Have any of you guys fished one in the 50-80# range. I'd like to build one. I like spiral rods, more comfortable to me. I haven't done a roller rod yet. I keep looking at pictures of the roller guides and I don't think I've seen one yet that looks like the line has a smooth transition to the bottom of the rod. If using a 50W it seems like the spool is wide enough that when the line is coming off/on the transition guide side of the reel that the line is not going to sit in the bottom of the first guide. Am I over thinking this? Seems like it would pile up the line on one side of the reel. When I build spirals with traditional guides I offset the first guide in the opposite direction of the transition so the line comes in at the center of the spool. Can you do the same with the spiral. I guess that's enough for one post.
All input welcome.
thanks, steve walters

I have two 5'6" Lamiglas CHJ 6680 50-80 class rods that I spiral wrapped using All American roller guides designed for that wrap. Great rods for large fish. These blanks are fast action with little deflection in the spiral portion regardless of fish size and the line paths remain constant. I have had no trouble with line pile up using a self leveling Penn GTi 345.

Stan Grace
Helena, MT
"Our best is none too good"

I've built a quite a few of these now. The acid roller system uses a more direct "over/under" approach rather than a "transition" around the rod like with ring guides. Basically you want the line to run from the stripper guide on top directly to the next guide under the rod, with the guides offset toward eachother just enough for the line to clear the blank. The second guide in the sequence from the reel (or second "transition"guide) is what pulls the line into the v-groove in the stripper guide. The distance between these two "transition" guides is what keeps the line in the v-grooves. The closer they are to eachother the steeper the downward angle coming off of the roller applying force to keep the line in the groove. But on the flip-side, the closer these two guides are to eachother, the more offset they need to be to clear the blank. If the offset angle is too much, the line may want to come out of the v-groove as the line goes from one side of the reel spool to the other. Basically its trial and error placement and deflection testing until you find the happy medium between distance and offset angle. Kinda tricky to explain in text without a visual, but once you start positioning the guides and deflection test, it starts to make sense.

The the stripper guide will end up being at an offset angle to the reel, just the nature of the beast with the rollers. Some consider this to be a bit of a blessing in disguise when it comes to the way the line will stack on the reel spool, other may not like it. Depending on the retreive of the reel(right or left), you will want to angle the stripper guide opposite of the crank handle side of the reel. The school of thought here is that its easier to push the line over with your thumb (on the hand that is gripping the rod) as you direct line onto the reel while retrieving than it is to attempt to pull it acroos the other way. With some trial and error guide placement, it is possible to place the stripper guide closer to 0 degrees and compensate with the angle of the second and third guides in sequence, but can be tricky.

Here a post I put up on another forum with pics, and my typical plan of attack when im laying out and testing the placement of an acid roller rod: [www.allcoastsportfishing.com]

Hope the info is useful!

Scott;
I went and took a look at your post.
Awesome job !

I would contact All American Guides. At the Wooland show Mark Griffen of @#$%&
did a great demo. on the spiral roller guides. One thing is for sure your rod well not twist fighting a big fish,
Gppd Wraps Bob

Thanks Scott. Wow, that's every single thing I was wondering about wrapped up. I guess I just need to figure out some sort of jig to hold the rod in place so I can do the test. That and I don't own a reel to put on it to test it. I guess I can use a 4/0 and just raise the line a bit.
Thanks to everyone.
later, steve walters