Hi guys,
This is truely the best rod building site out there! I have been reading posts for the past few weeks and am learning a great deal. Have a copy of Tom's book and have read it over a few times already. I have built a fiberglass flyrod a few years ago, but now have my sights set on a few graphite fly rods that I want to make. I'm looking into a 6 weight fast action rod with single foot SIC guides. I'm looking at the rainshadow xcel blank in the 3 or 4 piece model.

Seems to me that a double foot stipper guide would be very appropriate, since that guide will take more of a force with casting/strip striking. Would it look strange to have the two other stippers (if I need to add one 4 inches after the first to increase casting distance) that were single footed? What about size and frame types? I looked at mudhole and couldn't find fly sic guides from fuji. Do you go to spinning guides? Has anyone built a similar rod, what guides did you use and like?

I was re-evaluating my work on the first rod. According to Tom's method on placing the stripping guide it looks like its nearly 10 inches farther away than it should be! By placing the first guide closer, is this making the line cast more efficiently? Also looks like I wrapped way past the guide foots which only would add unnecessary weight.

Anyway, looking forward to getting started and hearing your suggestions.
Thanks,
Mike

How long is your blank and how far behind the tip is your stripping guide? I could give you a rough idea whether or not it is too far up or back.

Double foot guides are built more to take the abuse fishermen give out than what is dished out when casting or fish fighting. Most guides are greatly overbuilt for the job they have to do. Whether or not something looks weird, or right, or strange has more to do with the eye of the beholder than any accepted standard. I would suggest allowing form to follow function.

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I used 2 high frame spinning guides as strippers on my 6 wt, followed by a spinning single foot to help the transition down to the SIC fly guides. I like the double stripper 3.5" apart setup on a 6 wt.

I think it went 12 mm double spinning, 12mm double spinning, 10mm spinning, 10mm fly, 8mm fly, and 7mm running to the 7mm top. At that phase, I thought that the high frame with the slightly smaller ring size did the job as well as a huge stripper. Actually, I still think so.

No, I do not see any particular reason not to use single foots all the way after the first stripper. I would just watch the heights and make sure it all sorta flows together.

Mike,

I built a 9 wt. with single foot strippers, using a 'double stripper' set up, and I've had no strength problems so far. I used the Fuji 'New Concept' Alconite guides on this rod, using the single foot spinning guides (two 16s and a 12) for the strippers, then down to a #8 spinning for the transition with #6 'fly' types on out. I ended up with twelve guides total, more than I thought I would need, but that's what the rod 'wanted' to perform. The rod casts like a rocket.

Fuji offers a single foot SIC 'fly' type guide in it's 'New Concept' line.

Good Luck!

Buddy

Thanks for the help guys.
Tom, my stipper on the fiberglass rod is fully 32 inches from the butt, on a 8 and a half foot rod (7 weight). For guide placement, I just used a formula that someone had photocopied for me. I now realize the the value of the "control" stripper four inches to the tip to help tame the line and the placement of the first about 1-2 inches from the point of the stripping hand placement. This next rod will be test casted extensively before anything gets wrapped down!

I want to build a 9 foot graphite, probably rainshowdow 3 or 4 piece. What would your guide size and order be? I noticed that the alconite tips only fit a size 5 tip, my blank would be a 4.5. Do I need thread wraps to make up this difference if I stick with the alconite top???

This begs another question though. If the stripper gets moved closer to the butt, to which end do I add the extra guides (ie, more 6s at the tip or addition strippers or transitions guides, or both)?

It sounds like with single-foot guides, I could add 1 or 2 that wouldn't add much more weight than traditional snake guides.

If I used alconite guides but replaced the tip top and the stripper with a SIC ring, would that make any difference since those guides take the sharpest angles? Maybe it doesn't make a noticable difference. Just a thought.

Mike

Mike

On my 8'6" fly rods my stripping guide seems to fall about 30 inches from the butt. On the 9' rods, it falls about 32 inches. I normally use high frame spinning type guides (SVSG) for my stripping guide. This gets the line farther off the blank to reduce any slap and I can get by with a smaller ring to the same job as the larger ringed casting type stripping guide.

The best rule of thumb is to hold the rod in your casting arm with your upper and lower arms at 90 degrees to each other. With your other arm/hand reach up to the rod as if you were going to pick up the line to strip. Don't overreach, just move up to the rod in a comfortable manner. Locate your stripping guide about an inch or so ahead of that and most times you'll be about right.

The alconites are great guides. They do make tops in several sizes and one of them will fit your rod. When the blank tip falls inbetween, I use the next larger size top and shim with my thread trim wrap.

Under full load, there is almost no pressure on the tip most guides and tip top - the pressure is on the butt guides as that is where the load is concentrated. The tip, being less powerful, flattens out. In theory, the SIC is the better choice for all guides as it has a higher level of polish and hardness. I believe it and use them when cost is not an option. But the alconites are the first guide to offer us near SIC performance at about the cost of most aluminum oxide guides. I like them and have used them on several rods now. I have no complaints and see little on-the-water difference between them and SIC, so far.

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