Modern mid to high end rods, fitted with the better-than stainless steel alloys on the body guides and ceramic inserts on the stripping guide(s) are all but immune to abrasive damage during the usual life of a rod. Problem solved.
III Abrasion and the Fly Reel
Unfortunately, the exact same challenge of line abrasion has not been equally appreciated, or responded to, in the evolution of the fly reel. One reason is that, in the newer theatre of salt water fly fishing where the demands on the reel become corrosion resistance, rigidity, and an effective, serious drag, a complete re-design and re-tool was necessary. In meeting those demands, the base frame almost incidentally was also seriously hardened AND, in salt water fly fishing, where line abrasion on rod components is maximized, line abrasion on REEL components is minimized!
This takes some explaining, but it is essentially the difference between a double taper line and a weight forward line and how they are cast. While there is some middle ground this is easiest to demonstrate with examples from the far ends of the spectrum.
When a salt water fly fisherman prepares to cast, always with a weight forward line, he is typically preparing to make a long cast, or anything in-between. He is usually standing on a boat or in water, and/or may have a stripping basket. With a weight forward line, his thought is to pull off all the shooting line he might need for any situation, stripping onto the deck, water, or into the basket. He wants to strip it off initially because once he begins false casting he cannot easily make further adjustment. His false casting distance is limited by the configuration of the weight forward line. With one or two false casts he will aerialize the head and with a double haul shoot 30 to 60 feet of line…if necessary…if he has prepared by stripping that much off the reel. So…before casting, he stands and prepares by stripping out the head and then large amounts of running line into or onto a place where they will stay clear. THEN he casts. The only abrasion is the minor, easily controlled angle as he pulls line off the reel, and only against the reel drag. And often the angler will back off the drag for this initial line pull-out, then re-set it. The typically heavier drag set on a saltwater reel itself discourages ANY stripping while false casting.
Now consider a trout fisherman preparing to cast his three weight double taper line on a stream. He typically has a short range target in sight and may be standing in grass, bushes, rocks, things that grab and catch a fly line. He is mobile, moving in small increments up and down the bank. But most significantly he is thinking to false cast his DT line TO his target and then drop it with a minimum or no shoot, and he can easily false cast to almost the full length of his line. So…it is NOT imperative that he strip off his longest potential cast of line right at the start. In fact it is inefficient and dangerous, in terms of line tangles, to do so. If he has line on the ground he can’t walk a few steps up or down. If his target is 30 feet away he has the option of false casting out thirty feet of line from the reel, stripping with each false cast. That tactic prevents exposure of line to tangles and still allows him some mobility to move up or downstream. Or he can strip off the needed thirty feet of line, risk tangles, anchor himself from any possible movement…and cast.