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Thread: Guide sizes- How critical?

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Harrisburg, SD USA
    Posts
    432

    Default Guide sizes- How critical?

    I am about to start building an 8 ft. 3 wt. for a buddy's 59th birthday. Over the years I have accumulated an assortment of guides in various sizes. Some came from guides sets where I didn't use all the guides in the set. Others came from odds and ends that I picked up when I found a bargain. A few were even scavenged from broken rods, etc.

    Anyway, how critical are the guide sizes? One chart I referenced says, for example that the "typical" sizes of guides for an 8 ft. 3 wt. might be: 1/0,1/0,1,1,2,2,3,4 & a 10mm stripping guide. Of course not every guide sizing chart has exactly the same recommendation.

    I don't have any 1/0 guides in my present stash. Could I get by with say, 1,1,1,2,2,2,3,4 & stripping guide?

    Thanks for any advice.

    Royce

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Dunedin, Florida
    Posts
    439

    Default

    Yes. I have never used 1/0 guides on any of my builds. With that small a guide, I would be concerned with the fly line to leader knot passing through.
    You don't ever want a crisis to go to waste... - Rahm Emanuel

    Who is John Galt?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Location
    Elida, Ohio
    Posts
    1,696

    Default

    Royce

    Those guides will work just fine. I have built a lot of rods with those sizes.

    Brad
    "A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her."
    -W.C. Fields

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
    Location
    Avondale Arizona
    Posts
    181

    Default

    I would drop the 2's and possibly the 3 there is no need for that many transistions guides Most of my 3wt builds are all 1's a 4 and then the stripper. There is no such thing as a "cone of flight" on a fly rod.

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