Capt Neil Faulkner

Hi,

Information on guides was requested so here is a broad view.

Guides for fishing rods are made by many manufacturers such as Fuji, Pac Bay, Forecast, Perfection, American Tackle, All American Roller guide, AFTCO And others that I am not familiar with.

Fuji, for many years the standard. I use them on my top shelf custom rods.

Pac Bay, used them many years ago and they worked well.

Forecast, a new comer, I am told that St Croix uses them on all their rods. The frames are double dipped and the feet ground nicely. I use them on my less expensive production rods.

Perfection, have been around for many years. Have used their metal framed/ringed guides in the past. This type of guide is still used on many factory rods.

American Tackle, used by many builders with success. I have not seen them in person.

All American Roller guides, they make the roller guides for spiral wrapped rods. I have used them, great guides and big tuna have been caught on rods using them, 250 lbs.

Aftco, major producer of roller guides for many years.

These companies produce many types of guides. You can contact them for a catalog that they will be only too happy to send you. You will also find that the catalogs contain many other items for crafting rods.

You can also contact companies and ask for their catalogs. The catalogs show their guides and associated products.

Here are a few companies you can contact:

Batson Enterprises, 877-875-22381, www.batsonenterprises.com

Bingham Enterprises, 913-897-6657, www.angelfire.com/ks/bingham

REC, 860-749-3476, www.rec.com

Merrick Tackle, 800-628-8904, www.merricktackle.com

American Tackle, 800-516-1850, www.americantackle.us

Pac Bay, 800-2pacbay, www.fishpacbay.com

Sevier, 317-892-2784

Mudhole, 407-447-rods, www.mudhole.com

BC distributing, 714-995-3997, www.bcdistributing.com

Custom Tackle Supply, 931-684-6164

That is a good start folks. Some of the companies are retail and some wholesale and some do both.

If you have particular questions about guides to use etc. please post the questions.

I hope this helps.

Capt Neil

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Custom Fishing Rods by Capt Neil
Home of The Long Islander Series of rods
Sayville, Long Island, New York

(631) 567-8049

FMF

what's the best guide for braids?

Capt Neil Faulkner

Full Moon Fishing

Hi,

For braided/synthetic line we have several choices.

The ceramic rings in guides are rated by their smoothness and hardness. Of course the smoother and the harder the material is the more they cost.

Fuji Hardloy guides (gray rings) are user friendly with braid and are reasonably priced. A set of the Silicon Carbide guides(shinny black rings) are expensive and will cost me wolesale about $65 extra for a boat rod.

Pac Bay has these that I believe are suitable for braid, Hialoy, Zirconia and Silicon Carbide.

Batson Enterprises has "H" ring and Zirconium.

A system developed in the 1920's called the VICKERS HARDNESS rating is used to determine the hardness of these types of rings.

Hope this helps.

Capt Neil

__________________
Custom Fishing Rods by Capt Neil
Home of The Long Islander Series of rods
Sayville, Long Island, New York

(631) 567-8049

FMF

My rods/guides, put up with severe abuse, I found some ceramic standard guides, get chipped from the angler yanking up and hitting the t-top. I was looking for a good solution, i may drop the extra cash and get siliconcarbide guides. but this will be after the 100 other projects around the house that have been neglected since march LOL

Capt Neil Faulkner

Full Moon Fishing

Hi,

I think it will be cheaper to teach the anglers not to high stick. I bet they could chip the SIC guides.. Anglers can break anything. Maybe 5 1/2' long rods that can't reach the T top. I totally understand your problem.

You could use rods with the guides under the rods. The rod would hit the T Top and not the rings. The conventional rods are called Spiral wrapped rods.

Are spinning rods an option? Can you cover the T Top rails with foam tubing?

Capt Neil

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Custom Fishing Rods by Capt Neil
Home of The Long Islander Series of rods
Sayville, Long Island, New York

(631) 567-8049

TonySMJC

I have had good luck with a pac bay old style braced boat guide that is "titanium coated" or colored It seems to hold up and I havnt cut one yet with braid. IM using them on all the new heavy rods im building for the boat . They would work on lighter set ups but they dont have that modern look.

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FMF

too funny.....i even caught a hook in the nose, the bass kicked, the angler moved, and the boat rocked all at once.....hey I am Chuck by the way.....we can be a little less formal!

Capt Neil Faulkner

Hi Capts Tony and Chuck,

I have used the Fuji braced guides and they work, probably too well. I no longer use. Why? They are so stiff they take action away from the blank. Now as a party boat special, why not? The fares probably will not know the difference.

On my heavier rods I use the Fuji BHNLG's, wider rings and wider frames. I have had good results with them.

If using only mono go with the wire foul proof guides. A bit heavy but they will last forever.

For the pb specials have you tried using the solid fiberglas blanks? They last forever.

CN

__________________
Custom Fishing Rods by Capt Neil
Home of The Long Islander Series of rods
Sayville, Long Island, New York

(631) 567-8049

Boonebird

You want to try a great 20 to unlimited class guide try winthrop tool llc. In deep river ct. I run them on the boat i run and they are great. WWW.winthroptool.com.

Capt Neil Faulkner

Boonebird

Hi,

Recently I read about the WT guides and also another company. One of the two was extremely expensive. Just looked at the WT site but saw no prices..


Capt Neil

__________________
Custom Fishing Rods by Capt Neil
Home of The Long Islander Series of rods
Sayville, Long Island, New York

(631) 567-8049