I have been following various threads regarding fly rod guide choice and have come to the conclusion that I want to use single foot ceramics for my fly rods with a ceramic tip. I also understand that you want to try to use the smallest guides possible and that even an eight-weight line can fit easily through a #6 ceramic. Here is my situation: I am building several fly-rods for a Steelhead fisherman who is often fishing in very cold conditions. Anyone who has fished in these sub-freezing temperatures is used to having their guides freeze up. What would be the best choice of guides for these rods (6 and 7wts) to have the best performance without the freeze-ups? Won't the smaller guides freeze up easier?
Thanks.


Scott

If I remember right, REC RECoils were originally marketed to not build ice around the guide rings. I think it's true that ice doesn't quite stick to this alloy the way it does to some plated guides. But ice does form on either side of the ring opening for the RECoils. It seems you can shake it off a lot easier than with other snakes. Ice will stick to ceramics too; there's more surface area for it to do so than with snakes.

Josh Markvan
www.markvanheirloom.com

I don't know what what size guide to suggest, but if you tell your customers to put Rain-X on their guides before they go fishing and a coulpe of times during the day I will cut down on the iceing problem. You can now get the Rain-x in little packets like individual towel wipes .That are easy to keep in a pocket.

Yes the smaller giuide rings will cause the guides to build up ice QUICKER. We used to build WINTER TIME specific Chuck and duck, and spin float rods with the largest snake guides available all the way to the tip, when all that was available were snake guides. We refered to this type of Guiding on a blank, as an ICE ROD. The best thing to use to avoid freeze up on guides is "Stanely's Ice Paste" look around for it this time of year. So bigger is better but it is just a matter of time

Scott,

After I wrote about using an eight weight line with size six ceramics, I went fishing for pike with that setup. Ice did build up in the guides, but it was no big deal. I had to remove the ice every hour or so; the air temperature was about thirty degrees. If I knew before I built the rod that the blank was going to use that heavy a line, I would have used size 7 ceramics.

Jim