I have been building rods for 17 years now (7 years professionally) and this is my first flyrod(been flyfishing for many years, just never built one myself). It's a 9' - 12wt GLX. I want to keep the wt low as possible so I was thinking of using the fuji single foot titanium SIC guides. That would cut in half the amount of epoxy and thread as compared to double footed snake guides, and the guide itself is lighter in wt.(unless the snake guides are lighter than them). I was looking in my Merrick catalog and they have two versions, the TSG, and the TLSG, I can't see the difference beteen the two. They are both titanium with sic rings? What size guides and stripper guides do you all recomend? Also the spacing to start with, including the stripper guides? The dealer recomends a 16 and 12 for the stripper guides and 4 - #4s and 4 - #3s. The other question if I go with single foot guides is the conversion rate for the #3s and 4s to what size sic guides? Of course, I will start with your(or the manufacturer's) guide spacing and then do a stress test to adjust them to where I think they should be.

Determining the smaller guides is easy, the stripper guides are mainly where I am not sure of...distance from the reel, and distance between each other. I know this is alot of questions and you could write a book here and still not cover it all, but I apreciate any input. Thanks, Kyle Ligon

Ps, this rod is for me
PPs, if you could recomend a book on flyrod building that would help too
PPPs, is anybody familiar with the retractable 4" fighting butt that Merrick sells... RECREBU on page 84 in the Merrick catalog. I will be catching big fish with this outfit so it can't fail.

Go for tlsg. Because they are lighter. I would go for 8 as the smallest size.

Does "bridge guide" = "stripper guide" ?

The tlnsg is a solid titanium "concept" guide. The tynsg or tunsg one or the other is the matching bridge guide Kyle mentioned. As he said thats the perfect strip guide for that set up. I just bought a small stock of them to keep on hand and just love them. They are light as a feather cast a fly line like it's not there and are as rust and corosion proof as it gets without getting into the gold cermits. As to the tsg thats the old fly guide thats not concept and I think its tit. coated not solid. I also think thats the one I use on some of the bait casters I will build for some guys but am not positive. I'm waiting for the smaller tynsg's then 6. If someone has them for sale let me know. I know fugi came out with them but don't think there availabe in the us yet. Just a side note though kyle be prepared to pay for them they are pricey but if you will cast in a lot of salt water and corosion is a factor or you want a very high quality fly rod they are well worth in my opinion.

IMO the TSVSG will work better.

Here is what I have been using for my heavier salt water rods, works great:

THVSG 16, TSVSG 12, TLSG 8 to tip, TFST 8 for the tip

The THVSG adds a bit more height than a size 16 TSVSG for some of the larger reels out, really gives a nice flow to the line.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

Brian

Thanks for the great replys guys, I think all my Qs have been answered, except for the last one about the fighting but. Is anybody familiar with the retractable 4" butt from the company the starts with an "M" and ends with "errick" ? It looks nice, but I can't tell from the pic in the catalog. Thanks again.............Kyle

IMO, use a standard permanent fighting butt - you aren't going to be taking it off and you WILL want it to be solid and reliable.