Spiral Wrapped Rods

[hoglaw]

I posted a while back about my first spinning rod build. Probably not the most aesthetically pleasing custom rod, but it outperforms any rod of similar dimensions I've ever fished with.

Anyway, I tried my first casting rod build on an MHX blend blank. It's going to be a crankbait rod. It's 6'6" with a split grip that is probably a little too much of a "split." Long way from but to reel. Since I like the size 3 micro guides so much on the spinning rod, I figured I'd give them a shot on this rod too. When trying to figure out guide placement with the micros, there was no way I was going to be able to keep the line off the blank when it was loaded since the clearance of these guides is so small. I could have done it with a dozen guides, but didn't want to add that many wraps and that much weight.

Anyway, I started looking into spiral wraps. If you don't know what this is, the line comes off the baitcast reel as usual, but the first few guides (three in this case) rotate it to the underside of the rod. There are a number of theories as to how to do this best while keeping line from piling up on one side of the reel, but my first guide is offset close to 90 degrees to the left, then the second is probably 135 or so, with the third being the full 180. Basically I routed the line from the right side of the reel (most extreme position) to the underside guide by going around the left side of the rod, then placed the two double foot guides in such a position that they would disrupt the path of the line the least. The first two are double foot bait cast rod guides, and the third and all the rest are size 3 single foot micros.

I didn't know how well it would cast, and it's tough to tell without doing the full wrap with micros (you can use tape on larger guides). This thing will chunk a wart into outer space. The spiral wrap didn't affect casting one bit as far as I can tell, plus the tip being redirected 180 degrees into the down position seems like a more natural path for the way I fish crankbaits (often from a canoe without the ability to point the rod straight down). I liked it so much I went ahead and finished the rod and stuck em where they were.

Not sure if anyone here has ever given a spiral wrap a chance. It look strange, but it only takes one cast and retrieve to see and feel the difference. I'm told the biggest application for this is on big game rods to reduce the torque applied by trolling or by fighting a fish since a normal baitcast rod naturally wants to flip over to put the guides in the down position. Not sure how much of an impact that torque difference will have on just retrieving crankbaits and fighting bass, but it's pretty cool at least. If you haven't fished a rod like this, I'd recommend giving one a try.

I'll post some pics when I can.

[fishinwrench]

The spiral "whalen" wrapped rods were a short lived rage here at LO in the early 90's. Pulling one out of a rodbox is a character building experience.

[Wayne SW/MO]

The old Shakespeare white glass rod used a spiral outer wrap called the Howald Process. It made them famous until Fenwick brought out the graphite.

[Al Agnew]

I owned a couple of spiral wraps a few years ago...couldn't see anything wrong with them, but also couldn't see any improvement in performance over normally wrapped rods.

I'm curious...if I'm understanding you correctly, you placed the first guide 90 degrees off to the left side. On the spiral wrapped rods I owned, the first guide was in the normal position on "top" of the rod, the next one was 90 degrees off, the third one was 180 degrees (bottom of rod), as were the rest. They were short rods, 5 feet and 5.5 feet. I don't see any reason to put the first guide anywhere but atop the rod, so that you don't have any potential problems with line piling up on one side of your spool and so the line flows as freely as possible off the spool. Then if it's a longer rod, you'll still have space to use the next two guides to transition to the underside of the rod.

[hoglaw]

Al:

There may be no reason to offset the first guide. The guy's advice I was working off of was to place the third guide directly on the bottom and make it a single foot micro, sort of like a choke guide on a spinning rod - the guide where the line path changes. From there, he said to work backwards with two double foot guides placed in such a position that the line path is interfered with the least. To do this I started the line off the right side of the spool, and rotated the guide to the left until I'd gone as far as I could go while keeping the path I wanted just to make sure it wouldn't be interfered with in the most extreme position. For me, that put the first guide left of the top. Not sure if it's exactly at 90. I'll have to look when I get home.

The only real advantage for bass fishing as far as I can tell is it lets me use fewer guides and smaller guides without the line contacting the blank.