Help with spiral wrap.

[Ron S]

I bought a MHX 844 and have mounted the handle, have all the guieds, and now have hit the bump in the road.

I bought the 11 piece micro set that has NCRLF-8-6-6, NCMG-4 (8 ea.) This will be my first rod with micros and the spiral if I go that way. For those of you that build with micro-spiral wrap can you tell me if there is a loss in casting distance with the micros? I am also a little lost in the best way to make the transition to the bottom. Is there a starting place from the reel line guied to the first guied, then to the bumper? It looks like I would want to use at least two guieds to make the transition around to the bottom. Have you found that to be the case with the micros?

Any help would be greatly apreciated.

I will be useing either a Fuego or a Zillion on this rod if that helps on guied placement.

Thanks

[PA Officer]

To make it real simple:

1) Mount the stripper guide between 18 and 23" from the reel seat.

2) Second guide 90 degrees (left or tight, your call. I'm a lefty)

3) Guides three through whatever, 180 degrees.

Personally, I would ditch the No. 8 and go with 6, 4 (bumper), 6, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

When you go to the spiral, you will not need that many 4s the rest of the way up.

You will not lose any casting distance either.

[PA Officer]

Ooops forgot.

Between the stripper and bumper ... 6"

And 6" between the bumper and guide No. 3.

The rest spaced according to the blank.

[mhr650]

I have built both spiral and all on top with micros and both worked well. I use the technique the rod is intended fro to decide to spiral or not, if it is a moving bait rod for cranks, spinnerbaits or similar I will build with the guides on top, if it is a jig or worm rod I will build spiral. The reasoning behind this is how you hold the rod, when you are retrieving a crankbait or fighting a fish on a crankbait you normally hold the tip down so the guides on top are facing the load anyway. A worm or jig rod you hold the tip up so the spiral wrap gets the guides on the bottom towards the load. Personally I am starting to question the need for spiral wraps with micro guides, I have built a bunch for customers with the guides on top and every one of them has raved about the performance. At the recent International Custom Rod Building Exposition I won the casting contest on Friday before the show, my rod had all micro guides all on top.

You don’t need all those guide sizes. If you are building on top use one of the double foot 6 guides then micros the rest of the way. If I was building a spiral I would use a double foot 6 for the first guide and then micros the rest of the way, you may be happier with a larger single foot like a 5 for the bumper and first 180 guide but the micros will work fine. I would definitely not try to use one of the double foot guides for the bumper guide, you want the bumper to be as low and close to the blank as possible.

[Ron S]

Well here it is. My eye sight is back to normal and the hands dont hurt anymore. I think it turned out very nice, and cant wait to use it this weekend. I ended up putting a 1/2 oz tungsten weight in the very butt section to balance the rod. It feels like a feather in the hand and with 15lb floro it feels like everything is magnafied when draging a weight in the yard. Looking forward to feeling the tick of the fish and seeing this rod under pressure.

Ron S

[nektarios]

Does it matter which way the spiral goes? Example I retrieve with my right hand....should spiral go to the left?
Ron....I love the pistol grip!! I was thinking of doing something like that! It looks great!

[thedude]

most guys spiral to the side the reel handle is on then the rod wont lean on the bumper guide. but no it doesn't matter.


how do you like the MHX? i'm going to try a few. From what i've heard, they are a great blank for the money - as long as you get a straight one

[Ron S]

I build most of my rods with the pistol grips because I like the the stability they offer. They feel very nateral to cast and if you have large hands they feel better to me.Some of the newer rods have such small handles that my hand with cramp up from useing them. With the pistol grip your hand is almost in a nateral relaxed state.

I have not fished the rod yet but my initial feelings are that it is very sensitive, light, very straight. I have built on some blanks that are three times the money that have a slight bend usually in the tip or around 30 inches up from the butt. I will say that if this is the standard quality the MHX offers I am very impressed. I saw some posts on the MHX saying some had slight warps to them but this one is as straight as I have ever seen. I have a 844 IMX and I would bet money that if built exactly the same way you could not tell the differance between the two. I will be building more MHX's in the near future for sure.