Well I stop stressing about stripper guide size . I went to the local fly shop and looked at the sages and the other high dollar rods and they all had strippers as large as I had on hand so dang the torpedos full steam ahead. The rod casts beautifully, at least from my perspective. I also ordered guides XBSG wire guides and I like the minimalist look and will try them on a rod in the future. I also ordered Snake brand snake guides and what big difference there is between snake brand and the other guides. snake brand is ready to tie on with no shaping at all. the advice so far has been great from everyone.

Robert: What size were your stripper guides, and on what weight rods? I'm building a 9wt. rod for an old friend and opted for 20-16-12 stripper guides, upon the assumption this rod will need to make long casts from a stripping basket close to the first guide. Any observations?

The rod that I just finished is a 9ft 8wgt. from the reel the firstbstripper is 20mm and the second is a 16mm. The first snake guide is a 5mm and 4s to the top. we have a great small mouth fishery and I have a 9ft 5wgt and was difficult casting bass poppers and wgted clouser minnows and as a result built the 8 wgt and. line is wf8f and I cast that combo pretty good. Still working on the clouser minnow but the afore mentioned combo seems to be helping. I am looking at wire strippers as shown in mudhole cat pg92-XSG and XBSG . Indon't know why it won't work. I have a 16 and a 12 taped on a 9ft rod and I do like the look. If there is good reason not to use the wire guides let me know. The 20mm stripper just proportionally.. looked too big that is the main reason I questioned it .

The rod that I just finished is a 9ft 8wgt. from the reel the firstbstripper is 20mm and the second is a 16mm. The first snake guide is a 5mm and 4s to the top. we have a great small mouth fishery and I have a 9ft 5wgt and was difficult casting bass poppers and wgted clouser minnows and as a result built the 8 wgt and. line is wf8f and I cast that combo pretty good. Still working on the clouser minnow but the afore mentioned combo seems to be helping. I am looking at wire strippers as shown in mudhole cat pg92-XSG and XBSG . Indon't know why it won't work. I have a 16 and a 12 taped on a 9ft rod and I do like the look. If there is good reason not to use the wire guides let me know. The 20mm stripper just proportionally.. looked too big that is the main reason I questioned it .