Hello
I want to build a light 5wt fly rod and looking for
light SF guides with the possible best
durability/hardness.
So I´m not sure if I should take Batson SF TCSFGP, XTCSFGP or the recoil.
Which one has a better durability/hardness. Is there a difference in wear groove resistance between TCSFGP and XTCSFGP guides?

Any other recommendations for light SF guides? I could also use Amtak Titans, but I think they would weight more than a SF wire.

Mike

titanium frame SIC

second choice: alconites

I'll second Bill's recommendation!

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

A vote for Fuji Alconites - either in chrome (clnag/clag/cfat) or black (blnag/blag/bfat). (Stripping/running/tip).

Thanks for the answers.
What about wire the wire guides I mentioned.
Are the Amtak Titan comparable to the Fuji?

American tackle titanium frame/nanolite ring - light & strong. Comparatively the Fuji titanium guides have a stiffer frame (deform / recover from deformation (bending less)) - but cost more. Cost / benefit I'd go with the AMTAK Titans. I'm not a fan formed wire guides - that is not to say they are "bad" - just I don't care for them.

The wire guides are lighter, but many, many times softer. Line also flows through a ceramic guide much smoother, and your lines will last longer. It's up to you to decide which is most important.

What I do on rods for my use: I use single foot ceramics on the 4 or 5 guides and then on rods that I want very light I switch to recoil or pac bay wire single foots. I find that the tip top is the most important guide to go light on. For a 3 or 4 wt, relatively low cost setup, I use the REC recoil tip top. For a 4 or 5 wt that is going to see a lot of use I use a SIC or cerment top. I might spring for a titanium frame top. So this setup gets the line smoothed out and running straight before it gets to the wire guides so it casts fine, and most of the pressure in playing a fish is on the lower guides so it works fine for that too. And the tip is light. What I have not tried but I think I should have is to use one of the titanium framed Sic fly guides for the top. That would save some weight and cost both.

I like the last couple of rods I built with the recoil top just fine. there is just not a whole lot of line pressure on the tiptop of a 3 wt so I don't think I need the ceramic all that bad.

One more opinion: As light as possible may not be the best way to build a 5 wt fly rod. Overweighting a rod is bad, but there is a point of diminishing returns in making it light, at least in my opinion. For me, I think it is well worth the added weight to use ceramic guides, either the SIC or alconite or one of the other new ring types. If you don't use too many the rod won't be too heavy and they handle the line well. I do try to use at least one less guide than the conventional rod length plus one formula if I am using the single foot ceramics. (from a rod maker article by Tom).

I



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2007 06:58PM by Bill Moschler.

I like the H&H since they are pretty well preped and come in smaller sizes than the recoils (I used them on a 1wt). I like the Recoils on lighterweight rods and even like them on some larger weight rods (DanCraft FT, 8wt steelhead rod). If I were using wire SF I would stick wth H&H or Recoil. As to what to use on a 5wt it depends on what you want to do with it. Are you trying to shoot line until the backing? Are you striving to be accurate up close? If you want very low line resistance and don't mind the weight then go with the ceramics. Are you passing loops? then you might want to go with larger ceramic guides and live with the weight penalty. Depends what tradeoffs you want to make.