i just assembled a dan craft Signature V 8'-4" 3/4 weight fly rod with titanium (coated?) single foot wire guides. wow, this rod is fantastic while lawn casting, can't wait to get on the water with it.

i see hopkins and halloway offers single foot wire guides in a standoff design, which would/could minimize line slap against the blank. for those of you not familiar with this design, it is like that found on many single foot ceramic guides i've seen, where there is an additional 45 degree or so section of the foot, separate from the horizontal section against the blank and the upright section where the loop is located (thanks dennis for introducing that to me! ;-). it also seems like it would help a locking wrap as well. any thoughts on benefits with this design?

my main question is... does anybody else offer a single foot wire guide with the standoff design besides H&H? if it makes any difference, i like black and the titanium colored finishes. i was hoping forecast or pacbay offer edsuch a design but that doesn't appear to be an option.

eric
fresno, ca.
(if anybody is on the fence about this particular blank, i am a recent convert, just GET IT ;-)

Check out the new Titans. made by American Tackle. These should work great on any fly rod

Keeping the line closer to the blank is usually better - it shortens the "moment arms" on the forward cast which many believe leads to rod twist, although such twist isn't likely to harm casting accuracy since the rod is moving around the same central axis.

Guides with more stand-off are also subject to more abuse, hanging, catching, etc.

Line slap is generally not a problem - the line isn't moving until the rod stops and at that point, gravity pulls the line to the bottom of the guide ring and away from the blank. On the back cast, if you shoot line, the line may rub the blank but higher guides aren't likely to stop this entirely.

I do like a higher frame stripping guide (spinning style) but beyond that have found no real advantages in using higher framed running guides.

...............

Hi Eric--we haven't been able find any standoff guides outside of H&H, but we are big fans of their guides--in fact, we are offering them now at Rocky Mountain (just haven't had time to get them up on the site!). DLC is my favorite finish as well--super slick and very striking.

I'm one of the last guys who would go opposite Tom's perspective, but we have found nicer all-round performance on the standoffs compared to regular sf's like Forecast/PacBay wire guides or Recoils. I really like the Forecast titanium-carbide plated wire guides and the Recoils (or we wouldn't carry them!), but for my rods...especially the lightweight ones, it's H&H standoffs all the way.