I am just about to order all the bits and bobs i need to get my second rod build under way.

I have never used a rod with single leg fly rod guides on it.
Should i just stick to good old fashioned snakes?

I was going to buy the black coated guides, opinions please?

Munro

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www.tintotroutfishery.co.uk
www.anglersholidaycottages.co.uk

hello just to say back in the good old days when single legs were all the rave i used on a rod and early fibre glass with snakes but found no difference, i think people presumed a single leg ring set would give the rod more flex, are there any companies making rods today with these on?? if not maybe hardy will resurrect this like they have with there new glass rods!!!! 80% carbon 20% glass

Thanks for the reply.

Steve Parkes uses them on some of his rods so i guess they are not that bad.
I can see they could be easily damaged.

only my rods have sankes so i am unsure about single leg guides.

The snakes look slicker to me.

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www.tintotroutfishery.co.uk
www.anglersholidaycottages.co.uk

I have built a couple of fibatubes using single legs only benifit less whipping
They dont in my opinion like heavy lines and are more likely to get damaged
but they do look the "dogs danglies"

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BROWN TROUT:THE RED SPOTS HAND PAINTED BY GOD

I prefer small, thin wire single foot guides for all my rods. They are lighter than a comparable snake because of half the wrapping and epoxy. I've never had a problem with damaging one and I've never had a problem with lines sticking as they pass through.

I prefer hard chrome as the colored finishes wear off, except for TiCH. I've not had a TiCH guide wear through to the under metal. I do like them, but they are a little heavier on light rods.

Thanks
Rick

Like Rick says, the black coating will come off were the line is making contact to the wire... There are enough companies that use single legged guides, loomis for example uses the recoil version. I think most copmpanies use them to keep the cost down and shave off time from the wrapping process. I like singles on light medium rods because they look slim and do not stiffen the blank.. But to be honest i build a rod over and over to see if there was any differance but i really couldn't notice any... Except for the recoils they are just weightless which should make the rod recover faster.. I haven't tried the H&H stand off singles because i don't like how they look but i think those single legged guides do make a differance. They keep the wet line away from the blank and i suspect those shoot further whilst casting...

For me i like the look of doubles so i use those guides the most.. If you do go with singles look on the web for the Forhan wrap if you are scared of pulling them from underneath the wraps...

Good luck and have fun building..

Jerry

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When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.

It's true that single foot guideds require only one wrap, but although snakes require two, each wrap only needs to be half the wrap and epoxy quantity of the single foot, due to there bieing only one wire strand on each end of the snake. The single foot has two strands in one wrap, and the wrap therefore needs to be stronger, so hence the rod makers use more tread turns and epoxy for single foot guides. Some rod makers use single foot guides purely because there is less labour than snakes, although they would probably admit that snakes are better, and most of them would charge a little more for a rod with snake guides.
For me, I think it makes no difference to the performance of the rod, but I just prefer the look of snakes. I also find that the line runs better through snake guides, but it might be my immagination.

Johan

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Johan Janssens

BS. It doesn't matter if you have one wire or two under the thread wraps. They only need to be long enough to cover the wire from the tip of the foot to 90% of the way to where the wire leaves the blank. You probably don't even need that, but it looks funny any shorter. The same goes for snake guides- each wrap should be the same length, but the snakes have twice as many.

Thanks
Rick

For those interested, the weight that wraps and epoxy add..

Rod Building > Mass Hysteria - Guide / Wrap - Weight Experiement Round II

I did the same kind of tests on 9ft fly rods and i must say i couldn't feel the difference between snakes or singles..

Jerry

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When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep -- not screaming, like the passengers in his car.