talking about the spiral wraped rods, has any one noticed the casting rod on Loomis's front page ?? They got it just so that the guides have no twist. Bad advertisement for the Spiral

How is that a bad advertisement for the spiral. Have you ever seen a spiral rod twisted? Of course not. All the first Loomis rods were spiral wrapped. They were not able to sell them because fishermen thought they looked funny, but even Gary Loomis will tell you that the spiral design is superior. Guides belong on the bottom of all rods.

Spend a little more time looking at the fishing shows on ESPN or the fishing magazines and you'll start to notice all the horribly twisted casting rods. Some are so badly twisted that the tip top is almost completely upside down.

I glanced the last couple of minutes of Larry Dahlberg's 'Hunt for Big Fish' over the weekend. I saw it just long enough to notice the spiral rod he was fishing. I wonder if they mentioned anything about that rod during the show. Did anyone see it?

Jay

It's one of those things that chaps me a little. More and more pros are using spirals, but I don't know of any mfgr that sells them. Tells me that there are a lot of pros out there using custom rods, yet the tv shows and major magazines will not acknowledge our existence. Just once I'd like to see a pro fisherman publicly thank the guy or gal who built the rod he uses instead of the high dollar sponsor that gave him a bass boat. I'm especially peeved at one particular magazine because my wife wrote a very nice letter to them explaining Bob Lee's Troop Rod effort, the many builders and vendors who volunteered, and so on and so forth, and perhaps a story on the effort and/or interview with Bob and his folks might be nice.

She never got so much as a reply, yet in a recent issue, they show a bunch of Marines fishing with stuff families have sent, and what they dreamed up themselves with sticks and such. Maybe if enough of us pool a few bucks to buy some ad space they might mention us, seeing as the almighty dollar controls content in a magazine. Which by the way I have to thank Tom yet again for speaking his mind, and publishing other folks who speak their mind, without compensation/fear of reprisal from other people who just want to sell stuff provided they don't talk about X. Meat, not filler, is what makes a good burger. A lot to be said for this board too.

My apologies for the mini rant.. and believe me.. this is mini.

Mick
Think about this, if all the rod companies built rods with the ideas thought up by the people here, we will not be needed ???

I can somewhat sympathize with what most publishers are up against. If RodMaker had a staff that I had to pay each week, I wouldn't have the freedom that I now have with it. I would be forced to lean more toward strict favoritism of only those who bought advertising. Commercial ventures are just that, commercial ventures. Every day they have to face up to certain economic realities. This board is somewhat like that, in that the sponsors have to get something for their sponsor fee, or... they would have no need to be here and this board could not exist.

By the way, the 1984 Loomis casting rods were indeed all spiral wrapped. But they were also terribly done. The butt guide was only about 12 inches past the reel, the transition was poor and the rods just looked very odd. They didn't sell and the 1985 line went back to the standard conventional wrapped casting styles.

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I'm not saying any thing bad about G Loomis. They are great blanks.
I was just looking at there front page and with all the talk about spiral wraps and the way the convensional rod there had the guides all on top with pressure on it. Thought it was funny.
heck I don't want them to make any. less work for me

I would never have any thing negative to say about any rod out there on the market. I market mine for what they are. The sprial wrap has been around a lot longet than GLoomis and most other rods out there on the market. From what I have read and to the people whom I have talked to about the spiral, it has been around since the late 30's for sure. I have my style of the wrap and very proud of it. And I am sure that there are others out there as good or better than mine, but just think about it when you ship that rod!! You are the one that put the personal touch on it, and when your customer praises you for it, then you know you have done your job.