Good day Guys & Gals

Building a 9' 6wt fly rod and would like the pros and cons on guides
to us Single foot model SF or snake model SN, would like to us the SF.
Thks Gar

Use single foot ceramics on a 6 wt....You'll be glad you did.

Keith

IMO single foot guides don't look right on a fly rod. I doubt you save any weight as the single foots requires a longer wrap. The thread and epoxy is where the weight is. I use short foot snakes with silk thread and varnish instead od nylon and epoxy.

On a 6 wt I would use ceramic single foots. The only disadvantage I see is cost.
On a 6 wt I am willing to carry a little extra weight to get the smoothness and line control of the ceramics.

You want single foot ceramics or single foot wire. Never double footed snakes. I would go with ceramics. Bill, at what weight to you switch to a combination of wire and ceramics, a #4?

1) I am not an authority

2) I have used the titanium frame SIC all the way up on a 4 wt and it worked wonderfully.

3) I have built several rods in the 3/4 wt and 2/3 wt classes using wire SF's near the top and ceramics (the cheaper one) up to there.

4) I just finished red-doing the rod I fish with the most. A 5 wt Winston LT. It was one of my first rods and I used 3 cerment strippers and snakes the rest of the way. I went back last week and took most of the snakes off and put on some Cerments I bought cheap from the For Sale on this site. But I quit with the cerments when I got to the tip section. The wire snakes seem a lot lighter than the cerments. And the LT has a very light tip.

I really like the way that rod casts now with the cerments up to the 4 snakes on the tip and a cerment tiptop.

Bill. How is the cast different? I am a bit concerned that the line might want to slow down accordian style as it hit the slower wire on the shoot. Otherwise is makes sense to me and I shall have to try it.

No, I don't think that happens. The "shoot" is caused by the line pulling from the front, so there is nothing much to make it accordian in the rod. It is not like a casting reel where the spool is feeding line. The cast just has to pull the line out in a fly rod. However, as I can shoot more line than I can cast well enough to straighten out, I have seen a lot of line in a pile that resembles an accordian out at the front of the cast. Being able to shoot line easier is not the only key to long casts, apparantly.

I'm certainly not an authority but on the two fly rods I have recently built I used the single foot chrome wire guides. I was very pleased with the results. One of the rods was a cheap forecast blank but it really casts better than my Sage even though they are identical in length and line weight. It just seems to shoot line more smoothly. The only difference I can figure out is the single foot guides. I disagree with some others also - I think they look nice and they are certainly easier to wrap once you get that "locking Wrap" down.
Good luck!
Greg

Thanks Guys

I 'll ty with the single foots and cast a line before i epoxy .

Cheers Gar

I used TiGold (and blue ) zirconia ring single foot titanium carbide plated frame (Tich), guess ther should not be problem with slicking line. guids are nice looking and easy to work with, they are fine on top section, but for tip top i'd use regular Ti plated loop, large......