I have a request for single foot snakes on a 9 foot #6 rod smallmouth rod. She uses a zap-a-gap splice for her line/leader connection so no knots to run through the guides. My questions are:

I will be using 12 and 10 Forecast VD guides to begin. What size single foot snakes would y’all recommend out to the tip?

Some recommend keep the guides big so the line flows, others recommend keep the guides small to keep the line close to the blank to reduce slap. Any comments?

Thanks in advance for any input. Best, Ladd

The line will flow through small guides just as easily as it will flow through large ones. The line only uses a tiny fraction of the ring opening. Small rings are not going to hamper line flow. The idea that they will is a bit of an old fishing and/or rod building myth.

I'd use the smallest rings that will still allow the connection to pass easily.


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I have gone down to 4.5 on some rods, but in hindsight a #6 would have been better, even with the Zap-a-Gap splice. Some of the new ceramic rings are pretty thin, and you could go to a 5. I suspect many builders would use #7s for that weight rod.

Think I'd go 12, 10, 3, 2, 1 out to the tip if your using wire guides. I'd also try some 1/0 out on the tip to see if they work.

Whoops. Didn't notice that you are using wire. Smallest I would use is a #2.