I have been building copper rods for the past three years now with very good success. In the effort to build an ever better mousetrap, I am working to reduce or hopefully eliminate the biggest issue with all rods used for copper. The knot used to join the copper to mono or floro (normally an albright, twist, or variations of both) stubbs into the guide rings during the letting out of line and worse when retrieving line under load with a fish. I have been using all of the standard casting and boat rod guides and the only thing that seems to make less of this issue is guides that have a large frontal radius. Thin guide rings magnify this issue obviously. I was thinking about using something like the Stainless wire frame boat rod guides but am worried about the durability of these "cheap" guides? Cheap is only reflecting the cost, not necessarily the quality of these guides. Obviously roller guides would eliminate this issue, but at the same time create a rod that no one wants to fish with. Basically looking for some guide suggestions with large frontal diameter rings.

Just a suggestion, and don't know if it is fesable or not, but what if you covered the knot with a small piece of heat shrink tube to ease the transition thru the guides. Just favor the copper with the heat and use a very low heat to shrink.

Ron Weber



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2011 03:21PM by Ron Weber.

Many guys do just that and it does help. I realize that there isn't a fix all guide out there and my real question is basically if the Stainless Wire boat rod guides are tough over the long haul. They tend to look "cheap" like their price suggests. Worried about the "silver sodered" joints letting go prematurely?

I have never had a guide failure on any of my salt water rods using the stainless guides. Some of the rods are over 25 years old, but I do take very good care and handling of them.

Ron Weber

Thanks Ron, that was kind of what I was getting at with that long winded preamble. The ones that MH carries by Pac Bay?

That would be the ones

Ron Weber

Thanks Ron

Carmet or the old Carb-Alloy guides are what are commonly used for wireline here in the NE. I am very old-fashioned but small barrel swivels and even flat swivels have worked good for me.

Those guides are not beautiful but durable as heck.

The biggest problem and the reason I did not recommend to Carmet or Carbide style guides is that they are harder, but susceptale to breaking if struck very hard. Also the 2 dis-similar metals are harder to get a good bond when silver soldering them. Do not get me wrong, many of my offshore rods have the carbaloy tips on them for durability, but the attaching points are more than just on each side of the ring.

Ron Weber

I use SN II guides for stainless wire. The copper isn't abrasive at all, so the expense of the SN guides is counter productive. On that line, the radius of the SN guides is very large and would work well with copper though.

Ron Weber Wrote:
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> The biggest problem and the reason I did not
> recommend to Carmet or Carbide style guides is
> that they are harder, but susceptale to breaking
> if struck very hard. Also the 2 dis-similar
> metals are harder to get a good bond when silver
> soldering them. Do not get me wrong, many of my
> offshore rods have the carbaloy tips on them for
> durability, but the attaching points are more than
> just on each side of the ring.

Hey Ron....take a look at the XBBG braced stainless.....pretty tough and inexpensive. Attached at 3 points.

Those are basically the same as the perfection guides that I used for years, have no problem with them, just that I shy away from the carbaloy style for the above noted reasons.