Wanting some help on which guides to use for a couple of rods . Both will be 7' with one for cranking and one as a worm-jig rod. Can single foot fly guides like the fuji j ring alconites be used all the way ? (say # 10 butt at 0, #8 bumper at 90 and #8 as first guide at 180 under then taper down to 6's). Will be using up to 20# test mono. If not all single foot guides what is the minimum number of double footed guides that can be used?
Thanks, Dave

You can use single foot guides all of the way up a rod but unless you fish from a padded fishing boat, those first 2 or 3 guides typically take a beating when laying a rod down. Unless I were going to have the rod either in my hand or in a case and never lay it down, I would use a double foot for the butt and the second guide and try a single foot for the bumper guide. It may have to be replaced at some point with a double foot. I will shortly be building a 7' casting rod for bass/pike, mainly using 25-40 lb braided and I am going to try a single foot bumper with the other two being double foot. I'll be using a #12 DF, #8 SF bumper and a #10 DF, then #8 SF and finally #7 SF on out.

Only way to really know is to give it a try.

I never use double-foot guides on any of my rods now. I try to use the smallest guides possible, and most of the time, I use the fly guides you mentioned. If I need a higher frame butt guide, I'll use a single-foot high-frame spinning guide. I've never had any trouble at all, either on my rods, or the ones I've built for other people. Even though the j ring guides are built lighter than the previous Fuji fly guides, they're still extremely overbuilt for the job they perform. In short, they're really tough. Go ahead and use the set-up you mentioned in your post. You'll be really happy with the rods.

The only thing about your set-up that I would re-consider would be the use of 6s for running guides. They will work fine, but with 20 lb. test, you might get some rattling or "chatter" as the line goes through the 6s. It doesn't hurt anything, but I prefer 7s when I'm going to use line that heavy. Test casting will give you an idea whether the 6s or 7s are more appropriate.