Had a little fun yesturday and bumper wrapped a surf rod. It cast pretty good as far as I could tell, till the tape turned loose and the tip top. Are any of you guys doing this and how's it holding up?

I have a couple of All Star 1085-2 that are spiral wrapped. They are used mainly for throwing large plugs and jig heads up to 3 ounces for stripers...the casting distance is same as the same rod in a spinning set-up. I am almost finished with a All Star 1387 spiral wrapped...it test very good too. The one thing I have a concern with a spiral wrap on a heavy surf rod is the tip top. I have looked closely at the tip while loading the rod to cast 6 ounces + bait and the force will completely turn the tip around. I'm not sure how long the upper end of a rod can stand this stress.

The thing is, if you put all the guides on top, the force from a fish will completely turn the tip top around too. Casting and fishing put opposing stresses on the rod. I tend to think the fish fighting aspect puts more stress on the rod, however. But you won't be able to build either way and keep the guides or top from being stressed in one situation or the other. Keep in mind, that spinning rods have the tip tops in the same position as spiral wrapped casting. They don't seem to suffer any ill effects from powerful casts with heavy weights.

Make sure you test cast with the line and any shock leader knot you plan to use. On may heavy duty surf rods used with heavy lines and shock leaders, you won't be able to use smaller than a #16 ring.

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You beat me to the punch. I was going to say that a spiral wrapped casting rod doesn't go through anything on the cast that a spinning rod doesn't. So it probably is a mute point.