Ive been using a couple Duckett Ghost rods for a while now and I've really liked their performance. But last time I was out I noticed that I had two mysterious break offs mid-cast. I was throwing a rapala dt-10 crankbait on my crankin' model ghost. I looked at the last line guide and noticed severe grooving on the insert or the chrome they line the inserts with. It looks like a butter knife serrations. I use this rod entirely for cranking and use PLine floroclear as my line of choice for this. I had read that the chrome inserts may not stand up to braid very well but I was suprised to see that floro coated copoly had worn them down over a year of albeit quite a bit of cranking. Now I'm worried that my setup with braid will suffer the same demise. I guess my point is one, as a warning about these rods, and two, to pose the question, does anyone think using mono will make a difference over time to limit the grooving? I could easily switch my cranking setup to mono but the braided heavier setup is really more useful with my preferred braid.
Oh Snap! I have a ghost and I use copoly no issues with the micro guides yet but now you got me worrying?
This is why my Ghost is a worm hopper.
I used to have spinning rod with those guides and they grooved badly. I can't believe they put those guides on modern rods with all of the people using braid and fluour nowadays.
On 5/22/2016 at 6:51 AM, crankzilla said:Oh Snap! I have a ghost and I use copoly no issues with the micro guides yet but now you got me worrying?
How long have you used it and for what? What kind of copolymer?
On 5/22/2016 at 11:33 AM, DaleGribble said:How long have you used it and for what? What kind of copolymer?
I've had my since they first came out, I use it for jig and worm.
I wish you could post a picture of what your issue is so that I can better understand?
I will try when I get back from vacation. But in the mean time imagine little grooves worn unevenly across the bottom half of the insert. Not sure how deep they are but you can feel them when you rub line across them. Together they form serrations across the bottom of the insert.
Check with DVT, site sponsor, and have good set of guides put on if you like the rod. Guides shouldn't groove using mono, FC, hybrid or coploy line.
Give the guides the Q-tip test, any fibers strick to the inside of the guide ring, it's bad!
Tom
Guides shouldn't groove with any modern line. It's actually the grit from debris in the water that wears on guides and then only the cheapest. There are ring less guides like Recoils and Minima4's that are high grade stainless and hold up fine. Rewrapping is an option. If interested in exploring that route contact me.
I will take pictures in a few days. From what I understand these are chrome which is not very hard. The only thing i can think of is that i use this to really grind the crap out of the bottom I'm ripping through grass frequently too so a lot of pressure is put on that last guide. For this rod I have it warrantied through DSG so I'm just gonna trade it in for a veritas winch which SiC guides. I may switch the other one over to mono to keep it from grooving as soon.
It's not your line...hard chrome plated guides are a thing of the past and you can't be only angler having this problem with these rods.
Tom
It doesn't matter what line you use, that style of guide will groove. Especially the tip. As DVT said, it's the particles of dirt deposited on the line, not the type of line.
For the life of me I don't understand why they put those guides on any modern rod. I had them on a spinning rod and that I used for soft plastics and they grooved even though I didn't use it that much.
On 5/23/2016 at 10:27 PM, Yudo1 said:For the life of me I don't understand why they put those guides on any modern rod.
It's all about the $$$. A set like that on the OEM pricing level is < $1.00. Good guides would cost them 5 or 6 times that. Maybe a bit more.
On 5/23/2016 at 10:41 PM, S Hovanec said:It's all about the $$$. A set like that on the OEM pricing level is < $1.00. Good guides would cost them 5 or 6 times that. Maybe a bit more.
Agree but don't understand why because in the long run negative experiences and reviews will cost the company far more. They save themselves $3, but lose thousands of future customers. In this industry you usually only get one chance to make an impression. Its a shame because I've heard good things about the blank.
Spray some KVD on the line and guides and wipe them out after each trip. Maybe that will help. Has worked for me so far.
On 5/23/2016 at 11:18 PM, Yudo1 said:Agree but don't understand why because in the long run negative experiences and reviews will cost the company far more. They save themselves $3, but lose thousands of future customers. In this industry you usually only get one chance to make an impression. Its a shame because I've heard good things about the blank.
Do you all remember the Duckett Carrot rods, this isn't his first rodeo.
Tom
On 5/23/2016 at 11:56 PM, WRB said:Do you all remember the Duckett Carrot rods, this isn't his first rodeo.
Tom
Exactly. You'd think they learned their lesson.
On 5/23/2016 at 11:18 PM, Yudo1 said:Agree but don't understand why because in the long run negative experiences and reviews will cost the company far more. They save themselves $3, but lose thousands of future customers. In this industry you usually only get one chance to make an impression. Its a shame because I've heard good things about the blank.
I agree with you about the blanks they are very good, niclely wrapped and strong light and sensitive.
Ok I've got a picture of the grooving. The glare and the fact that this is a macro on a phone doesn't do it justice, its worse than it looks in the picture but you get the idea.
On 5/26/2016 at 9:15 AM, DaleGribble said:Ok I've got a picture of the grooving. The glare and the fact that this is a macro on a phone doesn't do it justice, its worse than it looks in the picture but you get the idea.
Wow that looks bad! Disappointing .
I have an old 5'6 Ugly Stik lite and I noticed the same thing. I don't know that this was meant to be fished with braid. I took a small round file and the grooves came out. I ran a cotton swab through the guides and I haven't had any issues since. I don't know what it costs to replace the guides, if it's cheap, I would go that route.
As for my case with an Ugly Stik, I'll just file the guides, it's a cheap rod and I treat it as such. If you want something better, you'll have to dish out some more money.
I have it warrantied through the store I bought it from. Im going to swap it for either a new one or a Veritas Winch .
I know its not top of the line, but for $100 and the quality of the rest of the rod, plus the fact that I wasn't even using braid....
On 5/26/2016 at 11:08 AM, DaleGribble said:I have it warrantied through the store I bought it from. Im going to swap it for either a new one or a Veritas Winch .
I know its not top of the line, but for $100 and the quality of the rest of the rod, plus the fact that I wasn't even using braid....
If the top guide is the only one grooving replace it top quality guide... About $5.
Tom
On 5/23/2016 at 11:56 PM, WRB said:Do you all remember the Duckett Carrot rods, this isn't his first rodeo.
Tom
Exactly. Thank you..
White carrot stix.
On 5/26/2016 at 11:08 AM, DaleGribble said:I have it warrantied through the store I bought it from. Im going to swap it for either a new one or a Veritas Winch .
I know its not top of the line, but for $100 and the quality of the rest of the rod, plus the fact that I wasn't even using braid....
Agreed, an $100 rod shouldn't do this.
On 5/26/2016 at 12:45 PM, WRB said:If the top guide is the only one grooving replace it top quality guide... About $5.
Tom
Exactly what Tom said.. a top quality siC guide from Mudhole fixes the issue. Its quick and easy.