Spiral Wrap?

[Dark Cloud]

Ok, iv'e built about 70 rods but never a baitcast style. They have all been spinning, fly, or icerods. Somehow I got a bug to build one and I have a 7'6" blank laying here for about 6-8 years that will make a nice rod for pulling plugs in my kayak.

I am interested in a spiral wrap but the blank is a two piece. I cant stand one piece rods, never have had a rod fail at the junction, and refuse to buy into the more sensitive thing.

I know Upnorth posted a pict of a spiral he did and he made the "spin" in 3 guides. If I did it that way, the guides on the tip would all be in the same plane which might work???

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas?

[CAMAN]

I personally like to do it with a single bumper guide at 3 o-clock. I use a normal size guide for my first at 12 o-clock, then the smallest possible I can use at 3 while keeping the line away from the blank. Then continue with whatever size guides you like at 6 o-clock. You shouldn't have any issues with it being a 2 piece rod. The guide spacing should be about the same either way you place the guides and depending on where the joint is, the bumper may or may not be on the tip section, and really shouldn't matter either way.

[rushing]

Last couple I have done have been in the Revolver style 10, 60, 120, 170 rest 180.

[upnorth]

The biggest thing in doing a spiral is to keep the line off the blank during the cast and retrieve and under load. If you can manage the with a bumper it should work fine. I used a 3 guide partly for looks. I think it looks a bit more elegant than a single bumper. But remember than is personal opinion only. Heck you could try it in 3, 2, or a bumper.

If you can get the spiral done before goes to the tip section I think it would work fine.

I think the 1 piece blank thing as being better got started back before they started doing such a good job on the ferrules. Heck I have a close to 25 year old HMG fenwick 2 piece flyrod that I used for Steelhead and Salmon and never babied that thing with the fish and no failure at the ferrule yet.

[Dark Cloud]

Thanks guys, i'll play areound with the spiral when the guides and handle get here in a few days. Not sure why but im pumped for this build. I have 2 flyrods that got moved to the back burner...

[A.W.Wolfram]

Most of the casting rods that I build are spiral wraps. Lately I have been playing around with micro spirals (6 ring DBBL foot and ending in 2.5 micros).

The lay out that works the best for me is a 4 guide transition, -5, 45, 135, 180 and out. The reason I go negative with the first guide is to keep the line from piling up on one side of the reel the alignment of the guides. This tends to be prevalent with larger capacity spool reels with larger diameter line. I basically set the side of the guide ring to the center of the blank.

You can sure drop the weight of a rod buy doing a spiral. You use less guides, the lay out is closer to a spinning rod vs. a casting.

Some have said you can cast farther with them……….. We will see, I’m building a match set with micros. One spiral and one standard, I can’t wait to put them to the test.

I think the biggest debate is “what direction do you spiral the guides”

IMO in the Northern hemisphere one should go clock wise do to the rotation of earth

[unfrozen]

"Rotation of the earth", hah, that's good Andy! You'd probably want to leave that rod home if you take a trip down under.

The rod doesn't care which side you choose to spiral on but one thought is to do it on the same side an the reel handle. When you lay the rod on the deck there won't be any guides sticking up waiting to catch on something.

Another way do do the transition is simply go from top straight to the bottom with no bumper guides. I built a topwater rod like that and it worked great plus no extra bumper/transition guides to deal with. For that application is worked great. But then I built my flippin' stick with a single bumper guide. It really comes down to nothing more than personal preference.

I also second Andy's motion of the spiral wraps with micro guides. Both my flippin' stick and topwater rods have size 3's running along the bottom out to the tip top. Less number of guides and less weight means more of the rod blanks sensitivity is retained.

[Dark Cloud]

Thanks Fireman and Frozen

I just got done putting a temp handle and guides on the blank. I used some small lightweight fly guides with a 3 guide transition to 180. And she feels prety good. Im looking at a left crank reel so I went counter clockwise, southern hemisphere style.

I was tempted by micro guides but decided to try them on my next 7 ft eye spinning rod. I have no frame of reference for with and without micros on a castin rod. This rod will be for pulling plugs for eyes and bottom fishing catfish. I did go with a fuji concept guide system as it will be a lighter option.

[rushing]

Your puter STD free now Andy?

[upnorth]

That should work very well DC. Like posted by others there is no real wrong way, pretty much personal preference. I have a few done in spiral and did one for my brother in law, he loves it, well once he got past the "what the hell is that, you put the guides on crooked"