So I've been practicing casting in the backyard for some time to gauge how the different rods would work out. It's a bit strange when I was comparing my old St. Croix Legend Elite 6'8" MXF with the newer St. Croix Legend Elite 6'10" MXF in casting distance. While I'm only able to use a side arm cast in the backyard it seems that the older shorter rod was getting more distance. I thought that maybe it was the reel and line that was affecting it, so I swapped the reels out between the two rods. Still I got a very similar result and the older rod still got more casting distance. While the actual reel seat handles were different between the two rods, it shouldn't affect it that much or perhaps it does. Since I'm used to the reel seat on the older rod, it may make a difference. The other thing is that the older rod has what they considered by today's standards of line guides, it called standard size. While the new rod has smaller line guides, it's considered semi-micro line guides. Now that would indicate that for my results, the larger line guides are allowing my casting distance to be optimized. That would mean that in opposite results, the smaller semi-micro line guides are reducing my casting distance by how I'm using it.