In the workshop with Mark Tunley -YouTube

[Steve Arnold]

Unless your trying to maximise casting distance, then the more guides reduce the cast, to me, rods are more about playing fish as in the real world good fish aren't all sitting miles out...

I think your term "real world" is spot on. For practical purposes guides are chosen and placed to suit a style of fishing, blank action and even water conditions.

One of the rods I bought in the last couple of years is the Preston Feeder Feeda 12' 6" which was designed for chucking big loads good distances.

Despite it being partly built using a copy of the K style guides it had the usual multiple small guides on the quiver tip. Despite all the guides I managed a cast of about 130 yds using a 3 ounce weight. This distance I measured on Google maps as the landing stage I cast from had channel buoys lined up across the river.

I doubt that all those guides restricted the cast more than an absolutely minimal amount. What is more important is the size and spacing of the guides and also the amount of stand-off from the blank each guide has to guide the line from the reel to flow parallel to the blank. The butt guide height and diameter has to be carefully chosen to suit the reel height and spool diameter and also the action of the blank.

Those rods that use the fewest guides possible trying to achieve greater casting distance often suffer from the coils of line slapping against the blank. This can LOSE distance but also often results in ring wraps by the line, particularly in strong cross winds. To my mind rods with just a few outsize guides are a peculiarity of the tournament casting scene - not of the "real world" situation we fish in!

 

[@Clive]

Back in the first decade of the 20th century they were having a similar debate about tournament casting outfits bearing no resemblence to the tackle used for fishing. Back then they mounted centrepin type reels on the side of the rod, 90 degrees to how anglers used them. That was because the reels turned ever so slightly more freely on their backs with handles facing upwards than in the conventional manner. Line was wound on backwards so it came off the reel on top rather than underneath to save a gnat's on friction on the first guide that was also larger and placed further up the rod.

The current fad for 5 ring carp rods I think stems from some anglers reporting that they got better bites when their baits were fished well away from the bank. It was thought that carp were less wary when they were out of range of the usual angler's range of casting. That caused many carp anglers to believe that they needed to cast further in order to catch more or bigger fish. The five ring rod was the tool they thought that they needed. Now you see these anglers using rods that would cast beyond the confines of the small lakes that they fish.

 

[Steve Arnold]

Back in the first decade of the 20th century they were having a similar debate about tournament casting outfits bearing no resemblence to the tackle used for fishing. Back then they mounted centrepin type reels on the side of the rod, 90 degrees to how anglers used them. That was because the reels turned ever so slightly more freely on their backs with handles facing upwards than in the conventional manner. Line was wound on backwards so it came off the reel on top rather than underneath to save a gnat's on friction on the first guide that was also larger and placed further up the rod.

The current fad for 5 ring carp rods I think stems from some anglers reporting that they got better bites when their baits were fished well away from the bank. It was thought that carp were less wary when they were out of range of the usual angler's range of casting. That caused many carp anglers to believe that they needed to cast further in order to catch more or bigger fish. The five ring rod was the tool they thought that they needed. Now you see these anglers using rods that would cast beyond the confines of the small lakes that they fish.

As a young sea angler I was fascinated by developments in surf fishing tackle. Distance casting was a big deal on the Suffolk coast and usually resulted in better catches and bigger fish.

Around that time I talked some of my fellow apprentices into the long drive for a holiday in SW Ireland to fish for bass. I was the only one of our group to NOT catch a bass! My mistake was casting too far, the fish were in the tables of surf around our feet!

On returning to Suffolk I went to the beach at Southwold before dawn. A very short cast into the ripples where the tide was running over a sandbar resulted in three bass before the sun had risen, the biggest over 12 lbs.

Well, I still have not properly learned the lesson! I find the whole business of distance casting fascinating and quite clearly there are many more anglers like me!........but in a carp POND?

But I do see a fishing rod as a lot more than a casting tool. Making the best of a nice blank takes more than a fancy "whipping" as well, there are so many questions to ask before deciding on how to build your rod!

Most of my rods are cheap, but I do choose them to do a job.....and I am not shy about chopping them or even adding to them where I feel something is not quite right.

In the end though, it's all about getting a bait in front of that fish and getting the fish on the hook. Sometimes you don't even need to cast!

 

[@Clive]

Our French friend has two BILs who regularly blank when fishing for bass on the Cote Sauvage. It seems that they were just blindly casting as far as they could. I explained to Eric what Clive Gammon had written about fishing in the swell or trough behind the first breaking wave. I had tried it when our little fishing club went to Dingle and had caught some bass from the beach. It is the same when barbel fishing in that it is usually more productive to fish a crease or channel than allowing the combination of skill, tackle and weather conditions to determine where your bait ended up. I would imagine that in the distance casting for carp, if the reason for achieving the extra distance is to reach unpressurised fish, once everbody reached those distances the advantage would be lost. But, how many carp anglers do you see fishing close to the near bank?

 

[Alan Whitty]

Very few Clive, in fact it's becoming a competition as to how far you can spod(a thousand times), then if you watch an angler like Adam Penning state that if he sees carp moving elsewhere he will be up and gone, minimal feeding is something he condones, but minimal is in the eyes of the beholder when some anglers consider a kilo of boilies isn't much...

 

[nottskev]

Every method has its place. But Distance Fishing is a bit of a trend at the moment and every trend is rapidly saturated as companies cash in on the chance to flog us more gear. Thus, there are distance feeder rods, distance feeder reels, distance feeders, distance measuring poles etc. Anyone want to bet against distance feeder line? Distance feeder hooks? Distance feeder footwear and headgear?

Here's a nice example of Angling Times seamlessly blending fishing pseudo-knowledge with marketing bs:

"Autumn is the time to dig out the long-range feeder gear to tackle fish that are moving far out into the lake.
The extra strain put on your rod by a big cast will lead to cheap carbon and poorly-designed quivertips underperforming or getting broken. The tips need to be fast tapered and stiff enough to withstand frap-ups on the cast, yet still soft enough to be able to show up bites clearly."

Etc.

 

[@Clive]

Every method has its place. But Distance Fishing is a bit of a trend at the moment and every trend is rapidly saturated as companies cash in on the chance to flog us more gear. Thus, there are distance feeder rods, distance feeder reels, distance feeders, distance measuring poles etc. Anyone want to bet against distance feeder line? Distance feeder hooks? Distance feeder footwear and headgear?

Here's a nice example of Angling Times seamlessly blending fishing pseudo-knowledge with marketing bs:

"Autumn is the time to dig out the long-range feeder gear to tackle fish that are moving far out into the lake.
The extra strain put on your rod by a big cast will lead to cheap carbon and poorly-designed quivertips underperforming or getting broken. The tips need to be fast tapered and stiff enough to withstand frap-ups on the cast, yet still soft enough to be able to show up bites clearly."

Etc.

Whereas in t'olden days angling magazines would just be telling you to fish nearer the dam, in deeper water. That costs nothing.

And what is it about carp fishing and islands. From a fish's perspective an island is just another bank. Same as the far bank and the bank that you are standing on.

 

[Alan Whitty]

The biggest problem Kev is that an anglers casting technique has more to do with the distance he can cast than anything else, the rods, reels and braid just maximise it....