I have of late been using casting guides and tip tops (ceramic insert) on fly rods. I really like the look and they seem to work well. I'd like to know if other builders and fishermen find this a satisfactory practice? Gary Jones. ([email protected])

I've built hundreds of fly rods with ceramic guides and have zero complaints. The rods feel smoother and quieter.

Having said that, on lighter rods I began using the Pacific Bay Minima guides as a compromise between carrying less weight and still offering more than adequate performance. I have zero complaints with them in this capacity.

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I like them also, Lamiglas at one time used ceramics on their high end fly rods.

Every fly rod does not need to conform to the same standards, nor does every fly rod component. The weight and size of guides for a 5wt. that will seldom if ever have to cast over 40' are quite different than the requirements of guides for a 9wt that frequently needs to cast 70' or more.

that,s interesting Spencer..were they titanium frames?

No Ben, it was their Esprit/XMG50 fly rods and I believe they were black framed Fuji Alconites.

No Ben, it was their Esprit/XMG50 fly rods and I believe they were black framed Fuji Alconites. I won a 9 1/2 ft, 3 piece, 7 wt. that was a bomb, sold it on the river to a fishing buddy. Than bought a blank and haven't built on it yet. Started using Dan Craft blanks and haven't got to it.

that,s a little surprising that they didn,t use titanium..thanks Spencer..

Price would probably go through the roof if they equipped the rod's with titanium framed guides , St. Croix decided to equip all their latest Legend surf rods with Titanium torzite guides and the price jumped from an average of $400.00 + when they used Fuji's black Alconite LC frames to $600.00 + with Fuji's best Titanium torzites.

I have also been doing it for a while but have found that you need to use more single foot ceramic guides than double foot snake guides to get better performance. There is a better feel with the ceramic guides but there is also a jump in cost.

For the running guides, I've used single foot CSFGs from Pac Bay, upsizing 1 step from mfg suggestion for snake gudies, with one or two larger ceramic strippers.

Never had issues casting. Snake guides are easier to thread line or leader through if you go on the diagonal, but the single foot ones seem very good at line control.

I recently built an 8'6' spinning rod on a St Croix blank with some new micro ceramic fuji guides that casts braid like a dream. The guides were the Fuji KL BC Grey Alconite. I set the two larger guides in line with the reel axis and the small, running ceramics kept the line "in line" really well. I was surprised how small they were and how close they were to each other but the rod cast a dream on a recent trip to the Bahamas. In terms of a fly rod, I'm not sure if it would be a good thing to add guides and keep the line closer to the blank or not.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2019 05:22PM by David MacDonald.

And now there's the CERecoil. A ceramic ring affixed to a Recoil wire frame. Perhaps the lightest ceramics yet for a fly rod.

I've built several 8 and 9 weight rods with all Fuji ceramic guides(K series). I also use the Fuji titanium (F) tops.

To keep weight to a minimum, I use titanium framed guides for the tip section and then the stainless "corrosion control" for the lower running guides. This makes for a good casting rod, keeps the cost reasonable.

Drew

Gary W. Jones Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have of late been using casting guides and tip
> tops (ceramic insert) on fly rods. I really like
> the look and they seem to work well. I'd like to
> know if other builders and fishermen find this a
> satisfactory practice? Gary Jones.
> ([email protected])

Tom, I am focusing on building Switch and Spey rod. What would you put on those type? I should also have said High quality blanks



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2019 09:44AM by Mark Emaus.