I know that this has been discussed before, and I did do a search. I couldn't find anything, so I thought it best just to ask the question.

As far as I can tell, there are 3 types of fly guides--snake, single foot wire, and inserts. I've actually never built a fly rod, but am about to start one--a 7'6" 4 weight.

What guides would you use? Why?

Highly debatable issue.
Snake guides are cheap and a lot of factory's use them. But you have twice the amount of thread wraps, more work and more finish, more weight.
Single foot guides I think for light fly's are good, light one wrap, less weight.
Ring guides like a titanium frame will give light weight and should give more distance. Less friction with a polished ring. IMHO

i've recently wrapped a 7'-6" 4pc 4wt fly rod and usually use single foot wire guides but this time i chose traditional snakes. i used the pac bay illusion guides specifically. by the way, i was nicely surprised at the shape of the guide's feet as they arrived. very very little filing had to be done compared to other guides i've used over the past year. this was for my litle girl and i though snakes would hold up over the years better for a child and might even be easier to thread the line through.

i usually choose single foot wires and titanium finish is my favorite. i like the less wrapping single foot wires require, the minimalistic look of less wrapping and i think they are lighter than snakes.

eric
fresno, ca.

I would use the single foot ceramic inserts. Much more durable, quieter, much slicker, better casting (that's an opinion) and less wear on the line. A good choice would be Fuji Alconites. I would use BYAG model for the stripper, maybe one more smaller BYAG and the rest BLAG's Merican Tackle also has similar guides in various color combo's, blue, holo, gold, etc.

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

If you do a ring guide, take a look at the Titanium frame guides. Less weight Fuji's are a little costly, Titans are a more reasonable price. If it is a more mod-action blank, the wire may be better ?

Another thing is the Recoil guides ?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2006 12:11PM by bill boettcher.

I've built several shorter light weight rods using inexpensive Batson black on black single foot ceramics, and I love them. I've put them on 7'6" 4 weight and 8' 4 and 5 weight Forecast blanks, and even on a 6'6" 2 wt Batson RX8. I probably wouldn't use them on a light weight blank that is 9' long, but for shorter rods, they are great. I took my first flyrod that I built with single foot wire guides out to fish the other day and noticed that they were a lot noisier than my other rods. I also like the fact that they hold the line away from the blank.

I use traditional snake guides exclusively. They are an excellent design. A fly rod without snake guides looks stupid to me.

If I went with insert guides, what size quides do you recommend?

I prefer to use American Tackle's Titan guides for almost all the rods that I build. They are light and extremely durable. They are not cheap, but unless I am building an inexpensive rod from cheap components, those are the guides that I use. One advantage that ceramic ring guides have over the other types is that the line is completely enclosed in the ring, so it never makes contact with the blank.

For a 7'6" 4-wt I would use a #6 tip top, 6 #6 guides, a #8, a #10 (still single foot), and a #12 (casting) stripper. After using a published guide spacing for the type of action: If the blank has a fast action, use a spacing where the guides are close at the tip. For a slower action, look for wider spacing. Then I would do static spacing to space the guides to fit the individual blank.

Jim

I would go 12 - 8 ail sngle foots, the rest 6's
Mike



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2006 09:44PM by Mike Barkley.

Sean... I always enjoy this question... It stirs up some great dialog and usually gets a minimum of ten responses... The single-foot proponents get sorta rankled when the traditionalists make their pitch. And vice versa. Here's my two cents... One stripping guide (10mm stamped frame with hialoy insert), then finish the rod out with either Pac Bay or Hopkins & Holloway Lite Wire traditional snakes (4, 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3) and a large loop lite wire tip top. Why? Because I like the traditional look and I promised myself that I will never let increased casting distance get in the way of a good day of fishing.
Regards, Vance

Told ya it was highly debatable

Sean,
I normally think of myself as a traditionalist as well. However, I recently built two 7'6" 4 piece # 4 Rods on Rainshadow blanks. I was pretty concerned that such a light rod with moderate action would be slowed down with too much weight--particularly on the tip. I even asked those on this forum for recomendations. I received the same ideas that you have received. I ended up using wire loop single foot guides with a Titanium Nitride vapor deposit coating from Pac Bay. When I finished with it, I liked the way the rod casts and I like the look--my customer likes the rod a lot. While aesthetics should paly some role, it ought not get in the way of efficiency. Good luck with your project.

Mike Blomme

I really appreciate everyone's response. I'm torn because of the very arguments presented. I suspected that the insert guides would create a little more distance and a lighter rod, but there is something to say about aesthetics in regard to fly rods. Everything about fly fishing is aesthetically pleasing to me. Snake guides just feel more right, but that is because that's what we are accustomed to seeing.

Anyway, thanks for the response.

Sean,

For the kind of conditions under which you would fish a 7 1/2' - 4 weight fly rod, do you really think casting distance is a factor?