Jeffrey,
Thank you for opening this discussion about our RECOIL guides vs. other guides on the market.
I am pleased that there is such a great interest in our guides and thank each of you that have gone against the grain to try them. Thank you for calling me to tell me how much you like them after trying them.
Our claim is not to say our guides are better than all others. We just state the facts about our products and let each individual decide on their own which products they prefer. We just want everyone to know that we are an Innovative Company in the angling industry that cares about our customers and are just as passionate about the sport of angling and rod building as you are. We try to introduce products that will enhance the angling experience for everyone. RECOIL guides are just one of those products.
All we can ask is that you try a set for yourself to determine if what others say is true, pro or con.
If anyone would like to discuss RECOIL with me, I would be pleased to hear from you. I have Inshore, Casting, Spin, and Fly rods of my own with RECOIL guides and use them all frequently during the season. I have just completed (4) new rods, 3 fly and one spin for the new fishing season and put RECOIL on all of them. I didn't have to, I wanted to because of my experience with them over the years.
You can email me or call our toll free line anytime. I would be pleased to hear from you. Enjoy the season.

Best regards,
Dan Lanier
Sales Manager
REC Components

I am just finishing up two spiral wrapped freshwater baitcasting flippin' sticks using REC Recoil guides, a #12 RSGC double foot for the stripper guide and decreasing size RSF single foot guides for the remainder. In fact, my supplier did not have all the guides I needed so I ended up going to the REC factory in Stafford Springs, CT for the missing guides. Unfortunately, I was not given a tour of the plant.

My customers requested the rods to be built with the Recoils based on information they gleened from another web site with the goal of creating as light as possible rods.

The RSF single foot guides have very little height to them so the bottom of the ring is even with the guide foot and if you wrap with the Fohran block the epoxy will touch the line but I'm not sure if it will affect the castability of the rods especially in light of the fact that these are flippin' rods.

While the guide feet are pre-ground they were not suitable for my style of wrapping and needed touch up work. Be very careful of test fitting the guides on the rod before you prep them as some guides had very small, hard, sharp burrs on the bottom of the feet that can scratch the rod finish, yup, I did.

I also found that it was virtually impossible to reposition the guides once you had a few wraps on them as the flexibilty of the guides caused them to bend when any pressure was put on them. Just make sure the guides are perfectly lined up before wrapping. IMHO, the guides wrap much easier then any other guide I have used and that included the blocking and locking wraps on the single foot guides. Because the guide feet are so thin, there is very little tunnel to fill and the epoxy finish process is a little easier.

I could not use the straight bumper set up on the spiral wrap as the line is so close to the rod that it initially touched the blank. I used more of the traditional spiral wrap configuration to keep the line off the blank. I used braided line during the test casting and did not notice any unusual noise coming from the rods.

The guides seem strange and took a little getting used to, I'll let my customers do the performance evaluation. I think the jury iis still out whether the additional cost justifies any performance gains.

I actually posted a question about the recoils for float rod applications about a year ago and really didn't get any responses on the subject. I did hear less than good comments form other boards and still decided to go against the grain and try them. I must say the guides are the lighest guides I've ever used. I wraped two identicle 13' rainshadow rod blanks. One had the Recoils and the other had Fuji BYLG size 6 and there is a marked difference in the tip actions. The tip with the recoils had the truest action of the unwrapped blank vs the slower action of the tip with the BYLGs. I never gave these results any thought.

As far as friction goes I really don't see any difference between the two guides. There is only one thing I wish REC would do and that is to make a higher framed size six ring that could be used for match fishing applications. Other than that I'm completely sold on these guides.

What a great decision and a great find.

Randy

OK they are light. Granted. But, what about the line wearing grooves in them compared to a hard ceramic ring ?? Guess I will have to wait a year and then ask ?

Andy Dear Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Josh,
> I have been thinking about trying the
> recoils on a casting rod. I'd love to hear anyone
> who has tried it.
>
> Andy Dear
> Lamar Fishing Products


Andy-

I am planning to put the recoils on the casting rod I buy from you :)

bill boettcher Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> OK they are light. Granted. But, what about the
> line wearing grooves in them compared to a hard
> ceramic ring ?? Guess I will have to wait a year
> and then ask ?


I see several advantages using them:

1. No ring to break, no ring to replace :)
2. Lighter
3. Can completely bend back 45 deg. and back to original position.

Disadvatages:

1. Possible line wear
2. Possible look issue

Bill,

I've been using the rod this past summer and through this spring for steelhead using float gear with 10 pound Siglon F and I havent noticed any line wear on the guides or the guides wearing on the line. I haven't looked at the guides with a magnifying glass yet but I can sometime in the near future and let you know. Most likely I'll take a look a them tomorrow evening and I'll post what i find. I find it hard to believe that the line can wear a groove in something as hard as Titanium, but then again I could be wrong (it wouldn't be the first time :-).

Randy

The guides are soft in order for them to bend ???? How can they be hard Titanium ? Any idea of the hardness scale compared to say SIC or others.

Randy - which recoils did you use on the tip section? Please tell me you used the lightweight single foot fly guides. I am not familiar with float rods: How is it set up- spinning or spiral casting - or on top casting guide placement? If on top I will assume you did not use single foot flies.

I guess it doesn't really matter any more since I am currently wrapping my two premium pitching sticks. A Shikari PMB 704 and a SC570MFc. I am going to bumper spiral wrap them and use the recoil flies for everything but the double foot recoil stripper (and the TiSic tops). These rods will be 2 of my primary tools this year. I will share updates about durability in the future.

Josh,

The first time I used the guides i bought the spinning rod guides (RSPG). On the tip section i went doen to the size six ringed guides and in my humble opinion it was the wrong way to go. The guides sit way too close to the blank and gave me problems with trotting in slow water. Casting and drifting in faster water posed no problems. If I had a second chance to redo this rod I would have used the size 8 guides on the tip.

The float rods I use with a centrepin are set up similar to a spinning rod and the baitcasting float rods I use at times are all spiral wrapped.

Randy

Just took a look at the guides under my desk top magnifying lamp and I didn't see any grooves. I guess I'll have to check on it again later on.

Randy

You will not find any Randy.

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

I still can't understand if they are " hard " titanium, how do they flex so easily ? This don't make sence. Plated ?

Solid!


Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

Think about the Titanium glasses that are sold. I'm sure they aren't the exact same alloy, but those glasses will bend double and pop right back into shape. Pretty amazing stuff...and light as a feather!

Jay

Good point. I'm not a chemist so what the heck do I know.

I THINK that the big thing about titanium is it's weight, not it's strength. I'm probably wrong but I've never heard of it being particularly stronger!

Mike