This page finds a spacing for the guides on your flyrod. based on the Dale Clemens formula, as explained by Art Port. This formula is also available in a stand-program for MS-Windows from Al Baldauski (download).

For the Wayne Cattanach formula, Click here.

The program requires three inputs, in a choice of American or metric units:

1. The number of guides. A rule of thumb is to round the length of the rod to whole feet (rounding up for six inches), then add one. This gives the number of snake and stripper guides, not counting the tiptop.
2. Distance of first guide from tip. In inches or centimeters.
3. Distance of the butt (stripper) guide from the tip. Generally, the stripper guide is placed about 30 inches from the rod butt for average-length rods, maybe more or less for long or short rods.

American
Number of guides 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Distance to first guide (inches) 0 1/16 1/8 3/16 1/4 5/16 3/8 7/16 1/2 9/16 5/8 11/16 3/4 13/16 7/8 15/16 (fraction) Distance to butt guide (inches) 0 1/16 1/8 3/16 1/4 5/16 3/8 7/16 1/2 9/16 5/8 11/16 3/4 13/16 7/8 15/16 (fraction)
Metric
Number of guides 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Distance to first guide (centimeters) Distance to butt guide (centimeters)