Seeking advice/opinions on best sizes of fly rod guides. I am new to building - on my 3rd fly rod and was looking up spacing charts as was very surprised to see the (in my opinion) large difference between the sizes shown on the St. Croix site and the REC site for an 8', 4wt. One was 10-4-3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1 and the other was 12-4-4-4-4-3-3-3-3. I can see where they wouldn't be the same but this seems like a pretty big difference. I am fairly new to fly fishing as well. I am using snakes on this rod but will shift to 1's going forward.

Old wise ones, which of these two would you pick? Split the difference? Let me know if it really doesn't matter all that much?

I have been relying on spacing charts. Does static line placement move the guides that much and worth the effort? I plan on taping on the guides and using a static line check but have been wondering about this.

Sorry about too many questions in one post. What would we do if this website did not exist?

Jim F.

It matters. 12 mm - 10 mm 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3

Hi Jim,

I was just fishing my 4 weight today and I used a #8 stripper, then single foot running guides in size 3-2-2-1-1-1-1. It was great! The only thing I would change though, is to up the stripper to a #10. The blank is a forecast and this rod has fished very well the few times I've used it so far. It handles tough wind (South Park - for you Coloradans) very well. It's also very accurate out to 30-40 feet and can still whip line out well past reasonable 4 weight distances (I can nearly double haull the entire 90 foot line!) I would go with the smaller guides. The large ones will just add weight.

Mark

Jim: probably what you're seeing is the difference in two philosophies. One school of thought is to use the smallest size guide you can get away with to keep weight to a minumum and arguably improve accuracy. Another school argues for oversized guides (Lefty Kreh in particular is a proponent of this view) for maximum performance, citing as one argument that SLIGHTLY less guide surface makes contact with the line because of the larger radius resulting in less friction. Tough call. I've found my rods perform better in my hands going with the smaller guides...with a couple caveats. If you're using standard snakes (as stated) or sf wire guides like Recoils (or most standard sf styles where the guide "loop" joins the foot basically flush with the blank), I'd go larger so the line has the chance to be further away from the blank in the casting stroke. Which is why I'm a huge fan of H&H standoff wire guides and the sf ceramics...both hold the line OFF THE BLANK for dramatic decreases in friction and increases in performance. With H&H, I'd go with sz 1's toward the tip, 2 - sz 2's, and 1 - sz 4 followed by a #10 taming guide and #12 stripping guide (one size larger than the taming guide), ceramics would go 6's (different sizing scale), 2 - 7's, 1 - 8, #10 tamer, #12 stripper.

You've got to try the static test...it's definitely worth the extra effort. One tip, though, would be to use surgical tubing or small "ouchless" 1/2" hair elastics to attach your guides to the blank so adjustment is easy. I find when I tape the guides on, I'll only adjust so far and with some frustration, but with the elastics I can slide the guides forward/back to my heart's content and end up with a finely tuned (spaced) performance stick.

All the best in your venture! :)

The stripper you pick pretty much dictates the next guide down. A #10 stripper works well followed by a #4 guide. I still hold to the cone of flight school/static placement. For your rod, a #10 SF spinning guide, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1s to tip. The H&H stand-offs are pretty cool, but I don't like the chrome finish.

Great advice. I didn't think about the using tubing for static guide set up but will definitely do that. I bought some recently from one of the sponsors. Has to be easier than tape. I need to read up on the static method.

One thing you have to pay attention to is the diameter of the guide. If I remember correctly, the REC recoil guides were a bit smaller in diameter both the wire size and the 'loop' size. This was a couple years ago, so I don't know if the specs have changed or not. Does anybody have some snakes handy to check?
Wes