I have been asked by a good friend if I could replace the guides on his saltwater boat rod. I have only built fresh water spinning and fly rods and would like some guidance from the more experieced builders here. The rod is a Daiwa Beef Stick B172RT Extra heavy action rated for 20-50 lb lines. He uses it with 60 lb braided line to pull fish away from pilings and structure. There are four guides and the roller guide tip. I'd like to use a decent set of guides but not too expensive as I suspect that the rod did nto cost that much new. I was thinking of using guides with insert rings to prevent grooving from the braided line. I would appreciate any recommendations or guidance on guides for this application. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

I recently replaced guides on a Beef Stick for a similar use (except in freshwater to pull big catfish away from cover) and I used PacBay XBBs. The customer seemed pretty happy. I've put them on a lot of my rods with constant braid use and so far haven't had one groove. Fairly cost effective too.

I would use either Fuji BMNAG, CMNAG or MNSG. The two Alconite options mentioned are black coated stainless and polished stainless frames. The tip would be either a BMNAT, CMNAT or MNST.
The Alconite rings should be fine and will save money over the SICs so it depends on whether you want to go that little extra. From what you have said my choice would be Alconite guides and if the rod gets a lot of use a SIC tip.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2016 08:12PM by Mark Gwynne.

Check out American tackle virtus guides. Good luck

Sounds like it is very similar to a old Shakespeare 6ft fiberglass rod that I have with a few chrome guides and roller tip. I am going to change out the guides one of these days.

What issues is your friend having with the current guides? Such as grooving or corrosion.

Are you replacing the roller tip?

I am about to build a 30lb rod with Alps mxn and XN black and I think they are a good value with having made with 316 stainless steel for a higher corrosion resistance with saltwater.

Pac Bays are a great bang for the $ too, their new DP rugged ring looks like a minima on steroids, they also have a new casting guide up to 60lb with zirconia inserts and tungsten carbide carmet guides as well.