I'm building my first spiral musky rod on a 7-1/2 foot St Croix S3 blank. I plan to use a patriotic motif with a red underwrap, a blue guide wrap, and white trim bands on each end, with a little of the red underwrap showing under each end. The white trim bands will be done using CP thread. I'll also do a simple diamond butt wrap with those same colors.

Since it is a musky rod, I'm assuming I won't need to feel the "subtle" bites like a walleye, so a little extra weight from double wraps should not be a problem, right??

My question, finally, is: Should I put a coat of CP on the underwraps before wrapping over them? A coat of light (thin) epoxy? Or just wrap everything then begin applying CP and finish as usual.

Thanks.

Skip Kerwin

I usually use a coat of Permaglos or thin coat of epoxy if I'm out of Permaglos before I wrap the overwraps. My feeling is just that it helps seal the threads if nothing else.

Musky rod, I'd say if you want to underwrap the guides, shouldn't be a problem.

Take care,
Phil

Personally, I use single foot ceramic fly guides for the "running" guides on Musky rods. In my opinion, they are more than adequate for the job and I never use underwraps on any rods. You are right that you don't need to feel the subtle bites, but every little bit of weight saved on the guides/wraps helps the balance on a rod that long and will feel better after a few hours of heaving the big baits

Mike

Hi Skip
I CP every under wrap with the simple reason to get the oxygene out of the threads before I coat them to avoid air bubbles, and you will see it is much smoother to over wrap once the thread is CP treated. The advantage is your guides will be much tighter on the rod and a chance of moving on a spiral wrap is very , very small . The additional weight is less than a gramm.
Best Regards Mark Crouse- The Munich rod man