Thread: Wire Guides/Braid

How do the PacBay wire guides hold up to braid? Was thinking about putting 40lbs or 50lbs braid on my new cobia rod. Thanks, James

As far as durability goes, they hold up quite well. I have been using braid on my cobia rod that has a wire stripper guide for 4 years now with no signs of grooving or damage from the line. One thing you might run into though is wind knots due to the larger diameter guides normally used when building a rod with wire guides.

Yea the wind knots were my second concern. Thanks Jeb

and those are a real pain the the rear end ....only on my bottom rods....I think maybe the way I spooled my reels had something to do with the wind knots too....there is a whole lot better braid now days then back then when I used it

A wire stripper guide or the first two guides being wire are fine, but I strongly recommend putting fujis out towards the tip, (My favorite is 2 wire, 3 Fuji) because I have two friends of mine that are having to re-wrap rods of theirs do to the braid cutting into the wire guides out towards the tip of the rod. However it took a long time for the braid to groove the guides.

It's been a while since I've seen a guide grooved by braided line.
The 'stripper guides' closest to the reel are not likely to have issues because they don't usually have much tension (stress) put on them.
The most likely problem will be the rod tip where the most line wear and tension occurs.
Fuji's SiC (Silicon Carbide) Hardloy, and Aluminum Oxide tip tops are probably not going to have any problems with braid.
Just check them every so often for any rust or cracks ;-)

Why would use chose wire guides for a cobia rod you intend to throw braid with? Ceramic guides offer a lot more when it comes to using braid.