I'm going to be building a 11 wt tarpon rod and am considering single foot wire guides except for the first three stripper guides. Would size A thread be enough or would I want to use size D?

Thank You

I used single foot guides (asides from stripping guides) on a 10wt I recently did. Size a worked just fine for me and will certainly hold up.

What Alex said.
Herb

David,
I certainly agree with Alex and Herb = size A will be just fine. Many people fail to take into account the cumulative effect that numerous wraps of thread afford to hold a guide in place. As an example, if size A thread has a breaking strength of 2 lb, a ½ in wide wrap (~ 50 rotations) will afford 100 lb of holding force for the guide PER GUIDE FOOT! = double foot guides are TWICE as secure. Even with a single foot guide, it should be apparent that virtually any size thread wrap is more than adequate.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Thank you guys for your feedback. Very much appreciated.

The weak spot in single-foot guides is a forward pull on a line wrapped or tangled around the guide foot, which would tend to cause the guide foot to slip forward, out from under its wrapping. The Forhan wrap is employed to prevent such slippage and works well up to a point. The Forhan Wrap is chiefly used on rods for fresh-water fish. I don't know if a Forhan wrap would keep a single foot guide on the blank when the rod hooked an #80 tarpon and the line wrapped around or became fouled on a single-foot guide. Snake guides are pretty much immune to this hazard.

When using the Forhan wrap on a rod that may encounter heavy stress on a guide, simply increase the number of circling wraps.

Phil Ewanicki Wrote:
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> The weak spot in single-foot guides is a forward
> pull on a line wrapped or tangled around the guide
> foot, which would tend to cause the guide foot to
> slip forward, out from under its wrapping. The
> Forhan wrap is employed to prevent such slippage
> and works well up to a point. The Forhan Wrap is
> chiefly used on rods for fresh-water fish. I don't
> know if a Forhan wrap would keep a single foot
> guide on the blank when the rod hooked an #80
> tarpon and the line wrapped around or became
> fouled on a single-foot guide. Snake guides are
> pretty much immune to this hazard.


Yes, the Forhan wrap will keep a single foot guide in place on a fly rod hooked to an 80lb tarpon.

................

If you hook a big, powerful fish it is possible for a fly line to twist around or half-hitch around a single-foot guide, but I believe the odds are heavily against this happening. However, it's 100% certain a line can't loop around or half-hitch around a snake guide. Obsessive - compulsive fly casters might worry about this issue.

As long as they can double haul they will be fine.

Old-time fly casters advocated learning how to fly cast by pressing a book between the rib cage and elbow of the casting arm. The sole purpose of their free hand was to pinch the line, then let it go - and a 30 foot cast was a boomer. They gladly suffered short casts and painful shoulder joints in the pursuit of tradition, and were quick to criticize those who fly cast differently - and better.

Maybe so but there is still no way they could push a rope.