3wt guide sizes?

[firedog1]

Im building a 2/3 wt, med/fast, 9' Lamaglas rod. Ive built a half dozen fly rods in years past, but Im not sure which size guides to use on this rod. Im using single foot guides to keep the weight down. On the 4,5, and 6wts Ive done, Ive used the standard sizes that anglers workshop advised. Usually I go 1 line size over the rods rating. Will smaller guides and stripper guide give a noticable increase in casting friction? Any suggestions from experienced rodbuilders would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[kingjamm]

Originally Posted by firedog1

Im building a 2/3 wt, med/fast, 9' Lamaglas rod. Ive built a half dozen fly rods in years past, but Im not sure which size guides to use on this rod. Im using single foot guides to keep the weight down. On the 4,5, and 6wts Ive done, Ive used the standard sizes that anglers workshop advised. Usually I go 1 line size over the rods rating. Will smaller guides and stripper guide give a noticable increase in casting friction? Any suggestions from experienced rodbuilders would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Smaller guides equates to less mass which means you are putting more energy into moving line and less into move stuff stuck to the rod. If you can find 1/0 guides go with those. They only need to be large enough to pass a knot through them. Any more and you're just adding weight.

Finally the lower you are on the butt section the less affect the guide size will have. In general I'm in favor of smaller stripper guides. I used to go the other way, but I've found the line seems to slap the blank less on double hauls when I have smaller guides than larger ones.

[santiamflyguy]

I'd go #12 stripper, #4 SF, #2SF to the tip.

The weight and friction difference on guides that small isn't much. I'd much rather thread #2 guides in the cold than try to fit a looped connector up a #1/0. Some people believe that larger running guides give better shooting performance as well.

[firedog1]

Thanks for the suggestions. I stopped by Kauffmans the other day and looked at some of the lighter rods. They all use the smaller guides. Ill take your advise and use them too. If anyone out there is looking for a med-fast blank, Im really liking the Lamiglass Parigee series- for me its more fun to cast than the hi-mod grafite that are so popular now. Ive got em too, but Ill be using these med-fast rods more often than not. Thanks again.

[santiamflyguy]

I may be wrong here but I believe the Perigree uses a mid-high modulus (51mil) fiber...

Modulus has pretty much nothing to do with taper and/or action...long story here, but modulus is basically a description of the stiffness of graphite fibers...you can roll up a slow action blank with a gradual taper using high modulus fiber....or a fast action, steep taper with a standard modulus fiber... it's all about tapers and wall thickness (which is affected by the fiber used - a stiffer fiber = possible to make a thinner wall for any given stiffness)...

Long story short - don't confuse modulus with action, they are seperate and generally unrelated things...