I recently made a Pitching rod for a Bass angler on a 7' GUSA blank. It was spiral wrapped. This is not my first spiral rod to make. I use the spiral for all my saltwater rods and like the setup. Now for the question. This angler claims that when he takes the line in hand and pitches the lure the line always wraps around the tip. Has anyone had this occur to them or heard of this? Let me know your thoughts.

Pat Barnard

I have been building/using spiral wrapped pitching and flipping sticks for years.
He is using braided line. Some times it will wrap around the tip but not near as much as with a conventional wrapped rod. If he had not been using braid on his other rods, he might not have had that problem before. Not being familiar with that blank. The only other thing I can think of that it might be. Is that the tip is to light and when he dips the rod down before bringing it back up to create the momentum he needs to pitch the bait out. The blank may be loading or flexing to far down allowing the line to loop up over the tip. If this is the case you might need to go to a stiffer blank Med/heavy fast or extra fast tip.

I would ask him to bring it buy and do some pitching with it. So you can stand to the side and see first hand what he is talking about.
If he has not been using braid on his other rods that he pitches with ask him to bring one of them also. And after observing him with the rod you built have him switch the reel with braid to his other rods. To see the result, if it continues to happen, explain to him that is one of the challenges to using braid, and that he will have to adjust his technique to allow for it.
If you don't mind email me with your result,s you can also email me if I can be of any further assistance to you.

Here is what could be going on. With a baitcaster many will rotate the reel to where the handle points up. Looking down the rod the guides are now pointing to the side at 90 (or 180 depending on casting hand) degrees and the key is that they are pointing away from the hand that the bait is in. When the cast is made no guides are in line to catch. If he is holding the rod with the guides pointing down the line is probably going slightly under the rod toward the casting hand and it can catch on the tip or even a few guides down from the tip. I agree you need to get him to come buy and show you his cast. I will bet the bait is going under the rod from off hand side to casting side! And, yes I learned this the hard way!!

Thanks for the replys! I will get him to demonstrate his technique. I don't Bass fish so my description may be a bit off. I will post the results when identified.

thanks,

Pat

Pat,

The answers you got from others above are very good. I've been pitching for years with braid, and the only time I've ever had that twist at the tip is in a strong wind....or when I blow a cast and it loops back at me! I recently built two Croix SCV pitching/casting simple spiral rods. I just spent the weekend on the lake pitching 30lb braid in constant 10-15 mph wind with zero problems. On long pitches, I do exactly what Bill described in his reply above---turn the reel 90 degrees to the inside so the running guides are facing out to my right. No line twists at the tip at all. I also spent time throwing crankbaits on a spiraled Rainshadow with 10lb braid in the wind. No issues there either.

Good luck! Darrell