The often overlooked advantage of snake guides (besides weight) is the geometric construction of snake guides permits larger tangles/"wind knots" to clear your guide train without hanging up.
Forum: rodboard

The sensitivity of a rod depends entirely and completely upon the the sensitivity of the line. The smallest amount of slack in your line greatly diminishes the sensitivity available to you, regardless of the composition or construction of your rod - or line.
Forum: rodboard

Is a fly line spooler used to wind fly lines onto spools for storage or to wind fly lines onto reels - or both?
Forum: rodboard

Take care with "lite" snake guides on fly rods. They are springy enough so that if struck parallel to the blank one guide foot will back out from under its wraps. Several Forhan Wraps around each leg of each snake guide will alleviate this problem..
Forum: rodboard

The increase in the mass of the blank will decrease the rod's sensitivity. You can't get something for nothing, and vice-versa. t
Forum: rodboard

I'm pretty sure the ideal rod blank used to pull shallow-running 1/4 ounce plugs would be different than the ideal rod blank used to pull 2 ounce, long lipped, deep diving plugs. I think the two would call for different ERN's and AA's or whatever other method you might use to identify a rod blank's characteristics.
Forum: rodboard

Is there a problem with guides breaking out from under their wrappings or the wrappings themselves breaking? I have never encountered this problem, even before epoxy was available.
Forum: rodboard

I have had more trouble with zombies than I ever had with guides wrapped tightly with thread and saturated with lacquer or epoxy - but I am all the more interested in cases of rod wraps failing. Descriptions would be nice - photos even better!
Forum: rodboard

There are two reasons for adding sinker weight: distance casting, and holding bait in place. For either of these goals there are other and sometimes more effective strategies.
Forum: rodboard

Some savvy fly rod anglers cast a dropper leader rig: a nymph or small streamer tied on a light tippet to the main leader in tandem with a very buoyant floating fly (like a deer hair floater) which also acts as a strike detector. Light travels faster than a tug on a line with slack in it.
Forum: rodboard

I get it, Jim. We all are entitled to our personal tastes. What bugs me are claims of superior performance without a whit of evidence. Enjoy your balanced fly rod.
Forum: rodboard

The power wrap sounds like mass-production. Given a choice between a power-wrapped rod and a skilled hand-wrapped rod which would you choose, and why?
Forum: rodboard

I mostly fish salt water with a fly rod, usually a floating fly line, and often flies tied on circle hooks. I keep my hooks sharp. I do not jerk my fly line to set the hook, and I don't think I know a fly fisher who does, with the possible exception of some self-proclaimed fly fishers who I suspect "sweeten" their flies with pieces of bait. In short, I don't have much need for sensitivi
Forum: rodboard

People who power their fly-casts with their wrist have reason to balance their rods - to reduce strain. People who power their fly-casts with their hauling arm seldom think about balancing their rod, since their wrists have little to do with their casts. Different strokes . . .
Forum: rodboard

If people can't or won't measure the difference in sensitivity between two rods and quantify this difference it's likely the reason for their silence is there is no difference.
Forum: rodboard

Where is the ideal balance point for a fly rod/line/reel combination, and should this balance point be measured while the line is all wound on the reel, or measured while the rod/reel/ line are being used and the weight of the line is being swung back-and-forth beyond the rod tip-top while a cast is being made? I always wondered if this balance is a static or a dynamic measurement - dynamic like
Forum: rodboard

I was dying to get into the ERN, the RFD, the LSMFT and similar discussions of static measurements - but I resisted temptation!
Forum: rodboard

What is the desired outcome of balancing a fly rod and reel, and where should this balance point be? Should this balance occur when all the fly line is reeled in or when you are waving 20 or 30 feet of fly line during a cast? I have always wondered about this.
Forum: rodboard

Wind knots? Not as often in the leader as in the line, especially if I do any roll casting. I have been casting weighted flies off and on since around 1956. I dislike casting weighted flies. I would rather cast a sinking line and use a short leader. And you?
Forum: rodboard

I think a chart equating the measured resistance of the crank baits in use with the measured flexibility of the blanks in use would be useful, but might be opposed by advertisers.
Forum: rodboard

Assuming there's enough room, a roll cast with a fast-taper fly line and short leader should work. I waded C.C. bay flats with a fly rod for many years and had a ball with bluefish - scads them. Cruising G.W. sharks have put an end to that.
Forum: rodboard

Phil: how many times have you seen wind knots in a fly line leader? How often have you casted weight flies?
Forum: rodboard

An advertiser of rods printed ads extolling the "soulful action" of his product. Rod advertisements are chock-full with claims "Fast" or "Smooth" or "Sensitive" rods, and arguments rage over the presence or amount of these elusive characteristics in fish rods. Advertisers offer dreams, not reality. Admen apparently have concluded the average rod-buyer is ha
Forum: rodboard

There is a zero percent chance of this "sensitivity / line / rod" conflict resulting in a conclusion or providing credible information until scientific equipment and measurements are used to test hypotheses of rod sensitivity. Posts comprised of pure speculation - AKA "guesses" - are no help, except to keep the squabble going.
Forum: rodboard

I would recommend snake guides, which pass line snarls and "wind knots" more easily than ring guides. A #30 Dorado on a #20 leader with a "wind knot" in your line could easily take the tip section of your rod with him before he broke off . . .
Forum: rodboard

Is there a single source which identifies and groups a variety of blanks by their ERN, TNF and/or AA? That would save a lot of time searching for such information or money buying and testing for these critical numbers. Which (if any)rod marketers provide this information along with the length and weight of their blanks?
Forum: rodboard

What are the distinguishing characteristics of a "crank bait rod"? I ask because crank baits vary widely in their actions and the resistance they create when in use.
Forum: rodboard

I have been exercising recently. Should I add weight to my fishing poles to change their frequency to compensate for the increased torque being applied to them? Is there a bench test to help me decide? I dislike testing my fishing poles near water.
Forum: rodboard

The original post on this thread was about ERN's - a static measurement. Fishing and casting are dynamic, not static, subjects. Is it any surprise that discussions of what happens with rods on benches conflict with discussions of what happens with rods while fishing?
Forum: rodboard

ben b. - Right you are! The rod can't be any more sensitive than the line that connects it to the movement, and the least bit of slack at Any point in the line eliminates All sensitivity.
Forum: rodboard