Question For You Rod Builders

[5bites]

No worries bud.

I always heard they'd get grooves over time. I never put much stock in that. Then I heard from Matt Davis of Otterods that he had the same problems. Despite that my favorite pitching rod at the time had recoil guides. Well sure enough it did the same thing. I use fluorocarbon exclusively when pitching.

I hope your experience is better than mine and others. I will not be building any casting rods with them. There's no point really when even the cheapest of micro guides are so light and more durable. Now I wouldn't mind building a crappie rod or drop shot rod with the single wire version though.

[Old plug]

If i have to re rap one i am thinking about these new chrome ones i seen some place i wonder how they are. the titaniums are expensive. I do not put on many expensive guides I have smashed and broken so many on the roof of my dock while setting a hook it would be to expensive.

[Al Agnew]

A bit of time on Google gleans mixed reviews on the Recoils. Some report they are trouble free and they love them, some report a lot of noise and occasional grooving with braid, a few report more noise and grooving even with fluoro. Some report a loss of casting distance with them...more friction, others that they have less friction.

Advantages are light weight, flexibility--they bend with the rod and snap back into shape, and increased sensitivity.

Personally, I think they look cheap, even if they aren't, and don't care to have them on my rods.

I didn't think I'd like the micro guides, either, though...but with a couple of rods equipped with them, I haven't noticed any problems at all.

[Rolan Duffield]

All of my fly rods have either the Fuji Hardloy guides or the Fuji Alconite guides on them. I build my rods and have used these guides for many years. I have always been pleased with how easy the line shoots and haven't detected any guide wear.

The Fuji fly rod guides are very good guides at a reasonable cost. Mudhole.com has a very good selection.

I would caution about using stainless steel or chrome guides as the fly line will wear a grove in that type guide quickly and ruin your fly line.I can remember in the old days using stainless steel where I replaced sets of guides twice yearly.

[Gavin]

I 'm pretty happy with the Fuji Alconites. I've tried some at two or three times the price and didn't notice a difference.

[rps]

I have used the Fuji Alconite guides on other rods. They are excellent as far as the ring portion. However on two different rods (both micro guide spiral wraps) I have had a guide break off at the wrap.

Next time I build I may try a Batson.

[hoglaw]

Guide failure is pretty rare (aside from the ring popping out), but I guess if you were grinding braid over cheap inserts with a lot of tension for a long time you could see some groving. I've never had a guide grove, but maybe I'm just not hat hard on them.

The mega bucks guides with swanky inserts may be necessary for saltwater stuff and really heavy gear. I'm not sure. I'm by no means as accomplished a rod builder as some on here and haven't been doing it as long, but I build everything that I can with micro guides. As a result, I don't feel like I have that many choices really. Spinning rods are difficult to set up properly with micro guides. Anyone can slap them on there where they think they ought to go, but to really get them placed right you have to fit the guide placement to the reel you're using. I'm a big believer in that method. With the 27x placement method (or whatever the multiplier is), I've found that just a little tweaking is necessary to get it to cast properly.

Casting rods are far easier, and I always spiral wrap micro guides. If you don't, you need more guides which is always a bad thing.

So to answer the question posed, my "choice" of guides for a dream rod would be micros - the smallest ones I can use and still pass any knots I'll have in the line, and always spiral wrapped for a casting rod. I haven't had any durability issues with them and I know they're lighter than the most expensive conventional guide systems (although we're talking about fractions of an ounce here).

[rps]

Hoglaw: One of the guide failures was on the jig rod you did for me. Not your fault because I supplied the guides. The other was on a walleye rod I tied. Both guides broke off right at the point the guide foot was covered by the epoxied thread. I think they bent back and forth too much going in and out of the rod tubes.

[Mitch f]

Nothing worse than a guide failing during the heat of the moment, which makes you fish with other rods that weren't quite good enough for that application. Although the recoils look cheap, they still are interesting to me. Now the spiral mount thing really has my interest too. Besides keeping the rod from rotating 180, are there any other advantages?

[hoglaw]

Mitch, the advantage of a spiral on a casting rod with micros is that you can use fewer guides. You just have to pass a static distribution test (google image search it). If you put the micros on top like a normal casting rod, the low guide profile means you need more of them closer together to keep the line off the blank when it's under a load. If you buy an off the rack mico guide casting rod that's 7', it will have 12-14 guides on it! That's nuts. If you spiral wrap it, it will only need 7-8 usually.