I’m about to build a fly rod for steelhead and salmon. This rod will be fished in cold and rainy weather where ice will sometimes form in the guides. Is one style of fly rod guide superior to the others for such conditions?

In the past we have built what we called an "ICE ROD" for mid winter steelhead fishing with a long fly blank spin rod. It has nothing to do with ice fishing for pan fish or that type of rod, it was specifically designed for mid winter steelhead and ice build up. The butt section of the rod was basically the the same as you would normally build; with large ceramic ringed guides, then on the tip section you use the largest Sz 6 snake guides all the way out to the tip and this took longer for the ice to build up and force you to "Deice". You also used the largest oversize looped fly top available.size This merely delayed the enevitable...I have not built one of those in a long time, now the updated version might use sf wire guides Sz 6 all the way out to the tip which would be lighter. They have invented Stanely's Ice Paste since then also which makes a big difference on ice build up on guides. We never dunked a rod past the ferrule and broke off the ice from the lower 3 ceramic guides by hand. I have not seen another viable alterantive for this specific situation.

For me, I have a couple rods for winter use. I use ceramic strippers (size 12 and 10) - then single foot size 6 an 5 to the tip.
However, the guides will still ice up (it IS inevitable) when casting in the cold air and with wet line.
When I can't cast line anymore, i dunk the guides into the water and shake the rod to remove some of the ice.
Note - NEVER use antifreeze on the guides unless you plan on replacing the fly line often.
Winter fishing on a cold stream on a cold day builds character?????

If people spent more time on important things, there would be a shortage of flyrods.

Just wondering if single foot Recoils would work since breaking the ice by bending the guide a bit should be possible.
Anyone tried this?

Cheers,
Sakari

Dan,

I spend a lot of time winter fishing for steelhead in the Western New York area. I have tried everything from WD 40 to Pam to try and keep my guides ice free. The bottom line is that no matter what, you will get ice on your guides and if you try every remedy you hear, you will probably ruin an expensive fly line or at least make it a greasy mess. Winter steelhead rods are the only fly rods I build with double foot snake guides (I use ceramics for all other rods, and single foot recoils for rods under a 3 weight). I find they resist ice build-up the best and also are the easiest to remove ice from. If you can catch the ice early as it forms, a quick dip into the drink will clear the ice. In the winter, Ill trade rod performance for ease of de-icing (Fishing for steelhead usually doesn't call for tremendous casting to begin with). You need to make sure these guides as well as the tip top are oversized because the knots / conections in your leader will also accumulate ice whenever they are out of the water for a short period of time (changing flies, untangling, etc.). I prefer these guides anywhere from size 6-8. Double foot recoils could be a good choice as they are lighter than standard snakes, but I think the majority of the weight with double foot snakes comes from the finish on the two guide feet, not the acutal guide. Good luck on your build and with winter steelheading, it separates the men from the boys.

Mike Marrone

I have replaced a few recoils from people bending them to show their buddies. They will take deflection from bumping etc. but near 90 degree bends will soon cause a failure. They are a titanium alloy memory metal like spring steel is a memory metal and it acts similarly to abuse.