G'day Guys,

Having recently done the static test for my boat rod (I'm now finally putting guides on) I made a few interesting observations about the Simple Spiral.

1/ If you use a DF stripper and then all SF guides from there on out, the point that the line crosses the blank is not half way between the stripper and the first 180 degreee guide, when the rod is not loaded (or very lightly loaded). This happens because the height of the DF stripper above the blank is different to the height of the SF's below the blank.

2/ When the blank is flexed, the point that the line crosses the blank moves. As my rod is quite moderate in action, I think this is more pronounced than it would be on a rod with a faster action that does not bend right through the foregrip.

3/ As a result of the crossing point of the line changing on my blank (and therefore the location where the bumper should be), the bumper guide in this instance can end up with a side load that is trying to twist it off the blank. As a result, I ended up locating the bumper at the location the line crossed the blank when the rod was fully loaded. This means that when the rod is not loaded or only lightly loaded i.e. sinker only, that the line path is not really straight. I figured that this was OK because in this light load condition the only thing you are really doing is dropping your sinker to the bottom or letting out line on a trolled lure and the load from doing either and the friction generated by not having a really straight line path would be very minimal. So when the rod is fully loaded, the bumper is in a position where it is only loaded perpendicular to the blank, without any side or twisting load and the line path is nice and straight.

This post is not intended to be a crtticism of the bumper spiral, just my observations on having done a static test on one for the first time. As a matter of interest, the bumper guide ended up very close to halfway between the stripper and first 180 degree guide anyway!

Regards

Jason

In the article by Bill Cody, he stated as an optional placement for rods with heavy loads, the bumper guide may be moved down from 90 to 100 degrees when the blank flexes more into the butt section. Makes sense to me.

1. This has nothing to do with how many legs/feet the guides have. It has to do with guide ring height as you pointed out. Some single foot and double foot guides do have the same ring height, some don't. It's worth paying attention to.

2. The spot where the line crosses the blank does move when the rod flexes deeply into the butt area. Thus the article's admonition that the first two guides not be very far apart. One of the biggest mistakes made (mostly by those who have not read the article) is spacing the first two guides too far apart. The closer they are, the less movement of the line where it crosses the blank.

3. As Tim pointed out, Bill was careful to state that the bumper guide will function best on heavy duty or slower action rods at the 100 degree position.

The Simple Spiral is a well thought out system that works extremely well when the instructions are followed. It's always adviseable to tweak things to get as close to perfection as possible, but as you point out, when you do this you're going to wind up with things in just about the same positions that the article advised at the outset anyway.

................

I must admit that I haven't read the article by Bill Cody. I don't have that back issue of Rodmaker, unfortunately. I can understand moving the bumper to 100 degrees though. Wish I had of read the article before placing my guides.

Just as a matter of interest, the guide spacing I used was first SF guide 100mm (4") from the tip, then another 4 SF guides all 125mm (5") apart. The distance from the 180 degree SF guide to the stripper is 230mm (just over 9") and the bumper guide is 110mm (approx. 4 1/2" in front of the stripper).

I didn't have the article so just went with what looked OK on the static test. Time will tell if it actually fishes OK.

Think I'll get that back issue before I do another spiral though.

Jason

Jason, go to @#$%& and read about the acid wrap it really works great on slow to moderate blanks, and when you use slow to mod. blanks get the line to the bottom as fast as possible. If after reading the info on the acid wrap you have any questions email Mark, he is great about helping people understand the acid wrap. I got to see and listen Mark at Lamiglas a couple weeks ago and it was very enlightening.

I build heavy saltwater rods in the 50-60 lb class for pacific yellowtail. We typically use 20-55 lbs of drag to keep these fish from the bottom in reef conditions so they will really test the equipment. I start all of my spiral wraps to the left (which I think makes it easier to keep the line level on the reel as all I have to do is push a little when retreiving) My first guide is about 10-15 degrees to the left of straight up, guide two is 10-15 degrees before 180 degrees, and by guide 3 I am already on the bottom of the rod.
I started using single foot Fuji boat guides last year with a Forhan locking wrap and they performed exceptionally well. In fact I had a Pac Bay rod which was a little light in stiffness, but my wife really likes a flexible tip so I cut it off and wrapped it with single feet guides. Not only did she manage over 100 big yellowtail for the season, but I landed a 150 lb gulf grouper on the rod as well.