Hi Guys, looking for some input on using single foot guides or snakeguides on a 9ft 8wt fly rod what do you guys think

I have always been a traditionalist who favors snake guides. However, my two favorite fly casting rods, a #9 Gotti and a #9 BVK, I built with single-foot ceramic insert guides - although I have never compared casting these rods with others built on the same blanks with snake guides. A lot depends upon how far the angler needs to cast to fish effectively and how proficient a caster the user is. Keep an open mind.

the double foot guides will slow the rod down some compaired to the singe foot ones, on 8 WT rod it will be harder to feel it ,
but on a 3 or 4 WT you will see it an fee it, I feel from my limited building

William Sidney
AK

I use both, and the main difference that I notice is not so much in casting distance or fish fighting, but I find the snake guides to be a little noisier while casting. That doesn't bother me at all, but is the only difference I have seen. I haven't noticed much difference in icing in very cold weather, snakes might be a little easier to shake the ice off.

I also use both, on an 8wt I would lean more towards a Snake Guide. If you search around there are several brands of Snake Guides that are very light in weight and the feet are relatively small, so added weight to the blank is not any different from a single foot.

Use the smallest guide that will pass your connections and the least amount of changes in guide size as you go from butt to tip, 3 different sizes is all that is necessary. Example, start with a 12 or 16 stripper, #4 snake, then #2 all the way out. Just an example, make sure your connections will pass thru a #2 if you go that route. Straightest and smallest line path is what you are after. I used to think bigger was better, and that is not the case.

The one place that I really like single foots is for the couple of rods that I use primarly for Indicator Nymphing, the single foots seem to let line "slide out" better if I am down stream drifting my rig. Other than that I have never seen a difference in casting distance and accuracy.

Look into Snake Brand or REC Recoils, the Snake Brand are very light weight and not noisey.

the Snake Brand Universal guides are a dream to wrap. I usually use snake guides if there is even a chance of fishing in cold weather were they will ice up. much easier to clear ice off snakes than single foots.

Since I don't do the cold weather fishing that Gary does, I've never found a detectable difference in performance between the two. If you read the books by the flats fishing experts, you'll find they like snakes. Because I cannot detect the difference I use single foot to minimize the effort in wrapping the guides. About half the wraps.

I have done several with both and I prefer the single foot ceramics. In the interest of full disclosure, I have never measured much of a difference in casting or shooting distance except with a clean new line. The snakes actually seem to perform the same no matter how dirty the line is, while my experience was that the ceramics slowed down a bit with a filthy line.

The set up / spacing is a bit different between the two but both will perform well if you set them up right. So I'll build whatever the angler wants. And some just want chrome snakes. Period.

What ultimately pushed me to ceramics was the inherent weight reduction of single vs. double foot guides and the grooving of snake guides after hard use...especially the tip tops. In my experience, all snakes will groove eventually if used hard enough on saltwater gamefish. The fly line won't groove them but spectra braided backing outbound at high speed under 10#+ of drag sure will. The ceramics will not groove (or at least they have not grooved on me yet). So I prefer them.

You might consider a ceramic tip to match your stripping guides if you go snakes...hope this helps. Good luck!

A guide to think about -- Pac Bay Minima's

Bill - willierods.com

Thanks guys!!! great advice !! I will be fishing in some cold water

Thanks guys!!! great advice !! I will be fishing in some cold water

The loop connections on Spey lines will consistently pass through snake guides more easily than single foot. I would recommend snakes on two handed rods due to the number of connections in the line. Not as critical on single hand rods.

Kevin,
Really tough to beat the use of snake guides.

Take care

X2 on bill's reply. The Pac Bay Minima Guides work great as stripping guides. I transition from them to snakes for saltwater use on 7- 9 weight rods. Single foots on 10 weight and above. Good Luck. MH

Snake Brand snake guides are the best when you wrap the tip section it realy shines obove all other guides , you dont have to touch the guides no fileing the foot, the guides foot also matches the curve of the blank, the cost is a little bit more but you will never go back
Anglers Work Shop did carry them ,

William Sidney
AK

We have both!! Check them out: [alpsforecast.com]