I am in the process of building two rods for cod fishing up here in New England. I am going to build on the following blanks:

GUSA WAHOO (This will also double as a tuna jigging rod)

Lamiglas SB1215M (Cut to 8 feet)

I am thinking of wrapping them spiral after reading allot of praise about that method for these types of bottom fishing rods

I know absolutely nothing about a spiral wrap, i have done allot of searches here and found some good info and I ordered a few back issues of rodmaker magazine. Are there any other sources that I can find to get the basics of this technique?

It looks like the biggest decision is where to put the second guide down from the reel.

I am also curious to see if any of you have opinions on if this method will be good for rods fishing for cod. I generally use jigs 10-16 oz. & will fish in water as deep as 400'

I have experienced allot of pulled hooks during this type of fishing and I am hoping that this method will help with this, better flow of line, and better feel for bottom / fish.

many many thanks!

matt

The only thing the spiral wrap does for you is make the rod stable when fighting the fish, it will not want to turn in your hands. If you search more for "simple spiral", I think you will find the best setup up for a spiral wrapped rod.

Right, it won't improve sensitivity or anything like that, but it will make the rod more stable and therefore fighting a fish becomes easier.

The only downside some have mentioned is that on rods used on rails, you can easily damage a bottom guide depending on where you locate things and how you use the rod on the rail.

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

Thanks for the posts. I appreciate your info. I generally do not use the rail when fighting a fish, but that is an excellent point to think of as I build these rods and plan out the guide spacing.

Interesting points on the sensitivity issue. My line of thinking is that if you improve line flow and stability then sensitivity will also be improved as a result of the line following a better path through the rod. Sounds like this is not significant though. I guess the only way to truly find out is to starting to build and playing around.

What about guides? I am thinking about HBSG 20, and then down to 10 for both rods. 8 or 9 for the wahoo and maybe 6 or 7 for the lami. Does that sound about right?

Many Many Thanks

Tom: Built my very first rod working with your book! I still go back to that book all of the time!

If the spiral wrap allows you to use less guides, then the rod will be lighter and will indeed be more sensitive. Otherwise there isn't really going to be any difference in that department between 2 casting rods, one wrapped conventionally and one wrapped in spiral configuration.

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

My 2 cents worth..for what it may be worth. Using the simple spiral only requires 2 sizes of guide. the first one(stripper) sized for the reel and placement and the rest your smallest running guides. once the line passes the centerline of the the blank, why would you want to take it back out again? As a bonus, your rod is lighter from smaller guides, and the guides are less expensive! I have been using this formula to great success. also, I have used single foot guides for the bumper since the feet are easier to modify in order to get the guide up close to the blank. The bumper gets no load and I also put it on the side of the reel handle to keep it fron hitting anything while transporting and storing. Have fun with your build whatever you decide.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2008 08:37PM by Bill Lane.

Matt,
Do a bit of experimenting with the guide placement, size and location.
One thing that I have found is that it seems to help with a spiral wrap is to offset the first guide a bit.
By that I mean, that rather than having the first guide perfectly aligned with the reel, it seems to work a bit to twist the guide a bit - one way or the other.

Do some testing with the guides, by letting line out, as well as retreiving line. You may very well find that by twisting the first guide just a bit - one way or the other, that you will likely find that the line winds straight on the reel.
Often, with a spiral wrap, if the first guide is aligned perfectly square with the reel, will often tend to stack the line on one side of the reel or the other.
That is why I always like to double check both the guides, alignment and positions.

Often, you will find that it will be to your advantage to make the guides smaller, rather than larger. The idea is that by correct guide size, postion and alignement, you will find that the line flows smoothly through the guides with very little or no contact with any of the guides on a line spool out or line retreive on an unbent rod.

Take care
Roger

Hey Matt. . . Milton (Hank) Aldridge builds a lot of spiral wrap rods. He's located in Wells, Maine. I think he's at OnTheRocksFishing.com. I think he calls these rods "Grumpy Old Men" rods or something to that effect. He's a reader of this website. You might reach him at hank@ontherocksfishing.com

Bob Turpen
Dawsonville, GA

"Life is too short to fish with UGLY rods!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2008 12:21PM by Bob Turpen.

Hi Bob,

Nice to see you here again. I will shoot you an email in a while. We do a lot of spiral Wrapped rods and call them "Maine's Wicked Twisted" because they're Wicked Good (a little bit of Maine Humor there).

Matt,

If you have ordered the issues from RodMaker Magazine that cover Sprial Wraps that is a very good start. As far as using a simple sprial vs a (so called) regular spiral, I don't use simple spiral on heavier rods like you're taking about (but that's just my opinion).

If I can be of any help just give me a shout and I will be more that happy to help. email - Hank@OnTheRocksFishing.com

Hank
On The Rocks Fishing
Wells, ME.

Thanks for the info. here. I sent an email off to Hank, but have not heard back from him yet.

I ordered my guides today. I am going to try a 20 for the stripper and then go directly to 12's for both rods. I figure each rod will take 7 or 8 guides. I went with HBSG.

I have not gotten the issues of the magazine yet so all of the info I have learned is coming from the web.

I need to clear up some terms. The 'bumper' guide is the guide that begins the turn to the 180 degreee axis right? Sounds like people use a varying number of bumper guides (1) or (2). Am I correct here?

Also, the very first guide (stripper guide) does not necessarily need to be in line with the reel seat? In other words, I can feel free to move this guide around as well right?

Any other tips and insight is much appreciated! I have learned allot from reading this threads and I am really looking forward to wrapping these rods!

Matt