Hi all,

I have a new fly rod build in the works and I'm looking for a little input on guide selection.

I purchased a CTS Affinity X 11' #3/2 nymphing blank and I'm looking to use Silicon Nitride single foot guides instead of traditional snake guides or wire single foot guides.

These guides are the very small "micro" type guides which I think should work well with the small diameter euro-nymph lines, and will require minimal wrapping weight.

Have any of you tried these guides for this use, and if so, how well did they work out for you?

Thanks, Marc



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2021 09:22PM by Marc Pucel.

I'm not a fan of "ringed" guides on any fly rods. And certainly not on a rod built for nymphing. I would use the REC Nickel- Titanium alloy single foot or snake guides.
Herb
CTS U.S. Rep

It work fine if you only use euro Nymph Line or only nylon.
Use Torzite guide to keep weight down ( T KTTG4 is a good choice).

A major advantage of snake guides on fly rods is the larger effective guide opening of a snake guide, presumably allowing larger twists and slip-knots to pass through the guide train. I suspect one is considerably more likely to be struck by lightening than to have his snake guides grooved by a fly line.

Grooving might occur if one nymphed for 8 hours per day for the next 32 years. But at that angling pace one's shoulder and rotator cuff probably would be non-functional after the initial 3 years.

Remember the sizing you are seeing is the ceramic rings outside diameter, not the size the line will actually have to pass through with your leader knots. For instance a 4 mm guide would be 2 mm and change inside.

Good comments and food for thought.

I suspect that I will probably just use light-wire snake guides (at least in the upper sections) as I have in the past!

Thanks

I use Alps single foot Light wire in the smallest size (1) if this can help.

I have regularly used ceramic single foot guides for larger sized rods (6wt and up), but do wonder if that might be a bit of overkill for a 2-3 weight.

That said, I just built a 9wt using the Pac Bay Minima guides, which are just that....minima....and am planning to use a smaller size of those on a 3wt blank that I have. consider them a middle ground between the wire single foots, and typical ceramic guides

When using light wire snake guides on a fly rod I suggest you use a few Forhan wraps around each guide leg before applying epoxy. Even a slight blow parallel to the rod which strikes one leg of a light wire snake guide can cause the guide leg to flex and "back out" from under the thread wraps - making it necessary to re-wrap and re-finish the guide leg. It happened to me. A single-foot guide is even more vulnerable to slipping out from under its single wrapping.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/2021 09:31AM by Phil Ewanicki.

The Snake brand guides are one of the best if not the best , one of the reasons is the foot / feet have been bent to fit the radius of the road one type of there guides are flat for the BAMBOO blanks , so make sure
what you order , PS very little prep "" if any"" on SNAKE BRAND GUIDES , as I see it ,

William Sidney
AK