My current build is a Sage Sonic blank in a 7 weight, after building lots of fly and spinning rods over the last 30 years or so i got thinking today, what would stop me from using single leg guides through out the whole rod. Using larger single leg guides for the stripping guides, advantages/disadvantages.
thought please.

and many thanks in advance

Bryan

Bryan,

IMO - guides should be chosen by how they affect the blanks ability to recover after loading. The faster the recovery the better. Too heavy guides will soften the blank.
Remember - a blank is dumb. It doesn't know if it is being loaded by its components or by the fly line.

However, the stripper is so low down on the blank that its weight is insignificant. You're not going to improve the blanks performance by using a single foot stripper guide.
Herb

No real disadvantages and if you end up reducing the weight on the upper half of the rod there is a plus in terms of rod speed. The line will never know how many legs the guides have. But from the standpoint of durability, I'd stick with a double foot style for the stripping guide and possibly even the subsequent guide. The tiny bit of extra weight on the bottom half of the rod won't be of any practical matter.

...........

Fly lines are more likely to throw a half-hitch around the stripper guide than a spinning line, and a single-foot fly rod stripper guide is a lot more likely than a double-foot stripper to have a knot in the line cinch up around it.

Phil Ewanicki Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Fly lines are more likely to throw a half-hitch
> around the stripper guide than a spinning line,
> and a single-foot fly rod stripper guide is a lot
> more likely than a double-foot stripper to have a
> knot in the line cinch up around it.

What Phil said. But not only will it happen more often - it will be impossible to untie the knot with a single foot guide.
Herb

Snake guides are the original anti tangle guides. I like the Snake Brand the best the feet are pretty much perfect and they require not much thread and epoxy.

With respect to single foot vs snakes for the running guides, I've done both and cannot say I see any performance advantage or disadvantage to either. Snakes take twice the number of wraps. I've never had tangle or line feed problems with the single foot wire guides. Making a decision based on the number of wraps is admittedly a short-sighted approach.

Nothing is stopping you from using all single foot guides. Double foot snakes are lighter than single foot guides and are more efficient at keeping the line straight passing through the guides. In order to reach that same efficiency, more single foot guides need to be added and that adds weight to the tip section as previously stated. That weight, although ever so little, is still more and will change the way the rod recovers. It will slow it down a little. I have found that lines with longer taper / head work better for this type of rod. I have built identical blanks with different guide trains to try to figure it out and this is the conclusion I came up with. You may have a different experience than me as others, so don't let anyone discourage you from experimenting or trying something different, otherwise you won't really know till you try it. It is always a problem matching a fly line to a particular rod and can be very expensive to get it right. If doesn't seem to cast right, try a different line. I am fortunate enough to have different lines that I have aquired and you can actually bring an old line back to life with a little food grade silicone. You may be able to use some older lines that you kept for back up and they may have different tapers you can try.

As mentioned, there are issues in using single foot guides so early in the guide train. The strippers stand taller from the blank and are the ones most like to be bumped, bent or damaged.

In no case do you need to add guides because they are single foot!

The stripper guide "tames" the loops and twists which most assuredly do form in loose fly line during the cast. The probability of a knot forming in a fly line decreases greatly once the line has passed through the stripper guide and thus "straightened out". I have had no problem with fly rods equipped with single-foot guides above a two-footed stripper guide on a trout rod and probably wouldn't have any problem with single foot strippers even if I used #50 tippets on yellowfin tuna - but a blow to a single-foot stripper from a rod tube, gunwale, furniture, or doorway could cause trouble.

I'm not a fly fisherman but I do have experience with all single foot layouts on a few select ten and a half foot surf rods I built and use.

Although I do typically go with double foot guides in different heights and sizes for the reduction train on my heavier rated surf rods I do use all single foot's starting with the a KL25H and ending with size KT 5 runners on a select few and I find those builds thrilling and exciting to fish with because they feel so much lighter and more lively in the hand .

I could have gone with Fuji's KW single foot version which is the KL single foot guides which are much more stout than the KLH single foots but the heights are all wrong on those and I find the KR concept single foot guide heights to be ideal .


The one thing that I agree 100% with the others about is the durability factor and if you regularly drop or bang your rods around there is a high likelihood that you will deform a guide so single foot's need to be carefully chosen with that potential drawback in mind . As I have done myself and said repeatedly in the past is I will order different types of guides at the same time and tape them on and test cast and see if I'm happy with them . The overwhelming majority of the places you order from offer 30 full days starting with the day you receive the guides (Not the day they ship it) for you to return the guides if they prove to not be a good choice . It's a great benefit to be able to tape up different types and styles of guides and see if they're what you're looking for and being able to simply return if they're not .

Testing guides does zero harm to the guides whatsoever .

If you are using sinking tips or shooting heads on your 7 weight, they pass through snake guides more easily than single foot guides which the loop to loop knot tends to hang up on.

Greg
Aptos, CA

What do your guide wraps look like where you've used snake guides on heavily used fly rods? Mine were getting scuffed enough to warrant re-wrapping after a few years of heavy use. This is because wire guides do nothing to prevent your line from abrading the top of the guide foot wraps during hauls on your forward casting stroke. I've switched to single foot 'F' style guides and have eliminated the abrading of the top of the guide feet wraps. The weight of Minima 'F' guides with single foot wraps and thread finish is no heavier than the weight of double foot snakes with two wrapped feet and thread finish. Also, unless you use light wire guides in the narrow tip area, the tip section is reluctant to bend where the double foot guide is "bracing" the flimsy blank section.