I'm trying to understand the need for stripper guides on fly rods. Some even have two stripper guides. What's the point? I can kind of understand their use on heavy rods, say over 5 wt., but on 5 wt and under I don't see the need for the extra foot and bracing. I have built two or three fly rods that I used a single foot spinning guide and it seemed to work fine. I haven't lost or loosened a guide yet with this setup. Due to their height, it seems to make a smoother transition to the other guides than a short standard stripping guide. Spinning guides can weigh less too. Sometimes I offset this spinning guide toward the stripping hand. Again, a large spinning guide, due to its height and diameter, seems to work out better.

Should I stay with my unorthodox design or have I just been lucky?

Will an unconventional design sell or should I stay with the "traditional" look for those rods I plan on selling?

IMO, the term "stripper" refers more to the locattion and purpose of the guide and not it's type/style. I THINK that quite a few builders use SF guides as strippers

Mike (Southgate, MI)
If I don't want to, I don't have to and nobody can make me (except my wife) cuz I'm RETIRED!!

There is only ONE stripper guide on any fly rod. That would be the FIRST one. No matter if it has cermic or bracing, the FIRST guide is the stripper guide.

Technically, the first guide on a fly rod is the stripping guide. All the rest are running guides. But I know what John is referring to.

A ringed guide of any type will suffice for the stripping guide. The number of legs/feet is unimportant outside of whatever durability is required. A single foot guide can and usually does function every bit as well as double foot guide in this location.

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Hi John,

As everyone pointed out, the first guide is refered to as the stripper guide regardless of what style of rod. However, while selling guides to builders and manufacturers of fly rods, they will often reference "single stripper", "double stripper" and " triple stripper" rod designs. I believe they are only noting number of ringed guides in the layout since every company uses wire frame snakes or wire frame single foot running guides.

The primary purpose of a stripper guide on a fly rod is to capture the line prior to reaching the running guides. I suppose any guide would work and maybe some better then others depending on the guide size, rod weight, line, style of casting, etc. Although nobody that I can remember uses a single foot stripper on a factory rod, I have seen them on custom builds and have never heard anything bad about them. Functionally it makes sense but I think the theory is that wild line swinging about may wrap on the single foot design and not come off as easily. Tom Dorsey of Thomas & Thomas feels that the double legs in the rear of the guide has more opportunity to hinder the line when contacting the stripper guide, consequently he opted to turn the guide upside down with the single leg in the rear. This certainly set their rods apart from the rest and gave them visibility as did their use of our American Style of guide which sets slightly higher off the blank and has 4 legs that are les elongated and closer to the frame.

As far as staying with your design, if it does not hinder your performance why change? If you can see improvement with another style then change might be in order but I don't see anything the traditional design can offer other then market acceptance. The industry as a whole usually stays with what is considered "normal". There are some changes here and there but I think the buying public decides on what they are comfortable with by looking at the majority of what's out there. So, if you intend to sell a lot of rods you may want to use the traditional style otherwise I'd offer both and let the customer decide.

Best Regards,

Darrin Heim
American Tackle Company

The stripper guide ring simply needs to have some ring thickness to it.
The flyline enters the stripper when shooting line at an almost vertical direction.
If the ring is a thin wire form it "bites" the flyline coating and casting distance drops dramatically.
Similarly different people have different ideas about how many "strippers" they like on their rods.
The issue of guides "biting" into the flyline affects both casting and during the fight.
The butt half of the guide train carries most of the load during the fight and is the commonest reason for 3 'strippers' on heavier class flyrods, etc., and why heavy tippet class S/water flyrods have tended towards ceramics .

I build my fly rods with a Double Foot ceramic stripper (closest guide to reel) and a tamer, a smaller DF ceramic, about 4" from the stripper. I have heard some people call this set-up a "double stripper", even though, technically, it is not.
Are you referring to this kind of a set-up?

Hopefully it is clear to everyone that I am using the term "stripper" guide due to the shape of the guide and not necessarily due to its function. If I saw a fly rod with a conventional "stripper" guide" mounted on the very tip of the rod, I wouldn't call it a "tip top" guide. It's a "stripper" guide mounted in the wrong place. The catalogs and web sites that I use call guide of that design "stripper" guides even though they can be used above the first guide. I'm taking the same liberty.

George - No, I'm not exactly referring to that type of setup. I've never heard of a "tamer" or seen a guide that was placed only 4" from the stripper guide. Why is that setup better?

I'm referring to the way all the big-name commercial builders put one and sometimes even two double-foot stripper guides on their rods when it appears to me that it is overkill on all except the heaviest of rods. As Darrin pointed out and from the lack of a reasonable explanation in the other posts, it appears that it is just tradition and what the public expects to see. It sells, so why change it.