Does anyone have any experience with guideless rods? I was looking at a graphite downrigger rod where the line runs up through the rod and out the tip. Since I have no experience nor can I find out much about these, I wondered what people's experience was. I would not be doing any casting, just saltwater trolling or downrigger fishing. thanks

Tom Nelson told me the biggest drawback of the guideless rods is after they get some crap up in them from fishing and you try to rethread the rod it doesn't want to go through. Sounds like it could be a problem.

I tried one a few years back and after using a few times it went in the garage and stayed there. You get crap up in the tip etc and at times I would even have to stop reeling and pull the crap out before I could continue to reel in my line. Go with traditional guides.

thanks for the replies. Both sound consistent so I will stick with traditional guides.