I have a nice five piece 9' 9 wt IM8 blank, full wells grip, aluminum seat and little 2" fighting butt (not the tarpon ball), ready for assembly. Also have a supply of stripper guides, snake guides, plus a set of single foot fuji flu guides, if needed.

Most of my fly rods are not the fanciest, but I really want to do this one right. The quarry will be most likely redfish, seatrout and snook in Florida, but also perhaps some bass bugging here in GA, and maybe even salmon in the northeast.

What stripper setup would you recommend and what guide types and sizes?

My last 9 weight was a 10' had a 25 and then a 16 stripper, then snake guides, that I built 6-8 years ago for wading in the Indian River Lagoon, but I'm not sure that setup is the hot ticket anymore (or ever was), but it suited me at the time!

Any thoughts kindly appreciated.

Thanks

Whit

I can't imagine using a size 25 stripping guide. No need for anything that large. A high frame 16 (SVSG type) is enough.

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I would agree with Tom. A 25 stripper is too much.

You might try a line taming guide about 4" in front of the stripper. I would recommend the sf fly guides as well. Are they ceramic or wire? On an 8 wt, you can get away with ceramic guides and some think it improves shooting line for distance, which may be important in Redfish applications.

Send me an email if you have more questions, or just post here. Looks like you are well on your way.

Terry

The single foot Fuji's are ceramic guides - looks like hardaloy.

A "line taming guide"? Hmmmm... please tell more.

Also, how many strippers should I use before the single foots. My largest of the single foots looks like about a sz 10 using MOAE (Method Of Ailing Eyeball)

Thanks!

Whit

Let's say you have a size 16 stipper on there. Go on and set up the rest of the guides, a 12 or 10 ceramic would work fine after the stripping guide, then follow with snakes or ceramics the rest of the way out (just use one size, you don't need all the other sizes nor multiples of them).

Now once that's done and everything is spaced as you want, go cast it a bit. Then go in and tape on another size 12 or 10 (whatever you used for your second guide) about 4 inches past the stripping guide. Now go cast it again. If you see an improvement, wrap it on and leave it. If not, take it off.

Depending on the line you use, you may or may not see any difference.

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Most people worry too much about ring size and frame height on fly rod stripper guides and their affect on casting distance. Too little consideration is given to reel size and the angle the fly line and the stripper guide form during fish fighting conditions. After studying hundreds of pictures of rods with fish on and building rods with larger and higher framed guides and studying those pictures I have come to the conclusion that in saltwater fly rods if the reel is 3.5 to 3.9 inches in diameter you can get by with a size 20 high frame stripper. If the rod is to be used with a reel that is over 4 inches in diameter such as an Abel Super 9 use the 25 high frame. If the reel is 5 inches or bigger a 30 is the way to go.