I am building a few fly rods and am wondering what the experienced fly rod builders here are using for running guides? Snakes? Ceramics? And size for different weights.
I appreciate any feedback.

I prefer single foot wire guides. Seems like ceramics would be heavy enough to slow the recovery down. Some prefer snakes because they feel they clear snarls and other line problems better than single foot. The lightest guides are, I believe, single foot titanium wire guides. So they would not only be most corrosion resistant, but would retain higher recovery speed.

I tend to use the Pac Bay minima type on rods under a 7-weight and Fuji Ti single foots from there and up. SIC tiptops on all of them.

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Any rod 6 wt or under I have been building with single foot guides. I think most work quite well. Recoils are very pliable and thus more difficult to grind the feet of and fasten down. I tend to prefer the TiCh color guides rather than chrome, but that's just me. Some like the black guides. Batson and Pac-Bay guides are just fine with me, though I am not sure what is up with PacBay but they do not have the distribution they did in the past.

Snake brand are fine guides. And the CRB work well, too.

For 4 wt or under I tend to look at light wire guides, then normal weight after that.

Single foot guides only require one wrap, so less wrapping and epoxying time.

For a 7 wt or over rod I go with double foot snake style guides.

Recoil guides can tend to produce a slight harmonic when the line zips through them, especially if you have a textured line. Their pliable nature and snap-back to original shape are a cool feature.

Tom - What ring size do you use for the SIC tip-top on an 8 wgt fly rod. I normally don’t use ceramic tip tops, but have a rod I want try one on.
Norm

Todd,
If one of the fly rods you're speakig of is the CTS #5 Vintage - I would use the REC Recoils - either the single foot or snakes depending on your preference. It is the difinitive trout blank - therefore you don't want to ruin it's performance by using heavy components - especially ceamic tip top.

To a great degree - your choice of guides are a function of the blank's stiffness.

I performed an experiment the other day - I built a 9'0" #7 CTS FSA for a fly fishing guide who wants to use it to take his Fly Casting Instructor certification. The FSA (my own design) is a very powerful blank. I have two personal rods - one with REC S/F runners and one with REC Snakes.
On the Fly Fishing Guide's rod - I installed Snakebrand snake guides - they are heavier that the REC Recoils.

Experiment - Using my rod with S/F recoils - I stripped off enough line so when I casted it - there was slack at the reel. i.e. the line did not come tight to the reel. Next I put the reel on the rod with Snakebrand runners - 5 casts and ech time the line came snug to the reel.

Caveat: The Guide's rod was produced in 2024. My rod is from 2021. Stephen Pratt is continually improving his material. So, the difference could be because it is newer.

When home from RI in October - I plan to strip my S/F Recoils off duplicate rods and test Snakebrand.

regards,
Herb
CTS



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2024 12:13PM by Herb Ladenheim.

Herb, I did use REC snake guides on the CTS blank I bought from you. It’s wrapped and I’m in the process of doing the epoxy work. I am hoping to finish it this week. The birch bark handle turned out pretty sweet. I will post pics when I’m done.

Todd
Thanks
Herb