Will Aluminum Oxide guides still work for braided line as I know that they are a lower grade of guide but will they still work lower grade or not.

Glenn McMurrian

They should hold up to anything but wire or braided wire. If you are fishing waters where the braid picks up a lot of grit, then go with SIC guides.

I use Fuji Hardaloy Guides on my surf rod for quite a few years with no problem. for customer builds I use Alconites with a SIC Top

Have used braid on my sturgeon boat rods for 20 years almost, no guide problems.

I have never worn a groove into "cheap" guides with braid. Aluminum Oxide guides are not that much softer than the expensive ones, and I am confident for guides you will have no trouble. Tip tops are another matter. I have worn grooves into tiptops with braid. Probably Hardloy or similar. I, like Barry, use premium tiptop materials, like SIC.

[rodbuilding.org]

The problem with braided lines is not the lines themselves, it's that the lines pick up and trap micro abrasive particles from the water they are fished in.

An interesting example of this principal to consider is that prisoners have been known to apply tooth paste to dental floss and use the combo to cut the metal bars of the cells. Neither the tooth paste or the dental floss is capable of cutting the bars, but combined they can. It's the same principal with braided line. Of course, you have to put that into proper perspective and ask yourself how dirty is the water I fish in, how much do I fish (how many times will that braid pass through the guides), and of the number of passes how many will be under significant tension to cause abrasion?

For probably 95% of us AO guides will be fine.

I have some rods on charter boats that have 200 days/year use for many years. The captains troll so the line is deployed and retrieved through the guides under tension every time, and are fished all day under a constant load while the boat rolls, pitches, and yaws moving the line slightly about the guides. The preferred water is "green" water, that being water with some degree of particulate matter. Drag settings for this fishery are around 3-4 lbs of drag to cause slip. Some of the oldest rods have experienced a thousand plus fish landings with fish making runs from 100-1000 feet or more. I can't attest to AO guides from Mfgs other than Fuji, but the worst wear I've experienced on the Fujis is permanent discoloration to the ring. I've never had one groove to the point that it damaged the braided line. Obviously, larger fish that require higher reel drag settings will increase the tension to the fishing line which will result in potentially more friction at each guide ring, and the shorter rods with fewer rings associated with the larger fish will have fewer rings to distribute the load.

At some point you can make the case that AO rings are inadequate for some of the heavier saltwater fisheries, but how many freshwater fisheries are that demanding?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2014 12:12PM by John E Powell.