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Most long stems seem to be angled more toward the guide possibly eliminating any issue caused by the longer stem
or maybe we just play the fish a little slower and not 'winch' the fish in like its our last meal coming up from the depths...... . Im getting ready to build a few rods, so Ill be paying attention to guide placement, but too, im not going to move all my guides toward the end of my rod.....I use all rods that Ive built and Ive not noticed any pulsating effects when bringing in fish....but I also use very light line, so I dont horse the fish in.....Again, good post Slippery.
Do you build rods at all? Could really open up your experimenting. You could also fix rods with uneven cones
So after all the downtime and too much thinking... I have decided that I will fish my 13 Whiteout rod skipping the first line guide to allow a more straight line and more uniformed cone angle. Waiting for ice and some real field test...
I hate to bump such a old thread up but have noticed this myself, especially on St-Croix Custom Ice rods, I actually just sold one of them due to this, it wasn't so much the pulsating but when I had a fish on I could feel the rough angle while reeling through the first guide, each time the line would come in contact with the first guide it would cause a lot of pressure on the rotor with each rotation, felt almost like my reel was skipping.The last time I used it I ended up bypassing the first guide which made a huge improvement.How these pro's use these St-Croix CCI rods without having them changed confuses me....
Ht accucast reels use a angled reel stem. Might solve your issue if you like the rod otherwise. "Pros" seem to promote whoever pays them regardless of quality