Hey guys,

I'm sorta looking for the easy way out, bare with me. I'm going to build a 10ft 6 wt(rainshadow RX7 3 pc.). I will be using this as a Great Lakes steelhead rod. I want to use over sized single foot snake guides, to help prevent ice up. I just am unsure of sizes of stripper guides., number of stripper guides, and size of SF snakes guides to use. I've never built a fly rod before and am looking for some insight from you guys. My plan is to use 11 guides total, and use an 4" fighting butt and a 8" fore grip to make this into a small switch rod... I appreciate your help!!!

Danny - I live in Florida so I don't do much winter Fly-fishing - B)- ...

But from some similar inqueries I have seen here at RBO with Jan-Ole Willers <[email protected]> of Germany, and some off-Board e-mails with him, I think these H&H Fly Guides may fit the bill for light-weight, large-eye, wire-loop, Single- Foot (SF) Fly Guides.

The H&H 619-ALS Wire-Loop SF Fly Guides also have an unsual "High-heel" which elevates the closed Wire Loop an additional couple of millimeters away from the rod blank, which may further reduce icing. I do not know if wire loops or ceramic rings ice up faster:

H&H FLY Guides (Hopkins & Holloway) for Fly Rods.
[www.hopkinsholloway.co.uk]*
619-ALS SEYMO Rings, Tips & Guides - Wire-Loop Guides
619-ALS-DLC: High-Heel SF Wire-Loop Guides - Black Diamond Finish
619-ALS-TIC: High-Heel SF Wire-Loop Guides - Titanium (Chrome?)
619-ALS-TIN: High-Heel SF Wire-Loop Guides - Titanium Nitride
619-ALS-HC: High-Heel SF Wire-Loop Guides - Hard Chrome

The same Company, Anglers Resource, who distributes the full line of FUJI Components in the USA, also distributes the H&H (Hopkins & Holloway) Series of Line Guides.
'Hope that helps, ... Good Luck, -Cliff Hall+++, FL-USA.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/24/2006 09:34AM by Cliff Hall.

P.S. - Regarding winter Fly-Fishing and ICING PROBLEMS:

Has anyone ever tried SPRAYING ISO-PROPYL ALCOHOL (70% IPA) on the Guides to LOWER the FREEZING POINT of the water ... I have no idea how the alcohol may affect your brands of fly-line, and I know that fly line is often very expensive.

But ALCOHOLS are used in AVIATION to DE-ICE air-plane wings; and in Winter Formulations of Automotive Wind-Shield Washer Fluid to prevent freezing.

I used to do a lot of low-temperature vacuum work as a chemist ("lypholization" or freeze-drying of biological fluids), and with liquid nitrogen. When I needed to de-ice equipment, I squirted 95% ethanol over the components to dissolve the ice. And used a slurry of (95% Ethanol + cracked Dry Ice) as the Cold-Trap Condenser pre-cooler.

The Alcohols Ethanol or IsoPropanol wiil NOT freeze above (-70 degrees Celcius, the freezing point of Carbon Dioxide = "Dry Ice"), so they can handle de-icing for ANY SANE version of winter fishing. ... B)- ... -Cliff Hall+++