I have 2 - 5'6" composite 80# blanks that I'm going to start building in the near future. I can't decide to go with spiral wrapped guides, spiral rollers, or traditional rollers.

These rods are for fishing the gulf out of Pensacola. Hopefully, they will see some use trolling and chunking for tuna and drops for swords. We don't have a chair, so all the fighting will be done stand-up. There might be some occasional use for bottom fishing, but I usually don't like to go that heavy.

What do y'all think? Personally, I'm leaning towards the spiral rollers...

Thanks!

Dirk

I just realized that the @#$%& spiral roller tops only go up to a size 14. It looks like I need at a minimum size 18 and would probably go with a 20. Is there a reason that the @#$%& tops are only available in the smaller sizes?

OK, so I guess the question now is spiral wrapped with guides or just a normal set of rollers?

I wish someone else would have answered this question before me as I don't like being the bearer of someone else's bad news. At the present there is a problem that occurs when trolling the @#$%& rollers with heavy tackle. When the rod is locked in place inside the rod holder and a fish hits & pulls the tip in a sideways fashion the line will roll up the side of the transitional guides. This is a concern for anyone fishing heavy tackle in a trolling situation.

This 'problem' was only found out last week. Dennis Braid & Dick Meirowitz were fishing out of Morehead City for giant BFT aboard Pete Manuel's 'Delta Dawn'. Dick was fishing a spiral roller built by Capt. Neil Faulkner. While Dick has caught many fish with spiral rollers, even yellowfins over 200# with the very rod he was fishing on the 'Delta Dawn', he had never fished the rod in a trolling situation. I met Dick at the dock last Tuesday afternoon to see how their trip went and was lucky enough to see the problem first hand. We ran several tests in the cockpit of the boat with Dick's rod as well as with my 130# spiral roller that I had brought with me. The transition guides on both rods are set up rather differently yet they both experienced the same problem when the line was pulled latterally from the tip. When running a static distribution test the line is normally pulled straight down so this problem was not discovered until put into a real-world fishing situation.

Solutions to this problem are being worked on as we speak, but caution should be taken by anyone fishing heavy tackle in a trolling situation where the rod is in a fixed postion. I will be fishing my bent butt spiral roller with a golf ball in the rod holder. This will allow the rod to pivot upon a fish strike.

Again I don't like being the bearer of bad news, but no one else had spoken up. Had I not seen the situation first hand I would not have gone into such great detail. After having lunch with Dick, Dennis, & Pete I spoke with both Neil Faulkner (master builder who built Dick's rod) and John Mantele (designer of the @#$%& rollers). Everyone involved is concerned and working on a solution.

Keep in mind that fishing for giant BFT is an EXTREME fishing situation. No problems had occured from the use of @#$%& rollers until last week.

As a side note, Dick Meirowitz doesn't believe the @#$%& rollers were the cause of his line failure on last week's BFT trip. It seems that earlier in the day the spectra had become wrapped around the tip and reeled in for some length before being discovered. The frayed spectra was most likey the reason for any line failure, but this brought attention to other aspects of the rod that are potential problems.

I'm very sorry for such a long post. Jay

Oh, that sounds like a bad deal. Thanks for the reply.

I'd spiral wrap it with Fuij LBSGs. I fish a GF765ml wrapped this way with 80# test line and 27# drag at strike.