Ive read many heated discussions on other boards in the past concerning single foot vs double for fly rods. are there any real advantages to single foot guides?

I have always used double foot and can see how some folks say that single foot guides are a lot more work but are they?

also on rod wts 3-8 is the wt savings of single foot guides worth looking at or is it just a matter of personal taste.

Ive noticed most fly rod mfgs are still using double foot guides. I guess its hard to break the traditional look that people identify to that of a fly rod and keep sales up although st Croix is doing newfangled things.

Im pondering trying single foot guides but if its only a personal issue with no big benifit I may just stay with what I know.

As always Many thanks and happy wrapping "John"

There are huge benefits to using ceramic guides, either single or doubled foot, on a fly rod. Same as there are in using them on any type rod. A high quality ceramic insert will not groove or wear and thus will not cause undo wear on your fly line. Some highly polished ceramics are much slicker than any hard chrome or otherwise coated wire snake guides. Do they offer increased casting distance? Sometimes, yes. But increased casting distance, the kind you can really measure, has to do with many other variables as well.

A guide with a single leg is plenty strong and requries only 1/2 the number of wraps as do those with two legs. Most good single foot ceramic guides also cost more than snake guides or single leg wire type guides.

Are they lighter? In some cases yes, in some cases no. It depends upon the sizing and number and how short you keep the wrap extensions. I have weight similar sized sets of the Fuji SIC and Cermet with titanium frames against closely matched sets of snakes and traditional type strippers, with the wraps (wrapped/finished and then cut off to use for weighing purposes) and the the Fuji's were almost always lighter by a bit. Some of the weight savings was in the wrap and finish for sure. This will of course vary with the particular type ceramic single foots you are working with - there are many different brands and styles.

So to answer your question, if you look at the whole package - strength, ring slickness, durability, weight, etc., you have what amounts to a better set-up, but at a greater cost. How much better depends on many things. Personally, I will use nothiing else. Others, however, stay with snake guides and feel they have a great set-up as well.

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I have some related questions. I am going to be building an 8/9 wt Loomis (on an F1088/9 GL3). I am considering using the Fuji Titanium/SiC single foot guides but I have not been able to find any information on what sizes to use. How do the ring sizes compare to snake guide sizes?

Does Loomis require underwraps on these blanks? I seem to recall hearing that failure to underwrap on certain blanks voided the warranty.

Ed

Don't worry about how they size up next to snakes. That's a common set-up for light saltwater here and I like to use a set that goes like - 16, 12, 10, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, top (8). The first two are double foot spinning style with high frame. The 8 ring should be more than large enough for what you want to do.

I think the underwrap thing only applied to the GLX series. I have never underwrapped any of my GL3's and the only one that has been broken was due to somebody's foot.

Thanks for the reply. Did you really mean to use nine guides or did you miss one (presuming you are talking about a 9' rod). Most 9' fly rods have 10 guides, some have 11.

Ed