I have a lot of respect for St. Croix products and the company itself. Last week I asked about getting their recommended fly rod guide spacings and several here were kind enough to point me to their chart on the St. Croix website. I made this observation, even though St. Croix fly rods come in all different powers and actions, the spacing per the length is the same no matter what. So even two St. Croix fly rods from different models and having different actions are shown to have the same guide number and spacing. I would not have thought they would go about it in such a generic way. I would think each blank and each different action would need a slightly different spacing. Maybe not.

You are correct. Different action rods have different spacing for the guides. In general, a faster action road (tip flex) will have the guides grouped closer to the tip than a medium action (mid flex) rod. The only blank manufacturer I know that goes to that much detail is Batson. They give separate recipes for each blank they make on their forum. I have static tested some of their recipes and have found them to be very accurate.

Any factory spacing is Only A Starting Point.

Guides are usually put as One per foot -plus one To Start and then a Static test is done to complete the spacing and see if the number of guides is good. Then Test Casting to see how it performs.

Check the Library Page for how to space guides there are several articles there

Bill - willierods.com

Summary,
Use a guide chart to get general initial spacing for a particular blank.
Then, tweak the spacing as needed to optimize the guide spacing, both with respect to spacing as well as the number of guides.

If possible, go with fewer guides, than with more guides. Unless there is a real need for a guide on a blank, leave it off. Put on only enough guides to allow the line to follow the contour of the loaded blank. Also, simply insure that the guide placement allows the line to follow the contour of the loaded blank as well.

Be safe

Roger

Whenever I test cast with the guides taped to the rod, (spinning), I cannot tell any difference when I move the guides up and down the rod. By moving I mean a couple of inches. Any ideas what I may doing wrong? TIA

I've used the mentioned spacing charts and found them to be reliable and conservative.
The performance was also good and should be based on the vast number of rods built to those specs.
Possibly they realize there is much more to a fishing rod then guide location.
Blank construction and taper design should take top priority and as long as number of guides and spacing is adequate warranty issues will not be a problem.
Other factors like abuse will contribute more to failure than guide spacing.
I've also deviated considerably from those charts when performance was dictated over durability.
I don't believe the human eye to be the final discriminate quality when evaluating guide location.
Maybe another guide "looks" right may not have any real bearing on wether it should or shouldn't be utilized.
Is that guide necessary for the rod to perform it's given duty ???

Eugene Moore

If the guides are too fare away or apart you may get a Failure at that point or some where in between

That's up to you

Bill - willierods.com

The charts you mention were not necessarily designed for St. Croix's rods, even though St. Croix uses them. Most came right out of the early 1980's Fenwick Rod Building Catalogs.

However, as long as you use enough guides, it is unlikely that you won't have adequate stress distribution for your rod. One guide per foot of rod length (minimum) on a fly rod pretty much ensures that you'll be okay unless you do something pretty wild with the spacing.

Can you do better? Certainly. But if you don't wish to put in a few minutes time, you can certainly get by safely with those spacings.

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

Dave,
You indicate that you can move the guides up and down on the rod by a few inches and not see any difference in casting.
Really, that is no surprise at all. Think about it Dave. When you cast a rod, your rod is essentially straight as the line goes shooting off of the end of the rod. So, whether a guide is in one location or another - except for the first couple of guides, you are not likely to see a lot of difference.

The important thing to look for, as long as you have enough guides of the right size on the rod, is to see how the line looks with respect to the blank when the blank is fully loaded.
In this circumstance, you will see very large differences in the line flow if the guides are moved very much.

Good luck
Roger

Rods don't usually break on the cast But do on heavy load that's where static test comes to play.

Bill - willierods.com