I have a customer that wants Recoil guides, flex lite guides on his float rod.
1) I know they are supposed to be lighter, what are the pros and cons of these guides
2) would you use all recoil guides or would you use regular guides for stripper,20,16,12,10 then for your running guides use 8 recoils?
3)are they fragile, like I hear

Looking for input from builders that have used these guides in the past

You are right.

Hi,

One of my customers targets BIG blue fish on the east end of Long Island. He asked me to install the Recoil guides. It has been close to 10 years by now or there about. Not one complaint. They work.

Yes they can be a pain to wrap due to the springiness of the metal. And sometimes when using braid the line sings as it goes thru the guides when reeling in. However I have the singing when using other companies metal guides. Never a problem for me just different feature.

Use them. They are very good.

Capt Neil Faulkner

Capt Neil

have you checked them out to see if they had any grooving

never would have thought they would hold up to blues

Bill - willierods.com

They are lighter, more durable and corrosion free.
They are noisy, but it is kind of neat and definitely unique.
You would be fine to use them top to bottom. If you care to do so, use a regular titanium alloy for the butt guide.
I always use a titanium alloy top with them - can't stand the REC tops.
My recommendation, build it exactly as requested. He will like the rod.

Hi Bill,

This was a very interesting build. The angler was a machinist. He actually designed the reel seat and made it out of teflon and told me epoxy will not adhere to teflon.
The specs were unbelievable. He also made teflon trim bands with an exact fit, After he machined his teflon parts he gave me the blank back with his parts. Now the pressure was on me to have all the butt parts fit perfectly. Ha, I am not a machinist so I was sweating my part. All is well that ends well. He was satisfied and off he went.

A few years later I had contact with him and asked how the rod was. No problems. He was very satisfied.

Oh, he was using a Newell reel and his seat design was such that the reel would NEVER come off the rod. And if the blue fish were not around 20 lbs he was not interested in catching them.

A very interesting angler.

Have not heard from him again so the rings must be working just fine.

A side note. I have had contact with the folks at REC over the years. They were great folks to work with and they always came thru.

Capt Neil Faulkner

Capt

That seat sounds interesting

there was a seat a long while ago that had a area cut in it so when the reel was locked down the reel feet would press against what ever material it was slid over held it in place And could be moved up and down the handle material

here is a picture of it
[www.rodbuilding.org]

Bill - willierods.com



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2012 08:40AM by bill boettcher.

You don't need 5 different guide sizes on any rod. That creates a stair-step line path and increases weight, by a tad. Just drop on down to whatever you choose to use for your running guides after the first or second guide.

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Recoil NiTi guides are very light, nearly impossible to break, and COMPLETELY immune to corrosion. The "lite" version of the Recoil snake guides are easily compressed, and a guide foot can slip from under the thread wrap. I would use the Forhan wrap - a couple of them. I agree with Jim G. - the Recoil tip-tops are not acceptable. The spiral wire guides in the larger sizes tend to be quite noisy. I would not use the term "fragile" to describe Recoil NiTi wire guides; quite the contrary.

Tom: thanks for your response. I have always used a 20,16,12,10 then 8s for all my builds of float rods. You mean I could run a 20,16 then all 8s with no problem? Thanks ...Jerry

I'd think you could go with a smaller running guide, because without a ceramic ring the actual ID is larger, a #6 REC would be at least as large as a 7, maybe a bit larger.
In my mind's eye I see more of a 20, 12, 8 setup to start with. I haven't used a 16 alongside a 20 in many years, to much weight and no benefit, at least on the rods I've built after test casting.

I am not sure that I agree with Tom's assertion about not graduating guides. It may be 100% true, but I have always graduated guides on most rods. Today I just received 4 sets of Microwave guides and tip-tops. A very new concept for me, and I look forward to testing them against the way I have built rods in the past. I plan to make 2 identical rods, one with the new guides and one with "regular" spinning guides and then see how they both perform. I am not very fond of the guide spacing chart that comes with the guides, but will give them a try. 2&7/8" from the tip for the last guide seems way to close and unnecessary to me. These tiny running guides are going to be a challenge for these old large hands of mine, but should be fun to see what I am able to turn out. :>)