REC Recoil Guides

I was just doing some research on these guides and it seems to be a fair share of disapointed people using them.

Some of the articles I read said they dont hold up to braided line wear and are difficult straighten out if one had got bent on the lower foot area.

. I am going to build 2 new walleye rods(StCroixSCV) this year and was concidering these guides.These will be the best and my last rods I will ever build, I dont want to have to change out the guides if not happy.

At the high end cost of the blanks and these guides I just want to do the job once,I have seen these guides in person but have no experience in using them.

I see the new St.Croix Xtremes have them

What are your thoughts ?

Thanks Jeff

If you are a braid user you’d best be thinking in terms of a high quality guide with an insert.

I’ve always maintained that if you take care of the rod and guides, it will take care of you. I won’t use any of those wire guides on any rod I build, but it boils down to personal preference. If I want a rod with wire guides I’ll visit fleet farm with 12 bucks in my pocket and get one.

Would not use them on my rods. Too many negatives. I think
St. Croix switched over to them just to keep up with Loomis
GLX. Plenty of good guides out there. Have seen photos of some grooved out from braid in less than a year. Also have
heard from other builders that they loose there resiliency
in cold weather. Marketing is more important than quality.
It is like using no.6 guides and tips on jigging rods that
will be used in cold weather.
Tom Cooney

Try Fugi Alconite The best bang for your buck I think. They are all I use.

Ironhead

I too wondered about those issues when I started seeing RECs on the Loomis rods a couple years ago.
I have talked to Guides that use REC equipped rods for Florida flats fishing and another well known guide that has fished a St. Croix prototype of the Extreme for over two years on over 150 trips on Chequamegon Bay and also for Muskies on a custom built…He fishes a lot of braid and in cold weather…no problems so far.
Just wondering…are some recoil guides Titanium? Or are all alloy? I think the titanium would be tough to “groove” with braid.
As far as bending the foot…you step on any other Fuji guide and that foot is also history…I guess time will tell, Dean has sold quite a few EX rods to forum guys already…they will get a cold weather test very soon if not already.

Raise your hand if YOU have actually fished a Legend Extreme in the cold and had issues with the new titanium guides or grooved a guide through use of braided line?

The people I know that have been fishing these rods all winter, many of them fish nothing but braid, have been giving me nothing but glowing reports and positive marks on these rods. If there’s issues with them, I want to know. I just dropped for a couple and I’m obviously going to want to fish them in cold weather and use braid if I so choose.

I know Dean is absolutely in love with his Legend Extreme rods and in the few hours I’ve fished them on loan from Dean… I was blown away with their lightness, sensitivity and performance in the cold. If that is engineering for the sake of marketing… I’ll take it!

As for braids grooving the guides… I would be speechless / shocked that St. Croix would put a product out on the market with such an obvious short coming. But we’ll see. If it was happening I’m sure Dean would have seen it already or heard back about it from his customers that have purchased an Extreme. I know in talking with him the Extremes now dominate his sales. People that try the Extremes side-by-side with the other product lines are choosing the Extremes hands down. And that’s after an in person feel it, shake it, fish it comparison.

Good point James!
I know Dean has an EX 69MLXF and EX 68MXF that have been test driven since last September by many fisherman…and all the guys that I have talked to or read posts were rave reviews…
This thread roused my curiousity so I called St. Croix a bit ago and talked to Steve who runs the store…The titanium Recoil
guide application has been considered and tested by them for years…it is not something brand new. They have machines that pull braid back and forth through those guides thousands of times etc during testing… They designed and R&D the EX model for years before they were confident enough to release it to the market.
BTW…those guides have a looong garauntee in case you are worried

Tom and James .. Thanks for doing a little of my homework , That call was 1 of which I wanted to make . Not that I was worried about the REC guides I just didnt know much about them and I want some of the peeps who have used them to chime in .

When concidering the cost of 2 SCV 69MLXF blanks ,2 sets of REC guides and handle kits I wanted to hear more about them b4 puttin out the $$$$$$$

Having fished with them and also built rods with them these are my experiences.
The two biggest things I liked about them is how light they are. Put them on the new blank which is also very light and you will have one of the lightest and most sensitive rods out there. The other being that the castability is out of this world. I have yet to see a set of guides or rod cast as far as that set up.
I fish braid exclusively and have yet to run into any problems what so ever with them. Also the guys I have talked to that use braid with them have had no issues.
I will say I have noticed that there spring back action is slowed when it is very cold out. Like 10 to 20 degrees. With that said, you can just bend them back to where they are suppose to be and you will be fine. Also when you bring them inside after the day of fishing they will spring right back to where they are suppose to be and you will never notice a difference.
Thats my .02 on them, so yes I would spend the extra money on them.

