I would like to buy some Minima4 guides to build a fly rod, I was thinking of trying to put on a large # of guides and see it more guides will increase casting distance, something like putting on 15 guides on a 9' fly rod. Has anybody tried this with any success.
Anybody know of a of a place that has Minima4 guides for a "good" price.
Cheers Ron

All you are going to do is add weight A good starting point is one per foot + one and tip. Start there and if you want add as many as you want

It will be like tying a rock to the tip of the blank

What line weight ?

Bill - willierods.com

Ron ,
Rather than builing up a rod with many many guides, simply use masking tape to do guide number of experiments.

It is easy to tape guides on a rod and do some testing.

Go ahead and put 30 guides on the rod and then start taking them off. Put a guide on every 3 inches and reduce them in stages to 3 feet between guides.


It would be a shame to build up, wrap and finish a rod and then have a rod that isn't as useful as you would like.

Roger

It's been my experience that people looking to fly cast great distances are generally "shooting" line on the last outbound forward haul. Under this circumstance I believe that you would benefit more by taming the shooting line with a line-tamer guide rather than a surplus of running guides. This will keep the tip weight of the rod down substantially, since only one more guide than normal is introduced between stripper guide and next guide up.

Adding that many guides won't increase your distance. Most likely it will reduce distance.

And one thing it will do for sure, is reduce the response of the rod. It will respond and recover more slowly.

Minima 4 guides are terribly inexpensive to begin with. Even retail is a great price. They cost next to nothing.

...........

Well it looks like maybe this is a dead end idea, I saw a you tube video from this Fox guy who said he had great casting rods with a lot of light guides and it got me thinking about trying it. I did not know minima guides were so cheap.
Thanks all for your input.
I could post a link to the video if that is allowed here
Cheers Ron.

Ron -
I think Mr Fox and his fly rod concept was discussed on this forum I think it was over a year ago - as I recall there was some healthy discussion but I could be wrong because I tried a search & came up empty.

Whoops .... grey matter kicked in .. make that UNhealthy post

Take any fly rod you have now and add a half dozen more guides. Then go try it and see what you think.

.................

Are you building the rod for a distance casting contest? If no,t most fly rod configurations today cast quite well for the distances intended to fish.

Today's Spey and Switch rods are the answer for those of us who fish big waters for Salmon, Steelhead and the like and want more distance. IMO adding guides wont help that much if any!

Like Tom said it only adds wait and slows down response time. It was mentioned earlier Use the foot plus 1 and tip top rule. Make 15 to 20 cast record the distances divide casts into ft , get an average add one or two guides do it over again do it over until your distance has reached its Maximo. I bet by the 4th guide it well drop dramatically

Good Wraps Bob

Or get the guides and put on the 15. Then as you cast take one or two off. The same as Bob said - just the reverse. You will see and feel the performance get better and distance And the tip will get lighter.

Experiment

Bill - willierods.com

Bill thanks for the correction. You taught an OLD DOG a new trick. I really like your idea, it makes thing a lot easier. One thing I fore got to mention with my system was after adding a new guide you also have to correct your spacing.

Good Wraps Bob

It should work either way Bob.

Bill - willierods.com

I hope it helps the guy and he lets us know what happens :))

Good Wraps Bob

I am not the Fox guy referred to but I have gone to using line tamer guides on all my fly rods over 5 wt (not bamboo) and find it does help and the only wt. added is one eye. The line tamer guide should be of the same size as your second shooting eye and placed exactly 4 inches in front of your first eye. Do not adjust the distance of your second eye, keep the same as only having 2 shooting eyes.

Sam .... (or anyone else)
Why "exactly 4 inches in front of your first eye"?

And I'm a little confused over terminology
Shooting eye vs Stripper guide and what is "the first eye" that you are talking about? If there's a tutorial or a site with reference information I'll go check it out for sure.

Thanks, Ken

because it was stated on here. Put the guides on and - if - using a tamer - if needed - it should be placed ( about ) 4" in front of the stripper guide

test cast with it and without it and see if it does any good ??

Ken You know this

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/11/2010 10:58PM by bill boettcher.

So .... :Exactly 4 inches in front of the stripper" - irrespective of rod blank? and the "tamer" should be the same size as the second "shooter" guide - or the 3-rd guide in the guide train no matter what size the second guide is?

So: 12mm stripper say 26-28" from the reel center

first "shooting guide" 6 or 8mm say 14inches past the stripper
second "shooting guide 4 or 6mm say 8-10 inches past the first "shooting guide)

and the "tamer is a 4 or 6mm?

Just trying to get my head around this concept. Maybe it's just getting late... I'll go open one of those wine bottles referenced elsewhere yesterday

ken

A fly rod is kind of like a casting rod. The line comes - straight - off the spool. Why it has to be tamed i don't know I thought that was only for the pig tails on spinning rods ??

Then again - what do I know LOL

Bill - willierods.com