The other day I went fly fishing with my 8 ft 3 wt. Austin and was over whelmed by
The ease of casting the line. Dismantling the rod I discovered it had snake guides
on not my normal ceramic type. Went home and did some casting with snake,
single foot and ceramic guides with same line. The rod with snakes had me back
in the zone again. I’m probably all wet, wondering if any one has had the same experience??
mega thanks, stan yerger

I would have thought the snake guides would be easy to spot without having to dismantle the rod. Not sure what you mean by that.

I don't find much difference in casting between guide types - they don't make that much difference on the cast. Ceramics are quieter, that's about the only difference I notice.

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I am very intrigued by this post. Please keep us posted on how your 3 wt went from 'normal ceramic type, to snake guides?!?!

How well a rod casts a line is dependent on how well that line, and its length past the rod tip, load the rod. Not the type guides it has on it.

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Steve, my words used was not the best. The rod I used had snakes on.
I build rods as a hobby, so I had one with single foot and one with ceramics.
When I got home I did some casting with all three rod with the same line.
For me it was obvious the line was going through the snake guides with ease!!
I'm sure that for different rods, different casting style the results would be different.
For me it's all about feel, My casting with that rod just FEELS BETTER.
Please don't take my word for it but go out and give it a test.

Sorry for the confusion, stan.

Stanford,

The reason is simple - the rod that had the snake guides was being loaded to a greater extent than the rod that had the ceramic guides. It has nothing to do with the guides - if it did, the line would move through the ceramics with even greater ease than the snakes, due to the ceramics being harder and slicker than the surface of the snake guides. But this is of no concern on the cast because there is very little friction present between the line and the guide surfaces as there is no pressure forcing them together.

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No real surprises here.
Snake guides are excellent guides and the only guides I'm aware of that present a bias contact to the direction of the outgoing line. This reduces contact stress and friction as opposed to a guide that contacts perpendicular to the direction of line flow. Similar to driving over speed bumps by approaching at an angle. An added benefit is the increase in fly line life due to the distributed contact patch. The only negative is the weight penalty due to the requirement for the second wrap.
Rod action can still be modified to fit your zone by the addition or subtraction of guides and the placement utilized.

Eugene Moore

Fly lines last longer with ceramics. No guessing on that.

You can't change rod action by guide placement or type. You certainly can't make the action slower. And to make it faster would require placing the tiptop and first guide terribly far apart so that the line created a bowstring effect between the tiptop and first guide. Even then, you really haven't made the action any faster - it will still initially flex in the same area it did before you added any guides.

You can change rod response with guide selection, number and placement. That has to do with the mass of the guides and how it's distributed.

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Tom,
Yes fly lines last longer with ceramics due the increase of contact patch with the wider ring reducing the contact stress.
The penalty is the increased weight due to the additional material and as you pointed out the reduction in response or frequency. Wrong choice of terminology on my part..
Response or frequency would have been more appropriate.

Eugene Moore

I would love to see someone make a slow action rod into a fast action rod by guide type and placement. Or vice versa. The action is created by the taper of the rod shaft. Unless you sand into the blank to change the taper you cannot change the action.

Right, the ceramics, in most cases, are also smoother with a much finer surface finish.

I've begun using Minima guides in order to address the weight issue. They make a huge difference. So far, I consider them the best of all worlds, aside from the fact that they're noisy like snakes. But I'm getting use to that.

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