I have a friend that charters on Lake Erie and they troll using wire line. The problem they have is guides wearing out. Can anyone suggest a guide the will hold up to wire line?

Scott, knowing what type of guide he is using now would be a great help in making a recommendation.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 05:14PM by John E Powell.

I had to replace a silicon nitride top because it grooved with braided wire, the rod now has a SIC top.

These guys are using 7' med ugly sticks, running them on planner boards for walleye.

Doesn't answer the question about what guides are on the rods, need to know what is wearing out before knowing what to replace them with.

Hi Scott,

American Tackle sells guides and tops with a carbide ring made for just that sort of fishing. The guide is CWBG made in 8,9,10,12,14,16.and 18 mm. ring size. The matching tops are CWWT. Feel free to give us a call at American Tackle and we will be glad to help you out. They are available from any one of our dealers and distributors. You can check them out at our website listed her on this forum.

MIck Hinton
American Tackle Co.

Thanks for your help guys!

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 05:14PM by John E Powell.

Unless you have one already a good swivel in-line should eliminate the line twist

Bill - willierods.com

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 05:15PM by John E Powell.

If you used a Seth Green rig you could use solid copper or monel wire and get deeper with little concern about line twist. Carbide guides are a well-proven asset when using wire lines, but they are heavy and deaden the action of the rod. This is not a significant concern when you are towing a couple pounds of wire, weights and lure around, plus the water resistance all this gear creates.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 05:15PM by John E Powell.

Ceramic guide inserts of any type can crack and break, but tungsten carbide guide rings are bomb-proof. Considering the replacement costs of parts and labor, plus down time, penny wise can easily become pound foolish.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 05:15PM by John E Powell.

This may be dumb of me but
What about rollers

Bill - willierods.com

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 05:16PM by John E Powell.

Sorry for the late reply. I build plenty of wire rods for Lake Michigan, Huron, Superior, and Erie fishermen. John is spot on in most of his advice. Here are a couple of my observations on over 100 wire rods fishing aboard Salmon Charter boats. The Silicon Nitride guides are the way to go with any of the SS braided wires. I have done testing with the Carbides and found that the drag on the wire is much higher when reeling in under load. Assuming that is because they are not polished as fine as the SN's. That also leads to friction and stress on the wire, creating the curlys. I have never seen a SN tip top groove, even when used harshly, but I suppose it could happen over time. I don't normally use a SN tip because of the radius issue. Most (80%) of my wire rods go out with Twilly tips. I just custom paint the tip to match the guide wraps. My own set of wire diver rods have Silicon Nitride guides and the torpedo swivel tip. This tip is awesome. The only drawback is that you can't use one for a spiral wrap. John, most if not all wire applications on the great lakes have no issues with knots or terminations passing through the line guides of the Torpedo. There are no knots, you tie the wire directly to your snap swivel, no leaders involved. For walleye a dipsy, Jet, Walker diver is used, so the snap swivel connects right to the diver. There will be a floro or mono leader from the diver to the lure. I put an 8mm bead on the wire right above the swivel. That way you can reel the swivel right up tight to the tip. This keeps the wire tight, reducing the curlys. I have built a few with SN guides spiral. I used a American Roller Spiral roller tip with two #6 SIC single foots wrapped to the tip tube to keep the wire on the roller. This actually was a very good setup, and I almost went that way with my own wire rods.

Roller rods are also built for wire, but with the newer SN's, Carbides, and others, the rollers for wire are a thing of the past for the reasons stated in other posts. I still get some of the older generation charter captains insist on rollers and the customer is always right, until they fish one of another captains rods built with SN's. The sound of a big king peeling line through SN's is nothing short of hair raisng.

My suspicion on why the SN tip grooved is this. It was probably the result of rods built on too stiff or heavy spined blanks. When pulling a Magnum Dipsy diver in big waves, the rocking action of the boat, and the 20# of drag on the rod cause the line to see saw back and forth under huge load on the tip guide. A blank with less spine and a deeper bend will take up this back and forth action of the boat with less line movement across the guides. Wire rods are the toughest rods to get perfect. They are under enormous abuse the whole length of time you are trolling. Then an angry king whacks the bait with enough force to break rod holders. I don't know why these rods catch He!! LOL

I can email someone on here some photos of wire line rods being used, maybe even some video. Maybe they can share for everyone on here, I have never figured out how to post pictures or video on here, sorry.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 05:43PM by John E Powell.

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/20/2016 05:18PM by John E Powell.