the info passed on to me by those who showed me the ropes of rod building had this general advice to pass on to me. the spine on most rods should be in the up position thus baitcast guides go on the spine and C/P and mooching type rods the guides go under the spine. Sage does some funky stuff with thier fly rods, recommending from the factory that thier fly blanks be built with the guides 90 degrees to the right of the spine. Not sure if this applies to thier float rods. I am not saying that the info i have is the bible on this, BUT, my friend built a rod identical to one i have, sage 2106. He built his baitcaster with the guides opposite the spine, like a C/P, my baitcaster is built with the guides on the spine, his broke on the butt section after 3 outings, while battling a 8/9 lbs steelhead, mine has been landing fish to 20 lbs for the past 3 years and has never broken. We examined the blank and there were no marks indicating a previous condition that would have caused it to break.