I am the happy owner of a Dan Craft Sig V blank in the 8'9" 4wt configuration. This will be my first attempt at building a fly rod. I made a Calstar 800L with Aftco light weight roller guides last year that came out well. In any case, I would appreciate the board members help in selecting guides and guide spacing for the Sig V.

Thanks in advance,
Kevin Nohl

i might think people with the initials DC would generally recommend single foot wire guides, and titanium finish looks good. pac bay or batson forecasts would be fine. if you wanted the guide feet to extend farther from the blank (some say this "standoff" design is better) then look to hopkins and halloway for that design of single foot wire guides.

one stripper should suffice, a size 10. i personally like the pacific bay N style stripper guides.

my view is the best one to know the best guides would be the person who designed the blank and sells it. call dan, he's very helpful. he also provides a guide spacing chart for his blanks but most would say this is just a starting point.

i wrapped my Sig V 8'-4" with single foot titanium finished fly guides and the N style stripper. LOVE it.

eric
fresno, ca.

Kevin,
If you keep all 3 sections egual length, this blank will measure closer to 8' 11" than to the list of 8' 9". I recently built one of these for my 13 year old grand daughter using REC Recoil light wire snakes. I kept wraps to a minimum as well as the epoxy coatings as light as possible. This is an amazing rod, exceptionally light weight and responsive. It will cast both a 4 or a 5 weight line with egual aplomb. The guide spacing that I used is: 4" 8" 13" 19" 35.5" 44" 53" 64" and the #10 stripper at 76.5" I liked this rod so much that I am ordering another for myself. I hope this info helps and good luck. You will love this rod.

Bill

I used the chart spacing from Dan: 5” 10.25” 15.75” 21.25” 27.5” 35.25” 44” 53.5” 64” 76

#10 sic stripper and H&H DLC standoffs. The rod is a bit stiff for up close casts with a #4 but let a little line out and it stands apart from the crowd. Tight loops, high line speed and dead on accurate. It will throw a #5 too but i'd be careful with a lot of line out. Make sure you wrap the female ferrules. The spine is marked on the blank but it is the factory spine. I set the guides on the soft side which happened to be 90 degrees to the factory spine.

Tony

Kevin,
I static tested mine and it came out very close to Tony's:

In inches from the tip: 4 1/4, 9 1/2, 15 5/8, 22 , 28 3/8, 35 1/8, 43 1/2, 52 7/8, 63 1/4, 75 1/4
Guide Sizes Forecast singlefoot: 1/0 , 1/0 , 1/0 , 1/0, 1/0 , 1/0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , #10.
Used Dan's Forecast Ti coated guides: TCSFGP
Chrome guides: HSFGP