MicroWave Line Control Fishing Rod Guides

When it comes to custom rod building, choosing the right guides will make or break your rod's overall performance. From landing a fish to the casting distance and accuracy, guides help in many ways and the appropriate guides for each fishing application will improve rod performance tremendously.

With that said, here is a review of American Tackle's MicroWave Line Control System.

Line Control Fishing Rod Guides System

The MicroWave Line Control System increases casting distance and accuracy, while improving overall line control. American Tackle offers MicroWave Line Control Systems for spinning, casting, surf, and many additional fishing applications.

For this review, we will look specifically at the MicroWave 9-Piece Guide Set with black frames and Nanolite rings for spinning rods using fishing reel in the 1500 and 3000 series size.

The MicroWave system is designed to immediately reduce friction and static in the line as it travels through the guides of the fishing rod. Notice the unique look of the first stripping guide in the MicroWave system.

The first stripping guide actually serves as the primary funnel for the entire fishing line. After the line leaves the first stripping guide, the next transition guide straightens out the line even further so that it is easier to travel through the remaining running guides.

With the help of the first stripping guide and the next running guide, the line passes through subsequent running guides with almost zero resistance. This benefit will also help reduce wind and the possibility of tangled knots.

Top 5 Reasons to Use the MicroWave System:

After years of tweaking, American Tackle developed the perfect design for their MicroWave Line Control System. Here are five benefits:

1. Improved Casting Accuracy—Requiring less force when casting, the increased line speed permits the blank to load and recover organically without any diffraction from line vibration.

2. Extended Casting Distance—By capturing and directing the energy of your cast into a forward motion simultaneously maintaining line speed, the distance of your cast will noticeably increase.

3. Eliminated Knot Tangling—Through the conversion of pushing line energy through guide ring to pulling line energy, the line is prevented from passing the first stripping guide and overriding the frame. Since it eliminates line wrapping, it also eliminates the formation of knots.

4. Better Lure Range for Rod—Harnessing controlled energy, the lighter and heavier lure weights are compatible with MicroWave system regardless of rod blank material making up for lost efficiency.

5. Reduced Fatigue—Since the blank can load and recover quicker with the increased line speed, less force is required so you can fish even longer without fatigue.

What You Can Expect

The system is ideally suited for spinning reels in the 1500 through 3000 series. However, they also make guide sets for a variety of other applications and therefore larger reel sizes.

For the 6-foot and 6 foot 6 inch rod lengths, you may not require all the running guides that come in the kit, but it is nice that they are included anyway. It is always good if you can first tape the guides into place and then use a static load test to see what looks right to you.

Finding out you don't like the placements after the epoxy finish tries can be frustrating to say the least.

The guids really shine when used with braided line, but performs well with new monofilament lines.

Although the system addresses coiling-memory issues with monofilament, you may encounter diminishing returns when using very old mono with the MicroWave system.

Also, to get the most out of the technology, try not to whip or snap cast. With the MicroWave system, that is not necessary. You can put a little backbone into it, but for best results use a smooth and controlled cast.

We saw the greatest casting distance increases using braided line, and the new monofilament followed up with a close second. Casting accuracy was more subjective.

All in all, the American Tackle MicroWave Line Control System is a well thought out product that will certainly increase your performance and enjoyment on the water.

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