Got a question for you fly guys. I build rods as a hobby and at present I am working on a 6wt Batson blank. I have a preference for utilizing single foot ceramic guides in the top section of a two piece rather than the traditional wire.

That said is there any real difference in performance as it relates to the guide height from the rod shaft? In casting rods using concept spacing it makes considerable difference as to sensitivity of the rod low riders matched up to distance between / matched to the spline is the ball game so to speak. A guy in Delaware got me using a spacing similar to concept spacing on a casting rod as you can create a far more responsive rod by maintaining pressure evenly through the arch in the shaft when fighting a fish.

As fly rods basically hang line similar to a spinning rod it would seem that the guide height from the blank would be more a personal choice or am I out to lunch here?

I built a five weight a while back with one footed guides and have had no issues with performace. Unlike how the guides keep the line off the rod and prevent it from sticking to the blank when wet, also seems to cast easier and mend with less effort.

It's mostly a personal preference issue. You can do whatever you like. Most casters prefer keeping the weight of the guides down so as to not interfere with the action of the blank, but that's generally not an issue with any modern graphite rod blank. I have one rod that came with snake wire guides, but they are of the high loop variety. The notion is that they reduce line slap and friction on the rod blank when shooting line into a cast. I'm a good caster, not an expert or tournament caster, so I'm among the 99.9% of fly casters who don't notice and can't notice any difference.

Most things of this nature don't amount to a hill'o'beans. On any given day, wind direction and speed have more effect on my casting than any other factor.

Sg

its mostly personal preference. but, i would suggest not using ceramics on a fly rod other then the stripper guides, it makes the tip a bit heavy. when i build a rod i will put single foot wire guides on blanks up to a 6 wt. wts 7 and up will get the double foot snake guides.