I just built the handle portion of my first fly rod. This will be a pike and Musky rod by American Tackle. It is a 2 piece rod that I put a long 6" fighting butt on. I used a winn grip and modified / a rear butt out of a winn fore grip. I was looking at 3 stripper guides before I run the fly guides. Will running the longer fighting butt throw off my spacing.??? Scott

A fighting butt has no effect on guide placement! Why 3 strippers?

There is only one stripping guide on a fly rod - it's the first one from the reel.

I assume you mean three ringed guides and then snakes? Nothing wrong with that as the lower half to lower third of the rod carries the bulk of the load so the ceramics will give you a bit smoother in and out of the line.

Spacing will not be any different due to a fighting butt. Put the stripper guide 32 inches beyond the rear end of the reel seat.

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You are right I was running a stripper guide and then 2 more guides before my string of fly guides. I am good with less guides but figured I would need to step down gradually from a 20 stripper to 8's. Thanks

Actually you don't need a gradual reduction in guide size. The distance between the guides provides the gradual reduction.

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Thanks. I bought the 10 weight guide set from mudhole and it came with a 20,12,8 and 7 fly guides.....Open for any suggestions as this is my first fly rod..

It'll work.

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So - lf i understand correctly - you wasted 6" of your 9'0" blank with a FB?? Or is it a longer blank??
Or - did you add a 6" extension to the blank??
Herb

WOW I missed that ! If you used 6" of the butt section for the fighting butt, it WILL change the guide the spacing and number of guides.

I actually used up 4" of the blank on the fighting butt.......

Scott,
Is it a 9'0" blank?
Hreb

Yes a 9 foot 10 weight..

Scott
Iwoud email you - but your email is hidden.
You don't need a 6" FB to clear your belly while reeling.
So - I assume that you installed a 6" FB because you will use it as a 2 hand rod.
It is common wisdom that using a rod shorter than 12'0" as a 2 handed rod is not as efficient as a one-handed rod with a double haul.
The 6' FB will pose difficulties if you do intend to one-hand it.
Herb

Herb I actually installed a 4" butt to utilize a figure 8 at the boat side for Muskie. It helps to really work the flies at the end of the retrieve. I guess I should have asked here first before I tried it. Do you think the guide spacing would be geared more towards an 8'6" rod or 9'.???

You will still want the stripping guide 32 inches past the rear of the reel seat. The total number of guides can now likely be reduced by one.

Be advised that by moving the point of effort (your fighting hand) further up the blank, you are effectively going to be placing the greatest load ahead of the portion of the blank that was designed to handle the maximum amount of load which that blank is able to withstand. Four inches isn't a big deal, but it will make a difference.

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Tom is correct.
Many rods are broken by exerting pressure above the grip when fighting a fish.
Also - during a figure 8 - the fish will be very green. muskies don't run - but they will thrash around a lot during hook-up at the fig. 8 -
Herb

A fly rod "fighting butt" is not for leverage (like spin-rods) but for comfort. Fight one big fish on a fly rod with a stout leader and no fighting butt and you will see why. When I tried the "Figure 8" strategy with a conventional rod/reel on a boat side muskie I pushed the rod tip a foot to two below the surface and the plug stayed at that depth. Do you use heavily weighted flies for muskies?

Most of my flies are unweighted and I typically use a 300-400 grain line. I have tied up some tube flies on weighted tubes but have not fished them yet.