Snakes - bowing to tradition and popular demand or are manufacturers just penny-pinching?

I have modestly priced Shakespeare rod that is over 20 years old. The lined, single-leg, Fuji rings are showing no signs of wear, I can cast further with this rod and lines last longer than with snakes.

As for the weight difference and impeding the action

In the days of advanced technology, with carbon rods and fluorocarbon lines, are the manufacturers just cost-cutting by persisting with snake rings?

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How poor a thing, sometimes I find,
Will captivate a greedy mind - Isaac Walton.

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[QUOTE=Tommy Ruffe;460586]
I can cast further with this rod and lines last longer than with snakes.

QUOTE]

It is my understanding that with snakes there is less friction/resistance meaning the opposite of what you have stated

Walker

Don't get me started on the state of the modern fly rod (and other tackle) industry.

Well perhaps I should.

The reason for those truly horrid cheap and nasty snake guides plus the even worse "hayfork" tip guides is that they will wear out!!! The funny thing then is that rather than have a re-whipping job and new guides, a bigger portion of the owner of the rod will buy a new rod!

Now do you get my drift?

In the old, days prior to glass fibre and carbon, anglers owned few rods. A rod was meant to last for many many years and was looked after carefully. Remember how we used to hang them up with the little loop at the end of the bag? Remember how we used to wipe them down with a cloth and a little linseed oil?

This sort of perfomance doesn't suit today's consumer throw away society does it?

And the problem is with the makers of expensive rods, the worst of them being the Big S?

The hiking of a $15 blank plus $25s worth of hang-ons and $10 worth of labour to the equivalent of $900 is a miracle of the modern con trick and a wonder of modern marketing which we all fall for!

Don't we?

yes, we dont have an option really.

Well, for what it's worth, my rod has fuji lined eyes, the same one's it came with 23 years ago, and it's still going strong.

Is this another one of your spouts Ron or do you actually have proof of the above?

I have quite a few Sage rods, I am happy to pay top dollar for them but for you to make up exaggerated costs is very misleading.

Walker

You are a perfect customer then
Have a read of Steve Partons piece about the true cost of fly rods.

I have read it.

Just because Steve Parton is the author does not mean it is gospel.

The best snakes are a quid or two UK retail, the best lined guides two or three times that. Rod price difference bought wholesale - maybe £10-20. Makes difference on a lower end rod, but sage et al? I don't think it is a cost conspiracy. I think its more about what people expect a fly rod to look like ie not like a carp or spinning rod!

Lets all be honest here, a premium sage, orvis, loomis or hardy rod is not worth the sub £600 that they retail at. Only a fool would believe that. If however you want to fish with the best, if you have the money, if you think that these rods make you cast better/feel better then what is wrong with shelling out that kind of expenditure? That is the going rate unless like me you are in the position of being able to get a heavy discount.

IMO there is a huge difference from a rod costing sub £100 to a rod costing sub £600. Only those that have fished with each of them can honestly answer that. When an 'expert' such as Steve Parton brings out a piece stating what each rod costs and how the consumer is being mislead, you have to realise this guy is in the business of selling his own manufactured rods, he is trying to make money, he is very unlikely to praise other manufactures and therefore he is biased. I am not saying that he is wrong but it is only his point of view. So giving out the usual reply 'Steve Parton (or Ron Clay) says that so it must be true' doesn't wsh, not with me.

I am from the world where evidence based practice features highly in my working life, just because one paper states a truth doesn't mean to say that it is.

Walker