Is there any real performance reason for using double footed stripping guides on a fly rod?
It's just never made sense to me. Maybe I'm missing something. I can see the aesthetic thing and the easy fit inside a thinner rod tube. But, a high profile single footed spin guide does seem to provide some performance benefit by providing a better angle for line coming off the reel. May only be imagined. Seems to work for me. Just wondering.
Thanks

They're a bit more durable from bumps, bangs and getting the thing in and out of the rod tube. But the line doesn't care how many feet the guide has.

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A high profile s/f guide would not fair well during aggressive double-hauls.
Herb

I'm not the best caster in the world. But i can double haul and throw some line. The Minima single foots have held up well on my 7 wt. throwing big bugs. Not too worried about them failing.

The worst that could happen is you would have to cut it off and wind on a more conventional guide. I would be interested to know how a high stripper worked on a fly rod after a trial period.

A higher guide in and of itself is preferred for a fly rod stripping guide. The problem is that the higher you make it the more prone it becomes to damage from handling. For that reason I'd probably stick to a double frame design if I were using a very high frame stripping guide.

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I used them (Minima) on my Five Rivers 7 wt all summer with no problems. Granted, I didn't use it exclusively. But, quite a bit. And I used it in my kayak. So, it definitely saw its fair share of abuse.

I don't mean to imply it's going to fold up - they're tough enough for hard fishing use. But for guys that have a bunch of rods in a flats boat that are being kicked, dropped, stuffed into tubes, etc., a double foot guide is sometimes a better idea.

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Double-haul casters who habitually form a first stripping guide with the thumb and forefinger of their stripping hand would gain little benefit from a taller stripping guide. Giving advice to rod makers building rods for fly casters of unknown proficiency, habits, and expectations is tricky business.

That's very true.

I have been building light fly rods with single foot strippers for a while. They work fine on lighter rods.