who bought an expensive casting rod and then mounted a spinning reel on it. The performance of the rod was abysmal to be charitable! I do not understand why braid would change anything, either a guide is up to braid or not. Any rod worth your money these days should have no problem handling any line on the market now. I do know a few fellows who mount a spinning reel on a longish fly rod for the sole purpose of catching pre-spawn crappie, but casting distance in this instance is a non-factor. I'll stick to my traditional rods for now thank you. Tom

Fly rods were the origin of the "noodle " rod, but they usually changed the guides to spinning guides.