Thread: braid/fuji guide question

I don't use braid a lot. Have some heavier stuff on my cobia rod and a king reel with some as backing. I'm building a rod for myself with left over components I have at the house and I have a set of Fuji hardloy guides. This is a 6-10lbs blank that I will be putting a 1500 series reel on. My question is will 8-10lbs braid cut into the hardloy guides? I don't use many of these guides and havent fished that small of braid with them. Any info would be great. Can always order different guides, just trying to use what I have.

Hardloy guides can handle braid just fine. I'd question whether the rest of your components and the reel are capable of handling the shock absorption that mono would provide.

Guides should probably be just fine especially if used with newer slick style braid.

I've seen braid cut into stainless guides on both boat and spinning rods where high drags and fast fish are being caught in a vertical style for tuna and amberjack but have yet to have a rod even with the cheepest ceramic guides come in to be woked on due to being grooved from braid. You can take any Fuji ring and hit it with a chainsaw file and I promise it will not scratch or heat up.I think a lot of it is just a myth that component companys have dreamed up to sell higher priced guides. One of the reason I have been pro Fuji for the past 30 years is because of the quality of the stainless frames, seldom will you have one crack or rust through causing the ring to fall out.

Agree with John 100%.

All of the ceramic guides I've seen crack or malfunction was merely due to the metal frame seat itself getting damaged--in which the guide itself broke as a result.

Coated braids will leave a residue behind on a fast running fish, but the ceramic isn't going to groove.

That said, if you're still uncomfortable with them, you can always step up to nickel titanium memory guides. I use both and have no issues with either. I prefer the memory guides a little more because I can be rough on my gear at times and in most cases where guides broke it was my fault from accidental bumpage. The titanium is a long term remedy to heavy duty use and seems ti work great with all lines (both ultralight and heavy) that I've used on it.

I see more problems with cheap guides wearing the braid. Nice Fuji's have a proper internal radius. Many cheap guides have flat internals (kinda like being drilled oversize) which gives two edges to destroy braid. You can get by with the cheaper guides with mono.