I fished a tournament this weekend on a lake near my home. I do not usually fish tournaments but was asked to fill in since a regular could not. Yes we did place in the money both days.

I got a 1st hand look at today's rod lockers and how they effect micro guides. Talking with the anglers and watching them loading and unloading rods made me see where spiral wrapping these tourney rods is just about a mute point. The anglers put the tip of the rod inside the tube, bend the rod and shove the rod down the tube, two at a time much of the time. I can see where conventionally building these rods with micros would be a much better route to go where durability is of concern. I'm a BIG FAN of the spiral wrap and wouldn't build rods for myself any other way. But if I were to build for tournament fishing, I'd surely think hard on throwing the spiral out the window. Can't believe I just said that.

I think there is a place for a double footed micro.

DR

i have a lot of spiral wrapped rods and tubes in my lockers. I've only broken 2 guides in the 7 years i've had them. 1 of them was a size 8 fuji on a b&r outlaw rod that was a standard wrap. the other was a bent up frame on a spiral/micro rod.

Overall, as long as you stick them in guides down, there's really no problem at all. Guys that are hard on their gear and get rammy with them will break them regardless of what side or what kind of guide they - at least in my opinion.

Regards,
-Justin

That's another good reason for conventional builds. But we all know I'm not a fan of spiral wraps on bass rods though.

Micros going in tubes are a huge improvement over size 6 and larger. Where would you use a double foot micro? All the way up?

Congrats on the checks!

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I know alot of the guys I fish with in tournaments now are using the stick jackets or something similar on the rods before putting them in the rod lockers. These do help with getting them in and out and keeping things from tangling up. I do a mix of conventional or spiral with micros, depends on how the rod is going to be used.

Mike
I agree that more and more fishermen of all types are
1. removing the tubes from rod lockers.
2. Using rod bags of some sort to protect guide and lines and helping to avoid tangles with rods in lockers.
3. Storing rods with no separators, but in bags of open storage areas to maximize rod storage (i.e. larger numbers of rods) in a given storage box.

The rod socks serve to both protect the rod, the rod finish, the guides and finally the lines and hooks from tangling and their use allow - without tubes int he rod lockers - the ability to store more rods in the same size rod locker.

Roger

Sounds to me like the tourney guys don't take care of their gear like some other anglers......which would make more sense to me since I get more repair work and rod breakage horror stories from the bass crowd that has 20 rods spread across the deck. You can certainly can't build an abuse proof stick....

Andrew Metzger Wrote:
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>You can certainly can't build an abuse
> proof stick....


I'm sure you could, but you wouldn't be able to give them away much less sell them.

As bad as it is for boaters it is even worse for co-anglers. I fish a lot of tournaments as a co-angler, and you end up having to store all of your rods in about a 6 inch wide space beside your seat. Even making an effort to consolidate what you can do with different rods I find that 6-8 rods is the minimum to be able to cover whatever you may have to do based on the way your boater is fishing. That means you have rods stacked up 2 or 3 deep on top of each other, throw in some rough water and you have rods banging against each other and tips getting tangled up. If the boater you draw is working fast you are constantly trying to get everything stowed as quickly as possible to not hold up the move to the next spot, which means that you probably won’t take the time to wrap your line around the rod each time you move which makes it worse with the tips getting tangled. I can’t imagine how bad it would be if I didn’t use microguides.

Mike you are DEAD ON as I was in that very same position. Rough water? The lake had a "Power Run" this same weekend and they like to beat us to death. I had 6-7 rods in the exact same spot you mentioned and it was a PIA for sure. Something like the Stick Jacket would be a must for me if I tourney fished much at all. That way you could at least keep the tips apart. Time is a huge issue, even dealing with the stick jackets would be a PIA in my opinion. No real answer for the co-angler's gear.

DR

I have not tried it but what about just covering say a foot or foot and a half on the rods

Bill - willierods.com

Ever thought of using section of a fluorescent light protective tubing over the tips or down the rod? Lowe's, Home Depot and Ace normally have them. Put a little plastic cap or tape over the end and slide the over. Even if it doesn't work, they're only like $4 a piece.

Even with a foot or two - it's still a pain to get them off and not destroy your fishing time. Not to mention I can only imagine having a bunch of tubes laying all over the boat while the boater is sitting looking at you saying "time to roll".

Anything over the tips - say a foot or two - is also going to blow off at 70mph. I've had whole stick jackets blow off while in the coangler seat. A couple bumps, it slides up a little, wind grabs it and it's gone.

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I can just see your face when that happens O - ????

Bill - willierods.com

Alex Dziengielewski Wrote:
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> Even with a foot or two - it's still a pain to get
> them off and not destroy your fishing time. Not to
> mention I can only imagine having a bunch of tubes
> laying all over the boat while the boater is
> sitting looking at you saying "time to roll".
>
> Anything over the tips - say a foot or two - is
> also going to blow off at 70mph. I've had whole
> stick jackets blow off while in the coangler seat.
> A couple bumps, it slides up a little, wind grabs
> it and it's gone.


Ok, it was an idea.

Stick jackets are great in teh rod locker in my opinion. Definitely a good thing to keep rods from tangling and protects the finish as well.

When you combine high speeds and rough water things certainly get interesting, my boater at Lake Russell this year lost a rod overboard that was strapped down. It bounced out from under the strap and hit me as it was going over, I almost caught it but it happened too quickly, at least life jackets make good padding……

For the co-angler, there are rod covers that you can get that actually have a piece that goes over the reel to hold the cover in place. The only thing these are a nylon material and not the same thing that the Stick Jackets are made of. The part that goes over the reel is just a cord with some kind of adjustment slide on it. I am sure you could fashion your own thing with the Stick Jackets to make sure they would not come flying off the rod.

Things have to be "right", meaning:

Super Fast

Super Easy

Zero clutter

Simple

Effortless

Wind proof: 70-80mph can do weird things you'd never think of

DR

Mike Sledden Wrote:
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> For the co-angler, there are rod covers that you
> can get that actually have a piece that goes over
> the reel to hold the cover in place. The only
> thing these are a nylon material and not the same
> thing that the Stick Jackets are made of. The
> part that goes over the reel is just a cord with
> some kind of adjustment slide on it. I am sure
> you could fashion your own thing with the Stick
> Jackets to make sure they would not come flying
> off the rod.

if it's the ones I am thinking of, that flapping nylon sock in a 70mph wind could really put some stress on a rod. In the coangler spot it's going to be sticking up like a flag flapping back and forth...

Not trying to be negative - just thinking thru the issue. There might be a big opportunity here for someone paying attention and having a little know-how.

Watch - give it 3 months and there will be a new product out there solving this.. LOL.

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