My buddy is interested in rod building. I offered to show em the ropes and we ordered his gear tonite. He wants to make a fly rod for trout. We decided on an 8 foot 4 wt Cascade Composite blank cuz we couldnt beat the sale price. Now ive never built a fly rod this small, im usually doing saltwater/ great lakes steelhead rods and need some help on guide selection for this little rod.
Thanks
Kyle

I just starting building an 8' 4 weight and I'm using a size 12 single foot ceramic spinning guide as the stripper, followed by two size 2 single foot wire guides and the rest are size 1 single foot wire guides. The tip top is a size 6 ceramic. If I had known that a size 6 ceramic spinning guide would fit on the tip section OK, I would have used those. I've become disenchanted with single foot ceramic fly guides because so much grinding is needed in order to use a locking wrap on them.

Hi Kyle,

I use a #10 double foot ceramic for the stripper, #4 dbl ft snake, #3 dbl ft snake, 3 #2s dbl ft snake and 3 #1 dbl ft snake and a ceramic Tip. Spacing is from the tip toward butt - 4 1/2", 9 3/8', 15 1/2", 22 1/4", 30 1/4", 38 1/2", 47 3/4", 56 1/2" and 66". That will get you close, fine tune with static test. Happy wrapping.


Hank
On The Rocks Fishing
Wells, ME.

Ceramics all the way. 12, 8 and 6s to the tip.

On a 4 weight, single foot ceramics. I would go 12, 10, 8, 6s (or 5s) to tip. Use a blocking wrap, not the Forhan, for all guides.

don, why use a blocking wrap and not the forhan ?

eric
fresno, ca.

As Gerry points out the Forhan looks a little strange on little guides, particulary with small diameter threads. On the other hand, the blocking wrap seals off the front of the tunnel and makes for a very neat wrap, as the finish can be kept on the threads. I suspect it also adds extra stability to the guide. The Forhan gets complicated unless you cut the thread from the spool before adding the lock. A blocking wrap is just a continuation of the wrap on the other side of the foot. The thread stays on the spool under tension throughout. I do sometimes use a single or double Forhan on the stripper guide.

Thanks for the responses everyone.
Kyle