I would like to start off and say I am I young rod builder and by no means am I am expert on this topic, but I would like to share my experience I had on a recent build. I had picked up a MHX 5’6 power tip stand up rod on sale and wanted to try and build my first offshore rod. I built the bottom of the rod with a alps gimbal,10” slick butt a pac bay reel seat, and a 10in forward grip. For my guides I went with the alps ST guides 25, 16, 16, 12 , 12, 12, tip top. Instead of tape I decided to use zip ties to test fit the guides. I slapped a reel on and tied the line to a car battery and started to load the rod. As I started lifting the rod bam all the guides except the first 3 went to the underside of the rod, in disbelief I did this test several times with the same results. I was a skeptic about spiraling wrapping rods until this test. I ended up wrapping this rod the old way as it is going to be a gift for my uncle who is old fashion, but after a little more research on guide sizes for spiral wrapped rod. All my rods from this point will be spiral wrapped.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and any feedback from the pros would be awesome.
Jason

Jason,

A lot of guys "can't get their head around" a spiral wrap. Personally I feel they are the way to go with a heavy stand up rod.

Don Campbell
don@sensorfishingrods.com

X2 Don. Work great for saltwater applications. Plenty of info if you do a search. Good luck. MH

Don,
After seeing the results I totally agree with you.
I am getting ready to build a flipping stick for Snook and will be redoing the test to see what happens. I have a feeling that rod will be spiral wrapped at the end.

Once you fish a spiral wrapped rod you will wonder why this has taken so long to sink in and not become "the norm" for any heavy application casting or trolling rod

FWIW from a relatively new comer to building, I recently wrapped a 30-60 lbs class rod for yellowtail and light tuna. I spiraled with 25-12-12-10's out to the tip top. I was thinking I could have gone straight from 25 to 10. I think (and more experienced builders chime in) that you would be better off going straight from 25 to 12 all the way to the tip.

Just reread, and realized that you've already wrapped it, but that is my suggestion.