I'm just about to start on a couple fly rods and remember seeing some mention of butt guide placement relative to arms length or something. I wasn't able to find the threads by searching.

These will be my first attempts at flyrods... What do you guys do to determine butt guide placement?

I have a 6'6" 2 wt and an 8'6" 4 wt if it matters.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Keith

From what I've seen here and in books...


Hold the rod handle in front of you in your casting hand. Reach out with your stripping hand- where the stripping hand touches the rod, place the guide 1 to 2 inches in front of this.

Why? Because you want it to be close enough to you so you can quickly gather the line after a cast.

DJH

Hi Ken,

Dan's right, but I find that it is better if your casting arm is held at a right angle as it would be when about to lift the rod for a back cast. Then lift your other hand up to the rod and place ths stripping guide about two inches above where your hand touched the rod. While practice casting you can tweak the placement of the stripping gude more precisely. If you are going to have two stripping guides, the second one is placed using the Static Distribution test.

Good luck.

Mike Blomme

MIchael,

What is your thinking on your technique? I don't ever reach for the line when in my backcast cause it is already in my hand...not trying to criticize..just wondering what your train of thought is.

I put mine right where the person can reach with the rod held just as if they had just cast and were reaching to p/u the line to start to strip.