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Buddy and I were having a discussion last night after spending the day on the river, is there an advantage to having a spiral wrapped rod for bass fishing? We could understand it made since for large salt water fish, tuna, shark, etc, but it didnt make sense to us on a bass rod. Any input for the rod builders here.
If it made sense on a big tuna rod then why wouldn't it make sense on a bass rod? The same things are happening to the blank on both rods. With guides on top the line wants to twist to the bottom of the blank when it's under a load no matter what kind of rod it is. Some blanks twist more than other blanks but they all twist to a degree. When you spiral wrap a rod your taking away the twist which is better for the blank and at the same time you use less guides so you're saving weight at the same time. I build most all of my rods with micro guides and I'm finishing a crankbait rod now. With the guides on top it was going to take 13 guides plus the top, so I spiral wrapped it and used 9 guides plus the top. With the lower profile guides that are used today it isn't as bad but the only way to get rid of it completely is to move the guides to the bottom.
I look at the spiral wrap as a sum of all parts sort of thing. What I mean, is the difference may be small when it come's to bass rods, but add that to all of the other little things I do to my rods and it adds up.
The main purpose of a spiral wrap is to eliminat torque in the tip section of a rod. The effect is noticeable on weights as small as even 1lb. So yes, you can feel a difference on bass rods, just not to the same extant as you can with larger fish.
I think the biggest benefit of a spiral wrap is to help protect the tip section on very high-modulus blanks. The graphite material used for rod blanks is very strong when flexed along it's length...it does NOT resist torque very well though, the spiral wrap takes the torque and moves it to the thicker, stronger butt section instead of the thin, light tip section. This can help prolong the life of a blank a bit.
All that being said, there is a fellow micro maniac that builds all of his micro rods with guide's on top....no failures because of this...and it works great for him and his customers....so does it really matter....NO....I just like it. http://www.bassboatcentral.com/smileys/Laugh.gif
When you do a spiral, how do you set it up? Do you do one double foot at 0 deg, one at 90 deg, then the rest single foot at 180 deg?
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No, I do mine similar to a Forhan Revolver spiral. Use in order from the butt to the tip 6 double 0 deg, 5 single 45 deg, 4 single 135 deg, 3 sgl 180 deg, the rest size 3's to the tip. If I am using size 4 guides out to the tip I just dont use the size 3 in the spiral section and replace it with a 4. The 45 and 135 deg positioning is a ballpark estimate. Once I get the guided taped on I will install a reel and load the rod to see what the line path looks like, those two guides sometimes move to a slightly different degree to keep the line off of the blank.
My general rule of thumb is size 3 guides for up to 17lb. mono, flouro or copolymer line, size 4's for anything above. If I am using braid I just use the 3's. I use the Batson H ring micro's.
<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Timberwolf530 »</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">When you do a spiral, how do you set it up? Do you do one double foot at 0 deg, one at 90 deg, then the rest single foot at 180 deg? </TD></TR></TABLE>
That's the way I do it. I can't tell the difference between it and the Revolver wrap as far as performance.
Did anyone mention, line not touching the blank under a load with a spiral wrap as opposed to a conventional Wrap? I'm too lazy to read that much today. Any way, go put a load on your traditional crank'n stick and look and see how many places the line rubs the blank. That won't happen on a spiral.
ANY time you have a 'conventional' reel ( reel on top) setup....spiral guide placement is the way to go. There are a few different 'systems' ( Forhan, O'Quinn, the bumper guide method, or the gradual spiral setup)..they all do the same job. Some tweaking may be required to get maximum casting distances.
The favorites among my customers is for downrigger rods....the reel stays on top when the rod is bent in the rigger...folks LOVE them.