I have offset my butt guide at about minus 5 degrees now as a force of habit but can't remember why I did it in the first place.

Reason for question being: I wrapped a rod just yesterday with no butt guide offset and really couldn't see any difference.

Something like spine? C2

Offsetting the guide can help center the line on the reel spool in some instances.

I have started to offset my butt buide 5-10 degrees on spiral wrapped jigging rods (conventional set up). For non level wind reels, find if you can get the line to move in one direction on its own, you only have to guide/push it back with your finger giving you proper spooling on the retrieve vs back and forthing it with your finger the whole time which is difficult for some folks.

With spiral wraps especially, I always offset my butt guide 5-10 degrees to have nice even line lay on the reel duing retreive.

If I don't offset the butt guide a few degrees in the correct dirction, I will always get line stacking on one side of the reel or the other.

Take care
REW

As I told you Charlie, on this rod, I NEVER offset the stripper because the feedback that we got from customers is that the line will not center properly when being retrieved onto the reel and stack to the side that the guide is offset to.


It sounds great on paper to "only have to push the line to one side", but in the throws of battle with a fish, people can barely remember to guide line onto the reel.

KK

Kevin Knox
ANGLER'S ENVY CUSTOM RODS
QUEEN ANNE, MD 21657
#_#_#_#_#
www.anglersenvy.com

The idea is to offset the guide to the opposite side to which the spiral is taking place. This brings the line back to the 0 axis and prevents it from stacking heavy on the side on which the guides are spiraled.

If you've offset to the side on which the spiral is taking place, then you're apt to have line stacking heavy to that side.

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

Actually Tom, I find that I need to offset the guide in the same direction to which the spiral is taking place.

I find that when I am retreiving line on a taunt line, or semi slack line, if I don't have the offset of the first guide in the SAME direction as the spiral, that he line will stack on one side of the reel.

Bottom line - pull a bunch of line off the reel, then retreive the line withe the guides taped in place and reposition or resize guides as needed in both direction, size, location as well as angular orientation to have
a. no line stacking,
b. no line rubbing on guides and
c. smooth line flow.

Thanks for the help.
Roger

The idea in offsetting to the side opposite the spiral is to get the line to come onto the reel from dead center. If the side of the ring is in line with the center of the reel, you can't have line stack heavy to one side. The line will pull directly against that side of the ring, which is on the 0 degree axis, and come onto the reel dead center. There will be no pulling on the level wind mechanism from one side or the other.

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

The last spiral I built, which was a heavy-ish 9 foot surf plugging stick, I found the same thing as Roger. I had started with the butt guide on the 0 axis, because I liked the way it looked, but I found that by offsetting it very slightly (I didn't measure, but it was probably about 5 degrees) in the same direction the spiral was going, I got much better line lay than I did with the butt guide on the 0 axis. The reason for this, I think, is that with the butt guide slightly offset this way, the line, as it passed through the butt guide, sat perfectly in the bottom of the guide ring, not pulled up to one side the way it did with the guide on the 0 axis.

Because this was something I wasn't expecting -- I didn't think a 5-degree offset one way or another would make any difference -- I tested it a few times, in different configurations, and came back to the same very slightly offset butt guide each time. I really believe, for this rod anyway, that this was the way to go.

I fully expect, though, that the next time I do a spiral like this, the results will be different. A discerning builder must always listen to the blank, and not let Advanced Theory get in your way, and this is especially true with spirals. Let the line, blank, and guides tell you what to do, and you'll probably be all right. I can envision situations where putting the butt guide on the 0 axis will work best, and I can also envision situations where offsetting it one way or another will work best. Do some experimenting and find out for yourself.

Offshore rod builds behave totally different than freshwater blanks. The whole make up is different and a different set of obstacles that have to be addressed with regards to blank characteristics and behaviors.

Some factors to consider

Blank wall thickness and backbone in relation to grip and reelseat location
Line test and thickness (130 braid acts differently than 6lb mono)
Guide size and height (a 25 stripper is built differently than a 12)

Just because something works on one application, doesn't necessarily mean that it will work in all applications. With larger braid sizes, the 0º stripper is hands down the best performer from what I have seen.

Kevin Knox
ANGLER'S ENVY CUSTOM RODS
QUEEN ANNE, MD 21657
#_#_#_#_#
www.anglersenvy.com

Few offshore rods utilize reels with level wind mechanisms. What I described above is part of the "Revolver Rod" system and was simply given as a reason as to why many offset the butt guide on spiral wrapped rods.

Whether or not you need to offset anything depends on your particular outfit and any problems with line stacking that you may be experiencing.

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

After the guides are set up Put the reel on run line out and add some heavy weight now retrieve the line and see how it stacks on the reel
Adjust to fix

Bill - willierods.com