I just finished an 8' sprail live bait rod and am very happy with it. While I was going to use the O'Quinn method I ended up using the Revolver system and it worked out great. Now as I fish the surf mostly and haven't read about or seen any spiral surf rods, is this method no very workable on long rods? Rods in the 10' to 11' range is what I mostly use.

I was just casting a 13' spiral wrap today - old Rainshadow ISP1565, 10-20lb line, 1-2.5oz - and it cranks 2oz a long way and seems to work fine. I also casted for the first time a 9' steelhead rod wrapped the same way and loved it. Some of the guys using heavier line and shock leaders may have some considerations I don't though.

Considerations how? i just can't see where there would be a problem. I use a conventional mostly for dead sticking bait (the boring type of fishing LOL) and can see up to 6 oz. no problem and use mostly 30# braid on con. reels. After building that live bait and testing it I love the way a spiral reacts.

Charlie Smoote has used the spiral on surf rods with great success. So has Bil Falconer. I built some that way many years ago and they work just fine.

Just be careful that your guide sizes will allow easy passage of shock leader knots. This is necessary whether you use a spiral or a conventional wrap.

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Well I have two identical blanks and i'll try a spiral on one and see how it works! I'm not worried about shock leaders as I don't make them much more then 5' anyhow, Thanks

John Martines Wrote:
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> Well I have two identical blanks and i'll try a
> spiral on one and see how it works! I'm not
> worried about shock leaders as I don't make them
> much more then 5' anyhow, Thanks


Sorry to get off the rod building topic, but what good is a 5ft shock leader? Unless you have a few wraps of or "shock leader" around your spool when you cast its not going to do anything to prevent the line from snapping on the initial power of the cast. The general rule of thumb surf anglers use is 1.5ft * the lenght of your rod plus your drop. So if I was using a 10ft rod with a 3 foot drop my shock leader would be 18 feet. Now in real life you just tie it on and reel it in until there is a few wraps around your spool and then add some for extra measure and your good to go.

The majority of surf anglers (dead sticker's, not pluggers) are using mono line somewhere between 12 and 25, usually 15 through 20. If you try and cast (not lob) the proverbial 8nbait with 15lb line it going to snap off almost every time you "heave" it out there towards the outer bar. This is where the shock leader comes into play. Some of the more powerful casters are joining 80 and 100 lb line to 17 or 20 running line. Those knots can get mighty huge!

There is one thing I can think of - some bottoms are quite rough and lighter line will be cut by being dragged across them. Or, the leader is simply to prevent bite-offs from toothy fish. So in such cases a heavy leader is used. I suppose that this would make it more of a simple "leader" and not a "shock leader" but I'd guess this is what he's using it for.

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