Carnage II Surf Spinning - guide not in line with reel seat

[BenCantrell]

My new surf rod and reel came this week.  The rod is a Penn Carnage II Surf Spinning 12' 4-8 oz, and the reel is a Penn Spinfisher V 8500LL.  I'm excited to try them out, but I noticed something alarming when I put the reel on the rod.  The guide on the bottom 6' section (there's only one) isn't in line with the reel seat.





I'm also a little surprised by how small the first guide is for a spinning reel.  Shouldn't it be quite a bit larger?



Reel looks great though, can't wait to try it out.



Should I contact Penn about this?  I bought it from fishusa.com, and it looks like they have a good return policy.

[Latimeria]

Personally, I would contact Penn via email and send those pictures.  Bottom spinning guides are usually bigger so you can ask why it is so small.  It may be due to testing that they found the smaller guide works, or quite possibly that someone wrapping the rod ran out of big guides and did a sh!t job.  That angled back guide also is pretty lame, but make sure that is not how they set them up.  QC should have caught that stuff.

Nice rig though!  You are ready for some surf grinners!!!

[BenCantrell]

but make sure that is not how they set them up.

I tried to think of a reason why it might be that way on purpose, but I couldn't come up with one.  Casting might not be *too* badly affected, but if you fought a big fish it would always be trying to rotate the rod in your hand.  That would definitely suck.

[xjchad]

I'd do like Tom said and contact Penn.  Doesn't seem right to me either.
Love that reel Ben!

[Pinoyfisher]

Contact Penn and FishUSA.

[BenCantrell]

Starting with FishUSA, waiting to get a response back.

I did find this image online of someone using the 9 ft version.  That first guide looks tiny, so I guess they're meant to be small.  I'll still ask about it when I get the chance.

[spideyjg]

Out of line is a bad enough issue. I have the casting version at home and can tell you tonight how big the eye is on that.

[BenCantrell]

FishUSA is going to send a replacement.  Kudos to them for excellent customer service.

I also asked about the small first guide, and this was the reply:

"You are correct, with newer models every manufacturer will change a thing or two they were maybe testing or found to be unnecessary.  Large guides are usually really good, mainly for very cold weather though, like a Salmon or Steelhead rod for freshwater, typically the nicer versions of those have bigger eyes so that they do not cut your line when the guides freeze over.  They likely didn't find that necessary for this rod."

[Fish Jerk]

I've looked at the carnage rods at bass pro shops. That is the correct guide as far as how penn builds them. They are fugi k-series guides which from what I've seen are smaller than standard guides by design. They are supposed to very good tangle free guides. The offset, on the other hand is definately a flaw. The ones I looked at did not have an offset. Hopefully fishusa takes care of it for you.

[skrilla]

Correct on ID'ing Fuji K guides. They have a forward slant by design which is advertised to reduce tangles.

As far as size, they aren't smaller because they are K guides. The K guides are available up to size 50! They are smaller likely because of mass production and cost cutting. Smaller guide size = cheaper cost per unit. Gotta balance price point and profits.

As far as guide sizing and spinning reels... yes there are a few rules of thumbs as far as picking the optimum size guide. But manufacturers can't predict wether you'll mount a 5000 or 8000 or 12000 size reel so they choose something in ballpark range. As long as the line doesn't bunch up or slap the blank when casting you're good to go.