Fishing and Friends

Here's to the end of a long writing recess.

I popped over to a new friends house the other night for dessert and a little home made vino. The wine was a smokey blend of red with a nice nutty finish. All in all a good dry red. The kind that makes you wish you were on a veranda overlooking the ice blue seas of the Bahamas. Dreaming of tomorrows catch.

Now if I could have finished it with some jazz (Bob Evens, Oscar Peterson....) and a Cuesta-Ray Dominican No. 3 Long Panatela I would have thought I died and went to heaven.

But as it turns out the closest I got to a state of bliss was when the conversation turned to fly fishing. I hadn't known that my friend was into fly fishing. I've known him for a year and you would think it would have come up. My conversation skills must be slipping. I thought that most of my talk was about my latest fishing adventure (the one that got away). I try to slip it in at least once a day.

After learning about our mutual love of fly fishing he took me to his basement to show me his collection of fly rods. A 2wt. and a 4wt. Were taken out of there case and handled with the love a father gives to a new born. I was pleased to see that we had matching fly rod cases. The proverbial PVC case that we all have. If you don't have one and need directions for one. I have the directions for building one on this blog. Search for PVC rod case.

After handing me the 2wt. He told me he had made it. I asked him about the blank and it was a 9'

G. Loomis IMX (fast action). One of my favorite rod building blanks. I then noticed it had a full wells grip. I love full wells handles and even on this 2 wt. It didn't seem to out of place. It had the typical 2 foot snake guides wrapped in black thread. 9 of them made a good balance of guides to rod length. They seemed to be proportionately spaced along the blank and sized correctly for the rod.

Now I'm not a big fan of 2wts rods. To small for me I wouldn't know what to do with it. Cast it or use it as a spear. But it occurred to me after looking at his rod that a good case could be made for single foot snake guides on a rod of this size diameter.

I've long thought that double foot guides create a flat spot along the blank profile. Put nine of then along the rod and there are going to be a lot of flat spots that don't bend with the rod flexure of the cast. Add to this extended thread wraps out past each foot end and you create a longer flat spot. My friend confirmed this when he said that his 2wt cast a little like a hinge. Almost imperceptible but there never the less.

I build all of my fly rods (4wt - 8wt) with single foot guides. With todays guide material and construction I don't see a problem. Use size “A” thread and properly mixed wrap epoxy. Along with good rod prep at the guide spacing and what could be the issue.

A fly rod is designed to have a flex profile along it casting axis. If we create large surface areas that don't flex along this profile then we create dampeners at these rod points. This changes the rods casting performance. Greatly compounded with a poorly alined spine. On a well designed rod blank, maybe and this is a big maybe, it wont be that big of a problem. But on an average blank design, and make no mistake most rod blanks sold today are made average and for the average caster. It could be a noticeable issue. Most of todays rods are sold in the average $150. price range. (and check their spine alinement).

I'm not talking about, wrapping power material around the mandrel, resin, fiber alignment, cure time, overlaps, underlaps, M.O.I, fiber density, resin matrix, kicks and cures, hot spots, oven time, or time to catalyze etc.....ad infinitum . I'm talking about what we as rod builders can do to make a better rod.

Tight line till next time. Drop me a line and lets talk about it.