My running guides are going to be Fuji TLSG4-J. They are tiny and weigh the same as the Recoil single foot fly number 1 size. I am going to wrap one as a tip top using the locking Forhan wrap. This is on a Loomis 5' ultralight blank that will never see any line over 4 pound test. My question is can I wrap the guide pretty much out to the very tippy tip of the rod or do I need to set it back about 1/8th of a inch for strength? What are the pitfalls of using a single foot micro guide as a tip on a ultralight rod? Do I need to use less thread tension since the walls of the blank are so thin? If anyone has any comments about their experiances I would love to hear about it. I've tried the search buy my eyeballs are about shot looking at the post trying to find these answers. Thanks! Billy Russell

I don't strength will ever be an issue, the only length you need in front of the guide will be what you need for the locking wrap. I'm not aware of any pitfalls, all my builds are working great. You're not going to be able to put much thread tension on the wrap, as the rod tip will flex toward you. I've been using my fly tying bobbin to make the wrap for some time now, seems to make the job easier for me to hold everything together.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2009 02:05PM by Spencer Phipps.

What is the tip top diameter of the blank?

There is a matching Alconite BFAT Fuji tip top - tube diameters of 1.2 mm (3.0 1/64 ths), 1.4 mm (3.6) and 1.5 mm (4.0) with a 4.5 mm ring

If you blank is slightly larger than the 4.0 64ths it can easily be split to fit your blank.

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Contact me via email via clicking on my name if you need some assistance.

I have a 5' ultralight I built that way with a 3mm single foot as the tip top. I wrapped the tip top with two Forhan locking wraps and two stop wraps which left me with about 1/32" of tip sticking out that had a kinda squared edge to it. I have the reel loaded with 10 lb invisi-braid which is a very limp line and when I'd pop weightless worms the line would sometimes catch on the tip. A little shake and it would come free but I didn't care for having to watch the tip so closely so I took my dremmel and carefullly ground down the excess tip without cutting into the thread and gave it a few coats of Permagloss so I had a smooth rounded end to the tip and nothing for the line to catch on. So far it's been working very well and I've even used it on a couple tournaments where I needed a good finesse rod.

I have the Batson 3mm sgl foot guides wrapped as tip's on quite of a few of my personal rods....I put it as close to the tip as possible and do the Forhan wrap on it....works great. This is on rods that I use up to 15lb copoly on, so it's not a strength problem at all.

Scott Sheets
www.smsrods.com