I'm assembling my first rod, a Tiger-Eye 7' four piece four weight. I can't find any guide spacing charts with a 4 piece 7 footer listed. Is there any change in guide sizes because of the extra sections? REC recommends a 1 1 1 1 2 2 3 with a #10 stripper. Flyfisherman.com suggests 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 with a #8 stripper. Any and all help is greatly appreciated.

Shanon

There isn't any change in size. I personally wouldn't use a #8 stripper on a four weight. I use a #10 even on three weights. Are you planing to use snake guides or single foot wire guides? If you haven't already done it, go to the "Library" and get the article on Static Guide Placement so you'll know where to put each guide.

snakes

Considering this is your first rod, you should seriously consider using at least single foot wire guides. They require half the work in prepping the feet, half the work in wrapping and half the work in finishing. If you use the Forhan locking wrap(ariticle in Library), they will not pull out. The single foot wire guides are sized the same as snake guides so you don't have to convert the sizing. Prepping snake guide feet is made harder by the fact that both feet must sit prefectly level on the blank which means you will have to use something to adjust the feet to get them level. I've never seen a snake guide sit level as it came from the supplier. I built a number of fly rods with snake guides but after building my first with single foot ceramics and one with single foot wire guides, I'll never use snakes again. Ceramics are the best and wear forever. I have snake guides on one rod that need to be replaced by of grooving in the wire. When I spend $50-60 on a fly line, I don't want it getting ruined by a groove in the guide.

But, that's only my opinion. There are plenty who would not agree, but also a lot who would.

Use a 7' two-piece placement chart as a starting point, locating the guides with the sections assembled to make a two piece rod, then work out your optimum guide placement using the static guide placement instructions in the FAQ's. I always try to work out a guide placement in which a guide is on the ferrule for a tip-over-butt ferrule blank, lije the Tiger Eye. The diameter of the female ferrule is often greater than the diameter of the section where the next guide will be. In such a case it is best to increaase the size of the guides in order to maintain a smooth line through the guides. I'm guessing this is a backpacking rod. A #8 stripper is OK in that case, although I would also prefer a #10. You might like the REC Recoil guides for this rod, to save weight.