I am building an 11' 8wt switch rod and would like to use Pac Bay's Minima fly guides or equivalent. I need counsel on guide size and placement. Any help appreciated!

I was unaware that there were any specialty Minima guides for fly rods, although many including myself do use their regular Minima guides on fly rods. Sizing and placement would be no different than for any other rod. The guides need to be large enough to pass your line and any connections and you need adequate stress distribution. Most likely you'll need about a dozen guides plus tiptop.

...........

Hey Tom.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, you can view them on page 26 of Pac Bay's catalog. Mudhole has them for sale. My reason for the inquiry is that when comparing ring size for the Mini to a normal wire guide, it seems like to match the opening, you would have to upsize the Minima to obtain equality, ie sz 3 snake opening = size 7/8 mm ring. I am considering this style of guide thinking that line will shoot through them better than a normal snake...would you agree?

No, the line isn't going to shoot through them much if any better than a snake guide. You'd be hard pressed to tell any difference in casting between the two. I do like the Minima guides, however.

...........

Steve,
I would choose REC Recoil single foot or snakes over minimas because of the weight differential.
A switch rod is on the soft side as it is. I like to get the maximum performance out of a blank as I can get - i.e. keep things as light as possible. Therefore - REC Recoils. - especially the Recoil tip-top.
Adding component weight to a soft blank designed for a switch rod will compromise the performance.
Remember - line speed and casting distance is a function of the blanks recovery rate. Using heavy components will slow its recovery
Herb

Line speed and casting distance are dependent variables. The fly rod serves two purposes: to act as a class 3 lever to increase line speed and to prevent any slack from developing while the fly line makes a 180 degree turn. Any slack created anywhere in the fly line during the cast will cause a sudden deceleration of the line and seriously shorten the cast.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2021 09:36AM by Phil Ewanicki.

The Minima guides are about as light as you can get. They do not have ceramic rings.

...........

Thanks for the input. I recognize that the Recoils have a good reputation. I hear that there is minimal foot grinding in prepping the guide. However, I am going with a black component theme. And, To be honest, I'm struggling with the price premium for the black pearl finish. Maybe its time to bite the bullet and concede. As a sidebar, I have used and like Hopkins and Halloway single-foot. Unfortunately, I cant find them in black. Does anyone know where to find them?

Steve, I have built many fly rods, and have used both single-foot guides and snake guides. I was not happy with the single-foot guides, doing much better with the snake guides. One thing I found that improved my casting distance dramatically was using the Amerfican Tackle Microwave Stripper Guides, I found myself overshooting my targets by 5' to 10' on 35' to 45' casts! I cannot say enough about these stripper guides and will not use anything else if the choice is mine.

A size 6 mm Minima is about the same size as a #3 single foot.