I just received my first fly rod kit and am ready to go. i ordered the premium kit because i wanted titanium guides for brackish/saltwater use. What i did not know was that it came with single foot guides. While they look different, is there any advantage or disadvantage to these? I am building a 7 wt rod for striper fishing.

thanks

Advantage....... less wraps = less weight / finish epoxy . Some will claim that single foot fly guides are more "round" preventing line to blank contact vs. snake guides . I don't think they will be much lighter than snakes though they may be . This is all assumeing that you are compareing wire SF to wire snakes . There are many builders who will not use snakes on any rods they build enless the end user requests them , I for one am in that majority . Have fun , John

Got Fish ?

John,
Is there any disadvantage in strength with the SF Titanium Snakes vs the DF Titanium Snakes? You said you don't use snakes - what else is there? All the rods I own including Sage use DF snakes. I don't want to put all this time into the rod and regret the guides.
Thanks for the advice.
Jeff

You have things to use like the Fuji titanium and Titan guides. They are ring guides and should give you a better casting distance while being silent.
Try a search of this board and you will come up with a lot of infor on guides for fly rods.

Jeff , as Bill mentioned the single foot fly guides with ceramic incerts are hands down supirior to snake guides . I use wire single foot on 4wt and under fly rods , usualy REC recoils , or the Tic coated wire . On Rods 5wt and above , I like the smooth casting , quiet retrieve , of incerts . SIC , or Alconites are on the list for my own rods . The difference in the two is night and day (wire and incerts). These guides do come with one dis-advantage , that is the $$ that they can be depending on the frame and ring materials .One Titanium framed guide(stripper) with Cermet incert can be as much as a complete set of snakes if that is the material that you choose . I would use them on a 7 for myself , depending on how critical you are going to be about weight , Alconites are a good low cost choice . Your biggest weight savings will be in the frame material. Have fun , John

Got Fish ?

Jeff, the smoothest casting flyrod I have built has inexpensive Fuji hardloy single foots on a 3 wt...they are not too heavy. I will never use snakes again (I'm with the others)...and I'll probably always use single footers with inserts and an "arm" that keeps the line away from the blank.

7 wt for stripers.

Single foot ceramics all the way....

The Forecast guides are terrific. I especially like the blue ringed ones...

You'll be glad you did.

I'm not as experienced as a bunch of these guys...but I would say that above 4 wts....ceramics are the way to go.

Keith

If you had two identical fly rods, say a 9'0" 6wt, one with snakes, one with ceramic single foots, how much extra shooting distance can be achieved with the SFs? Your opinions are welcome, but I'm also wondering if anyone done any formal side-by-side testing?

Thanks,

Rich

Alot of people will use single foot wire guides on light fly rods 1-3 and maybe 4 weight, then move on to ceramics with weights above that. One exception to this was with Spey rods where there is a concern with too much weight at the tip with ceramics and efficient line passage thru the guides (Spey lines have a unique taper). In that case, double foot snakes were recommended to me by manufacturers and Spey gurus.

Tim

I am just a novice rod builder but I suggest that you use the Forhan Locking wrap for your single foot guides. I have tried this wrap and is is easy and looks great although it took me several wraps and/or rewraps to get it right. You can find it in the Library at the top of the forum. Hope this helps.

Nothing wrong with those guides that came in the kit. They will work admirably. They're pretty good for wire guides.

However, on your next rod, get a set of inexpensive ceramic guides (i.e. alconites). As mentioned above, there is almost no bad thing that can be said for single foot ceramic guides on a fly rod. Do your own side-by-side test. Then, when you've convinced yourself that the ceramics are superior, buy yourself a set of Titanium/SICs and get ready to have your jaw drop. The SIC rings are so amazingly slick--a good clean fly line (I use Sci. Anglers) just flies through those SIC rings. And, the titanium frames makes the weight comparable to a set of wire guides--I'm not kidding.

Use ceramic guides on all your fly rods, no matter the weight. If you're concerned about adding too much weight to a bantam weight blank, use Titanium/SICs.