I was watching a show starring Trevor Gowdy (sp?) the other day catching striped Bass, I happen to notice (big grin) that the rod he was using was bumper spiral wrapped!

Looked great from what I could see and it was handling a 49lb Striper very well. I believe that is the first bumper spiral I ever seen on TV.

The show I believe was "The One"

It was nice to see a custom like that on the tube. Shame they didn't show the rod well, at least in the scenes I seen?

DR

It would be nice to know who the custom builder that provided the rod was, just for his sake.

............

Sure would Tom!


DR

TV - whats that?
what channel was that on DR?

Either ESPN2 ,Outdoor, or versus .......I flip back and forth so I have no clue! LOL

DR

it was versus, and it was the one. I didnt see the wrap since im new to this and didnt look but i do remeber the fish.

thanks, I'll have to keep an eye, spiral wraps on TV - never know whats next

I have seen Spiral wraps on several shows. Shaw grigsby was using on several weeks ago catching redfish I believe

Somebody needs to send Larry Dahlberg and Tred Barta BOTH some custom spiral wrapped rods so they do not have to be such "Factory" victims.

Derek L. McMaster
Rohnert Park, CA

Born to Fish, FORCED to Work

I have talked to Larry on his site.
[purpledesert.net]
A few of the rods he uses are customs he built. Tred Barta, I wonder if convincing him to use a spiral wrap rod would be very easy.
The rod Shaw Grigsby was using you can find from Quantum
[www.cabelas.com]
It's the Gary Klien flippin stick
I have seen some other bass fisher man using spirals on TV. One retractable flippin stick I saw had the stripper guide on the top of the butt section.


Let's fish,
Chris

I saw that it was a spiral wrap that he was using at a glance and was suprised, and it was not a simple spiral, it had a transition guide. Those factory rods pay the freight. Kevin Van Damm used to offer lots of tips like adding a 1/4 oz rubber core sinker to a spinnerbait hook to make it weigh more instead of buying an assorment of spinnerbait weighs, next thing ya know hes got a sponcer and you now need every color in every weight imaginable. Everyone modifies baits but that tip really saved money , you don't hear him telling that one on the air waves any more, Its best to watch these pros before they get sponcership. I 1st saw a spiral wrap on an Erheart rod and I also think the concept was 1st desiminated in the 1860's so its been around for a long time, and still it takes a production spiral to be one of the two shown TV.

Hi Derek,
This is Larry Dahlberg. I've been building rods for over 40 years (first one I was 9 years old and the parts came from Herters) and you sound a little Custom Rod snobby to me.
Back before the mid to late 70s it was almost impossible to get what I wanted so I had to build it.
(I was using 7 1/2' baitcasters in the late 60's) In the early 70's I was building about 10 custom rods per week during the winter months.
Since then factory rods have come a long, long, way.
Also, back then there was significant savings involved as well. As you know, if you've been building rods for a while, that's changed.

You may be surprised if you do a patent search on the "Blank-thru, off-set handle, which is likely the biggest innovation in rod design in the last 100 years, to find I am the inventor.

I also invented the Balancer, something all rod builders should know about. (you can lathe down the big rubber slip-on cap to look very sexy, plus counter weight the rod to reduce torque, which on a long rod us HUGE. It really helps mitigate "fisherman's elbow) lateral epicondilitis (sp?))

When I was a guide in the late 60's and early 70's one of my clients was the guy who brought graphite technology from England (where he worked with the US air force and Rolls Royce to build the first graphite jet engine parts) and he taught me a great deal about advanced composites and their construction options.

The stand up rods I use are truly custom. I actually went to the factory and personally selected the tooling and physically cut the patterns myself. That's after I built a device in my workshop that enabled me to measure pounds applied versus pounds actually delivered and determined where the best efficiencies were for someone of my height and weight.
I weigh in at about 170 and have no problem pulling 80 pounds with them once I'm in my harness.
On a side note, they were assembled by one of the most famous custom rod builders on the west coast and I had to totally rebuild the reel seat and gimbal assemblies because the moron used masking tape as arbors. Almost broke a rib when the gimbal popped loose while fighted a 1000lb blue marlin with 70lbs of drag on the reel.

As I once said in a rod building article I wrote almost 30 years ago, "Form follows function; ten coats of epoxy and a diamond wrap don't make a custom rod any more than candy apple paint and flame decals will make your old Studebaker burn any less oil.

Just wanted to let you know I'm not a rookie when it comes to rods!
best,

L

Larry,

Really nice to see you here on the RB and WELCOME!

I always enjoy the shows!!!

DR