It was a good question Trumar…I used to build rods and loved it…Funny, I retired after 30+ years of teaching school and cant seem to find the time to get back to it. I ordered an EX69MLXF from Dean after catching a LOT of Eyes and Sauger on the test drive last October… 3.0oz it is the lightest most sensitive rod I have fished…
We definitely need pics of your finished SCV 69MLXF rods!

I use two rods that have Recoil guides. 95% of the time I am running braid threw them and each rod has caught it’s fair share of smallmouth. None of the guides show one lick of wear.
I do have to agree with the castibility of these guides, WOW.

Ron

The guides are a Nickle Titainium Alloy, they actually polish up with use and will get better with age. I have built several rods using these guides and have had nothing but great feedback! I would not be afraid to use them if I were you!

The response from St. Croix regarding grooved Recoil guides.

web page

So now I’m wondering if Trumar ever built those rods and also why St. Croix stopped using the recoil guides?

I think it’s for improved casting distance with the new legend and extreme guide setups. I have recoil rods and new setups, they do cast further.

I will add my name to the list of being an owner of SEVERAL St Croix extreme rods with rec guides.. Not a single issue here I use nothing but braid, AND very satisfied. they might be wire but i believe its stainless steel wire. that is by nature pretty tuff stuff.
I love my St Croix rods. And the only complaint i have with some of them and it’s personal opinion. is I don’t care for the shrink wrap handle the extremes had. but I think they discontinued them…. Give me Cork!!! I think it was an effort to cut cost as cork prices were rising.

trytoofish wrote:

I don’t care for the shrink wrap handle the extremes had. but I think they discontinued them…. Give me Cork!!! I think it was an effort to cut cost as cork prices were rising.

Legend is full cork, the extreme is composite magic wand style still. I think the only cork extremes were the splits offered the first two years out. I like the new handles after using them for a summer. I also like the cork and know guys looking to buy them specifically. Millertime has an early cork model with a slightly split tip that he’s fished two years now, I think fish slime has annealed it back into one unit. Still works like a charm; I think he’s afraid of the dildo handle replacement he’ll get back.. He’s girlfriend might want it..

crawdaddy wrote:

So now I’m wondering if Trumar ever built those rods and also why St. Croix stopped using the recoil guides?

Wow ,I see this post is from 9 years ago..So many rods ago !

I did build those rods,but since then I have have gone away with the use of Recoil guides.I have learned a ton about rod building since I built those 2 rods..

I am not sure why ..but I had 2 Recoil guides break right where the join at the foot of the guide and I did not care for the singing of those guides under a load.At that time I was using Power Pro 10/2 line, I believe the signing came from the loop of the guides we not tight together when they were made.

I had sold one of the rods and I re-guided the other one with Fugi Alconite guides and still use it today, as far as castibility I cant say the Recoil guides cast better or further than the Fugi Alconite, the weight difference is only a few grams between the 2 brands and I could fish all day,all weekend with either and not be fatigued.

I believe what makes for better casting distance is using the right size and number of guides when building,keep in mind when a factory makes rods they are to fit MANY types of fisher persons,when you custom build a rod you build it to fit your hands and your needs for what ever specie your fishing.

Since I did build mine on a St.Croix LEX 6’10” MLXF blank and use only for walleye fishing I also used a very basic split grip handle kit(16mm reel seat).My intentions were to build as light as I could and to have a balanced rod, even to the this day ALL my personal rods are built to balance out to my Shimano Ci4 2500 reels loaded with 10/2 Power Pro or Suffix 832 Braid.

I truely believe if one builds a rod for someone you need to know what reel they intend on using if they choose a split grip handle..Using a full cork grip you dont have a choice as to where the reel seat is located besides longer or shorter rear cork(butt)..A split grip you can slide the reel seat up or back a bit to balance out the the desired reel..

There is another wire guide out there and I have used those also,as a matter of a fact I now use them on an open water rod I built JUST FOR POOL 4 in the winter time, they have held up just fine for 2 years now with very minimal ice build up even after fish at 15-20* at night.

FYI..I do not abuse my rods nor do I drop one when using 2 rods while jigging ..I lay it down as safely and as quick as I can with out chipping the rod finish..That just irks me watching a person drop a rod on their boat while jigging with 2 rods !

trumar wrote:

These will be the best and my last rods I will ever build, I dont want to have to change out the guides if not happy.

What are your thoughts ?

Thanks Jeff

Well Jeff, looks like you were crying wolf again! Are you tying up a bunch of hair jigs tonight too??

All in good fun thanks for sharing your experiences.