FOR a long time there hasn’t been too many new additions to the style of guides available to rod builders. You had a handful of light guides for freshwater and estuary rods and the heavier of these were used for surf rods and light boat rods.
When it came to building a boat rod the guides were significantly heavier and stronger than those used on the lighter rod. Sure they did the job but there was certainly a bit of a void in that area in between for rods of 10 - 15 kilo class.
It didn’t worry the rods too much down in the butt section, but up in the tip on the lighter rods those BLRLG guides did make the rod noticably tip heavy. As there was nothing in between you had to go with what you had.
The release of a new BHNLG guide by FUJI last year has significantly opened up the opportunity for rod builders in this mid range to put together some classy little outfits.
The BHNLG guides combines a number of properties desirable in the selection of guides in building a rod.
The frame firstly is that of the three legged one piece frame on the likes of FUJI’s BNHG and BNLG guides. The difference though is that the frame itself is heavier and of a slightly higher construction.
The steel ring that encases the centre ceramic ring also bears a new design offering increased protection and holding power for the ring against bumps and shocks. The feet of the guide are wider than the standard guide to give a more positive hold on the rod blank.
We’ve built more than a hundred various rods over the past twelve months using these guides and have not had one single problem with them. It has allowed several new models to be built offering anglers rod actions that previous rod guides had made too soggy.
For the technically minded, the one piece frame is built from S-4 stainless steel. The frame is 25% thicker than the likes of BNHG guides and the guide foot is 12 - 25% wider than BNHG guides depending on the size of the guide.
The ceramic centre is available in two materials the grey hardloy (BHNLG) and the dark ring of the “O” style ring (BHNOG). The “O” ring is FUJI’s new addition and is a highly polished all round guide at a cheaper price than the hard hardloy models.
Sizes are available in numbers 8, 10,12,16, 20
An additional advantage of these guides is that you can build a rod using the heavier BLRLG boat guides on the lower butt section of the rod and match the BHNLG guides for use in the lighter tip section of the rod.
The rod blank that we will build up with these guides on this occasion is the 220 - 10 Kevlarwrap from the Australian blank manufacturer Pacific Composites. There are three models available in this particular style, this one being the lighter of the three and the most popular for an all round offshore bottom bouncer.
The rod is a little over 7’ long and follows somewhat similar lines of the traditional M10 rod which has been a favourite for bottom dongers for many years. The bubble has burst on the old M10 and anglers are looking for new additions to their armoury of offshore rods.
This one seems to have fitted the bill nicely offering a soft fibreglass tip before blending into the powerful butt section of the rods which is wrapped in kevlar.
The soft tip is desirable for feeling bites and absorbing some of the shock from hard hitting fish, especially in the case where braided lines are used and there is little stretch in the line itself.
The kevlar in the lower section gives you the power you need to turn and haul up better quality fish. The combination of the light tip and strong butt does give you the advantage of only needing one rod to chase your average run of squire and the likes yet still a rod capable of turning and pulling in ten kilo snapper.
On the butt we have used a ten inch rear game grip, a FUJI FPSH 24 heavy duty reel seat and a fourteen inch game foregrip. These thicker game grips are more suited to this style of fishing where you need a good solid grip on the rod.
The graphite reel seat is strong and light weight holding the reel securely in place. An advantage of these graphite reel seat is that they don’t react with the foot of the reel so no corrosion should occur.
While it is all well and good to say that you should take your reel off the rod and wash it after every outing, this does not always happen and for many the reel stays on the rod from one trip to the next.
A FUJI graphite gimbal finishes off the butt section fitting neatly over the rod blank and butting nicely against the bottom grip.
The guides should be fully underbound and double over bound. A few of the various blues and the dark green threads from Gudebrod go well with this blank blending in with the yellowy green colour of the kevlar butt section of the rod blank.
An assortment of metallic trims are available to highlight your choice of colours. Finished off with a couple of coats of two pack epoxy and you have a new weapon for the offshore reefs.
SPECIFICATIONS:
Blank: Pacific : Composites Kevlawrap 220 -10
Butt : 10” x 5/8” eva game grip
Reel seat : Fuji FPSH - 24 thread down.
Foregrip : 14” X 1/2” eva game grip
Gimbal : Fuji BCGC 25G
Tip : Fuji BULT 10/3.6
Guides : Fuji BHNLG
#10 - 95mm; # 10 - 110mm: #10 - 120mm; #12 - 135mm;
#12 - 163mm; #16 - 180mm; #16 - 187mm; #20 - 230mm
