I ordered my Dan Craft 10 foot FT 4 piece 5 wt today. As of now I am thinking ceramic guides BLAG instead of Recoil. I do like the Recoils on my 8 foot 4 wt though. So how does a 16 and 12 double foot followed by 10 , 8, 4 sevens and three 6 sound. I think I will go with a large Loop tip top although I do have some ceramic tip tops. I plan on a 5 inch and a 2 inch removable fighting but which I also got from Dan in skeleton so I can customize them. I am also thinking Fuji skeleton reel seat right now. Once I get the rod I will experiment on the grip seat and but. I have been away from this for three years and it seems like I have forgotten a lot. Thanks

Not good. Skip all those in-between sizes - they do nothing for you and actually result in a less straight line path, a roller coaster type path.

Try something more like 16 - 10 and then 6's on out. This creates a straighter line path and reduces weight on the mid and tip areas (and will pay dividends on a rod of this length).


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Thanks--would you make the same suggestion using Recoil guides. I think I am waffling between the two. As I recall a few years ago I had more difficulty putting on the recoil guides so I initially thought ceramic guides. I know my skills have not improved and probably deteriorated.

Maybe take a look at the American Tackle Titanium guides.

I second the Am. Tack. Titaniums. You can use size 5's for a 6 weight floating line - no problem. I'd wind a guide on as a tip-top instead of using their Stainless tops though (they have yet to make a titanium frame top). Or if you insist on using a tip top, go with a fuji titanium SIC tip-top.

For a 10 foot 5 weight
I would not use a large tip top for a 5 weight unless you have some other motive. Large connections ?
Guides (3) #2 single foot recoil titanium, (2) single foot #3 recoil titanium, (2) #4 single foot H&H, (1) 12 double foot ceramic, (1) 16 double foot ceramic.
Spacing from tip 4.3,9.3,15.4,22.6,31.1,41.3,53.3,67.7,84.8
If you want to handle heavier tippets than 4X use double foot rather than single.
Yes only 9 guides a 10 foot rod has a lot of inertia even a two hander. When you stop your forward cast you don't want the rod to keep moving and destroy accuracy.
Keep the tip as light as possible.

If you do go with the recoil guides, same thing - dump the intermediate sizes as they do nothing for you or your line. Get right down to the running guides right off the bat. You only need 3 (at most) sizes of guides on any rod and once past the second one all should be the same size.

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Eugene thanks
I don't immediately understand why using double foot over single foot for the heavier tippet unless bigger fish and more stress on the rod. Yep I tend to make large connections but I will work on that. I was doing some weighing on my new digital scale that I bought for weighing airgun pellets and the single foot titanium (1.5) was less than half of the weight of the blag 6 (2.85). I am slowly finding my stuff. I should have done a better job of labeling--LOL.