I am going to build a 10 foot 3-weight rod for euro style nymph fishing. I am planning on using one size 10 stripping guide and going right to 11 size 2 single-foot running guides. It seems to me the taper approach is not warranted, as I did minimal taper (size 4 and 2 after two strippers) on my last fly rod and it casts just fine.

Any thoughts, recommendations or experiences? Recommendation on guide types?

Put the lightest guide you find.
Alps signle foot Light Wire are my first choice (size 1 as the y don’t have smaller) you can also use REC light duty single foot.

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Eric
[www.emfishing.fr]

Use the smallest size that will pass your line connections and knots. Also the least amount of size changes, typically limited to 3. You want to keep the added weight to the blank at a minimum.

Personally, I am not a fan of single foot guides on fly rods. I use Snake Brand or REC Recoils on my builds. I'll go on to say that a lot of the mass produced Euro rods that you see today do have single foot guides on them, my belief, its cheaper and quicker to put a rod out with one guide wrap vs the double wrap of a snake guide. Sure some of the single foot guides do have a small foot print on the blank, but it really is not that much different when compared to a quality bought snake guide.

Not one of the last 500 fly rods I have built, have had double foot running guides !

Double foot running guides in my estimation, provide no benefits and have the penalty of added weight, especially in the upper sections of the ROD.

REC lite snake guides are great, but if you happen to bump one of these guides parallel to the rod axis the guides are so flexible that the guide may well "back out" from under its thread wraps - and you will be unable to slide it back or keep it under the guide wraps. A couple-three Forhan Wraps on the leg of every REC Lite guide will prevent this problem and leave you with a "lite" AND durable fly rod.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2021 05:54PM by Phil Ewanicki.

I see no problem with your decision.

Hi Bill,

I started up rod building again last year during our Covid lockdown. It saved my sanity (more than a little) but didn't stop me going off and measuring a whole heap of guide weights.



REC single foot:

RSF 2 0.0455 gm
RSF 3 0.0575
RSF 4 0.0753
RSF 5 0.0886

Fuji single foot
T-KTTG 7 0.1478
T-KTTG 6 0.1215
T-KTTG 5.5 0.0941
T-KTTG 5 0.0767

(I haven't measured REC double foot snakes).


I also weighed on tissue paper replicates of typical epoxy applications (sub tissue weight).

EPOXY application single foot average 0.152 gm
EPOXY application single foot heavier 0.20

In terms of limiting weight on the rod, the epoxy coating seems to have biggest impact, and double foot application more so.

I really enjoy these forums, thanks for sharing your insights.

Gerard

Here's what I like on my euro-nymph builds:
10 stripper, Sz. 2 snake, 1/0 for the rest to the tip. If you're euronymphing, you'll have leader running through those 1/0s, but they can handle a 4wt. line.

FWIW: I've done single foot and snakes: line sometimes wraps around a single foot, not on the double foots.

Recommend Snake brand lite wire for both the double foot or single foot.

Have fun!

Thanks Gerard for posting those weights. It was very interesting.

I am also putting together the parts for a 10 ft 3# Euro nymph rod.

I was planning to use my usual set up - lots of size 1 ,light wire, single foot "snakes", with that guide also used in place of a tip top. (Tube style tip tops are, in my opinion, way too heavy and unnecessary.)

But I'm now thinking of trying something else.

I think (without much scientific evidence) that:
- a size 1 double foot weighs about the same as a size 1 single foot guide.
- a size 2/0 double foot weighs less than size 1 single foot guide.
- a size 2/0 double foot passes knots about as well as a size 1 single foot guide.
- a size 2/0 double foot resists icing about as well (or better) than a size 1 single foot guide.
- a size 1 double foot has a "footprint" of about 2 x 6 mm = 12 mm
- a size 1 single foot has a "footprint" of about 1 x 6 mm = 6 mm
- a sufficient number of coats of Permagloss weighs less than one average coat of epoxy

Gerard has proven that the weight of the epoxy to hold on a light fly guide is many times the weight of the guide itself.

Why are the feet on double foot snakes so long? I think that the blank will be plenty protected and the wraps will be plenty strong if the "footprint" of the double foot snakes is 2 x 3mm = 6 mm total.

On my upcoming 10 ft 3# Euro nymph rod I'll probably use lots of size 2/0 ,light wire, double foot snakes. I will get the Dremel tool out and hack their feet to about 3 mm each, and use Permagloss not epoxy..

Opinions? Do others have experience with this?