I am building a Sage ESN 10' 2wt fly rod for someone. On Sage's site it says to use a sz 12J stripper. First I was wondering what the J stands for? Also Putting a sz 12 stripper on and then going to a 4 single snake guide, the stripper looks huge. What are your thoughts on going with a sz 10 stripper?

The line doesn't care about the ring size so much as where it's located. You can easily from from a size 12 to a #4 snake, or whatever your smallest size snake is going to be. Using multiple sizes is for you, not the line.

I suspect that "J" may be a reference to the flanged ring that was available from some guide makers.

............

I'm not sure at what point Sage changed there guide spacing page, but it used to be fairly clear that a "J" on the spacing chart indicated that a Fuji stripping guide was used. It doesn't seem to say that anywhere but my assumption would be that the meaning hasn't changed. I also wouldn't have any problem going to a size 10 stripper on a 2 wt, especially one that really isn't intended to do much in the way of actual casting beyond very short distances.

Thanks for the infomation

For a 2wt, a size 10 should be fine.

Size 4 fly guides sounds much too big. I'd use 1s. And that's all I'd use. 1 size 10 stripper, the rest size 1 single foot snakes.

I thought the "j" was Fuji's low frame height designation. Not sure about that.

Drew