Hello,

I have an old LL Bean steel 2-piece fly rod that is 8'6" long that I would like to fix up to fishable condition. Actually, I know next to nothing about the rod, and numerous Google searches haven't yield much information. Anyway, it needs a number of guides and the tip top replaced. The snake guides seem small (I guess the rod is old enough that silk fly lines were used), so I thought I'd upgrade all the guides. The rod also seems rather tip-heavy, which I thought might be remedied in part with new, light weight guides. I flipped through a quick search about guide sizes in this forum, and it seems many people favor single foot guides with ceramic rings. This will be my first attempt at rod repair, so I have a couple of questions:

1) How do I figure out what weight fly line to use? Unfortunately, I don't have a good fly shop around where I could borrow a bunch of different reel with different line weights. The line weights I do have are a 3wt and a 5wt, and I doubt the rod is either of those.

2) Are single foot guides the way to go on this kind of rod, and should I use the original guide spacing if I switch to single foot guides?

2a) There is only one stripping guide, and it's 36" away from the start of the cork handle. Seems kind of far--should I add another stripping guide? The Hook and Hackle website suggests 2 stripping guides for a 8'6" rod.

3) Does anybody have a suggestion for the guide size progression and tip top size?

Any information would be greatly appreciated. I don't need the rod to be perfect, but I kind of like the action; and I think it would be a fun bass/shad rod. I'll have to hit the weight room to beef up before using it for any length of time, though. ;-) Also, this rod will be my practice run before I attempt to fix one of the guides on an old fiberglass 7'6" (line weight also unknown) Conolon Royal Javelin my grandfather gave me.

Thanks for your time,

Bill

I had one of these when I was a kid. It might be good practice for doing another rod, but those things will wear out your arm in a hurry.

The best way to determine the correct line weight is by using the Common Cents System. You can buy the whole explanation for $4. Go to the CCS Data Site at the top of the sponsor list. I think they also list recommended sizes based on line weight.

You can certainly use single foot guides, I'd recommend wire because there isn't any reason to spend a lot of money on this thing.

You can find recommended guide spacing in Dan Craft's catalog or the St. Croix catalog, both sponsors on the left. The best way to determine guide spacing is the Static method. Click on the Library button and get the Static Guide Placement article by Tom Kirkman.

What you really should do is get rid of your link to this site and never come back, because once you've rebuilt a couple of rods, you'll want to build a new one from scratch and it's all over at that point. You'll soon have more rods than you could ever possibly use.

Bill. There is a reason that they don't use steel anymore. I think I would rebuild as close to the original as I could get, perhaps going up to a 1/0 snake for the smallest guides if you intend to replace them all anyway. Most of the value is in the collectibility of an original, or near original rod. Ceramic guides will not turn this sow's ear into a silk purse. Still, fun to fish it again for old times sake and then hang it on the wall.