why do some rods have so many more eyes than others?

[fishfanatic]

I guess this question will show my inexperience  but if I don't ask I wont learn. My wife bought me a baitcaster rod last year and it has 10 eyes for the line to run through....  why so many?  and the largest one is a lot smaller than the other rods i have owned.    only has about a 1/2 inch opening  

thanks for the info in advance  

[Triton21]

"All the better to see you with".

All kidding aside my guess is to keep the line off the blank.

[ROCbass]

In general, casting rods have more guides than spinning rods because the eyes are on top, so more are needed to keep the line off the blank under load. More expensive rods will usually have more guides (and better ones) than cheap rods, this is one way that manufacturers of low budget rods keep their costs down. The guides on casting rods are smaller than those on spinning rods because the bail on a spinning reel causes the line to come off and on the reel in wide loops, so larger diameter guides are needed.

[ejtaylor822]

As others have said, its "usually" to keep the line off the blank. The smaller the ring/guides with the lowered height, which lowers the line closer to the blank, the more guides will be needed.

In rod building, the traditional "cone of flight" rule of thumb is the number of guides on a spinning rod will equal the length in feet of the rod; baitcaster will be the length in feet plus 1. So, a 7' BC will have 8 guides and a 7' spinning will have 7'. If the length is over a foot increment, you round up and add one - ie., 6'6" BC will have 8.

With the "j" guides from fuji and stronger single foot guides, the line can be moved closer to the blank where efficiencies are gained in casting and fighting. This means that more guides are needed to keep the line off the blank. But, that's ok as the guides are much lighter so the action and sensitivity is minimally impacted.

I built a 7 BC rod based upon the concept design. After static and cast testing, turned out that 9 guides were needed. The last 5 guides were #6 fly guides. I am building another on the same blank with almost identical characteristics. On this one though with the lower guides (#4) a total of 12 guides are needed - lower guides and more needed to keep the line off the blank.

Hope this helps and makes sense.

Eddie

[SirSnookalot]

I built a 7 BC rod based upon the concept design.  After static and cast testing, turned out that 9 guides were needed.

I mostly use spinners, all have Fuji concept and the 7 footers all have 9 guides as well, seems to be the same as b/c rods.

[Fishing Rhino]

As a general rule, the more eyes, the more evenly force is distributed along the rod.

Imagine a rod with the only eye being at the tip.  You can easily visualize the large gap that would occur when the rod is bent.  Now, visualize an eye between the tip and the rod.

The force at that middle eye produces a resistance to bending in the rod.  As you continue to add eyes, the tension in the line is more evenly distributed along the length of the rod.

Because the rod tapers, it is possible to have the largest gap in the line between the reel and the first eye.

There may be exceptions, but on all my rods, the gap between eyes gets progressively shorter as the rod diameter decreases.

I assume that there is a method or formula for calculating the optimum placements for the eyes.

[KYntucky Warmouth]

A 7' Powell has 11 guides

[bassinfla82]

Rhino hit the nail on the head!