Ceramic Ring in Striping Guide...Gone

[sweetandsalt]

In rigging a Redington RS4 2 pc. 9'/#9 to hunt for strippers with tomorrow pre dawn, the ceramic ring insert on the upper striping guide just fell out. I'm confident I'm not the only one to have experienced this despite it being a first for me. Would you fish a rod in this state or have concerns for fly line damage? Any suggestions? Redington does not repair these Asian made rods just offers a new one at a discount as my model is discontinued and no spare sections are available.

 

[deceiverbob]

S&S if you have the ring and it's in one piece as a quick fix you can glue it to the frame with a spot of superglue then use 5 min epoxy to hold it in place.
After fishing wrap on a new stripper or bring the rod to someone who can.
Or you could fish your 9 wt Salt

 

[clsmith131]

I would prep the surfaces to be bonded, first with a wire wheel or brush, then roughen with sand paper. Use a dab of JB weld, insert the ceramic ring and clean around the seams so as not to leave any rough spots.

 

[Hirdy]

Do not fish it without the ceramic insert in place. Your line will be shot after one cast.

Glue it in for a running repair but the best option is to take that guide off and replace it with a new one. If you do it yourself, it'll cost about $15 to replace the guide.

(If you had no glue or broke the insert and it was the only rod you had with you, thread the rod skipping that guide and go fish. )

Cheers,
Graeme

 

[jofer]

I remember fishing many times with an Orvis without the ceramic and the performance was the same, apart from a light irritating noise.
But to be honest I would not put a modern and expensive line on that rod.

Jofer

​

 

[Ard]

Hi Richard,

I've never had this happen myself and agree that if you have the ring and can replace it that sounds pretty simple. If not, before I did any prep to the guide I'd take a Q Tip or a piece of a cotton ball and pull it through the guide to see if rough surfaces snag the cotton. That is unless you can see rough edges, if the Q Tip doesn't get snagged I'd just use it...………………….. Maybe. The maybe means that if I had other rods I would not. I know that you are barely squeaking by with a couple rods and sharing one reel between them so I feel badly about this unfortunate situation

 

[deceiverbob]

So we have to know, did you do the quick and ugly repair or fish another rod?
And did you catch anything?

 

[JoJer]

I have a spin rod with the same problem, but it's just mono running thru that sharp ring. If you don't feel like fixing (replacing the guide) it, Wrap the bare ring with cloth first aid tape and go fishing.

 

[sweetandsalt]

I imagine we have particulates in our eastern sky from the western fires as our sunrises and sunsets have been particularly colorful of late. And so yesterday's pre-dawn was just spectacular over NJ's Atlantic shore as we cast into rocky pockets along a couple of jetties and groins. Despite casting a lead dumbbell Clouser the Redington and Diamondback Americana cast great and we had a lovely albeit fishless morning culminating with run to our preferred coffee shop. I did see some bait but no predators.

Here at our Jersey Shore beach house I have a good amount of tackle but my serious flats and inshore salt outfits are back at home. Any way, I would choose not o fish Sage SALT on these slippery and rough granite man-made outcrops where they are sure to get marred so I have these secondary 2-piece rods which are very acceptable, fun even, for this rough and tumble fishing. I hosed them down and will inspect the line this morning. My thinking currently is to Dremel Tool the ID of the guide to total smoothness.

 

[rsagebrush]

S&S, well you always wanted another rod, no.

 

[sweetandsalt]

S&S, well you always wanted another rod, no.

I have excavated an elderly 3-pc. 9'/#9 St.Croix Legend Ultra for our next morning out (tomorrow). It is a clunker though. I also have an ECHO3 but it is an 8-weight.

 

[deceiverbob]

I have excavated an elderly 3-pc. 9'/#9 St.Croix Legend Ultra for our next morning out (tomorrow). It is a clunker though. I also have an ECHO3 but it is an 8-weight.

It probably dates back to when Legend Ultra was St. Croix's flagship rod. I have one in a 2 pc 9'/#3 model.

 

[bonefish41]

IMHO Just fish it and since it's your junk yard dog...if you have another junk yard dog 9 wt line use it...but I'd fish it or just take the guide off...and pitch it...life's to short to worry about gear just fish it

 

[JoJer]

Could be, in the weight class/species/environment that Sweet and Salt is talking about, that stripper guide is a lot more involved than what I was picturing.

 

[osseous]

You can get a new stripper guide installed easy enough. Hell, do it yourself. It'll be a fun project and you can bond with the old girl a little bit. Call it payback for all the fish she's brought you!

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[huronfly]

You can get a new stripper guide installed easy enough. Hell, do it yourself. It'll be a fun project and you can bond with the old girl a little bit. Call it payback for all the fish she's brought you!

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

Very true. Installing one yourself is easier than you may think!

 

[sweetandsalt]

I'm sure I could wrap a new guide but slow rotating its epoxy finish would be a challenge. So I decided to employ a very fine rat tail file to smooth the inside diameter and in so doing, immediately discovered the problem. The metal ring itself was cracked through hence the popping out of the ceramic insert. The flexible edge would render this a fly line life shortening exercise, so I called Redington customer service. I explained the situation to a clearly knowledgeable and passionate angler, he listed patiently and said, "I can solve this problem. Your rod is a discontinued model and our new ones are better. Just fill out the coming e-mailed form, take a couple of cell phone images, send them back and I will send you a new 9-weight rod, upgraded over the one you have."

Those of you familiar with my writing know I have been critical of fly rod lifetime warranties which I regard as encouraging folks to not treat their tackle with the care and respect it deserves and bad for fly rod manufacturers business the health of which we rely upon to continually develop new and superior preforming rods. Nevertheless, I bit my lip and said, "Wow, thank you." I'm now simply waiting for the sun to shine so I can go take some decent images...hopefully before the tail end of Florence gets up here which will wreck the fishing for a while too.

 

[clouserguyky]

Excellent. Glad to hear Redington took care of you. Did they send you a Crux or a Predator by chance?

 

[osseous]

Predator and Crux are both excellent rods- would serve well for jetty duty. Fishing should be hot ahead of this low...

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[sweetandsalt]

They recommended the Predator #9 as a potent rod for weighted flies and big fish in tidal current. And the sun is shinning today to facilitate my going out to photograph the RS4. Have you fellows compared the Predator to Crux?