Hello, I have 3 rod builds to my name in the last 6 years, so I'm very much a novice. So far I've built a 5 Wt, a 8 Wt and a 12 Wt. I just ordered 2 casting rod kits from mudhole. One kit is a MHX MB843 and the other is a MHX L842. Both with cork split grips. These rods will have Abu 5601 C4's on them that are currently spooled with diawa J-braid X8 30 lb braid with a flouro leader and will be used for everything from fresh water fishing for bass to inshore for flounder, trout and reds to throwing at bait pods nearshore for blues and spanish. Reels are currently on ugly sticks, and I've never had a high quality casting rod so I'm really excited to build and use them.

I just learned about spiral wraps from reading on this forum. I have never seen or heard of this before, and don't know anyone that has. Is this something ya'll would recommend for a novice rod builder on rods built for these uses? If so, can i use the guide kit that comes with these rods or will other guides be required? Worth it?

Any and all recommendations ya'll have will be greatly appreciated. These will be my first rod builds that are not fly rods and the first with split grips. I'd like to get to the point where I feel more comfortable ordering individual components instead of kits in the future. Hopefully one day

Thanks

[www.rodbuilding.org]

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Tim,

I have built probably 10 spiral wraps for bass and I personally think it is "overkill" for bass rods. The MH MB843 is an excellent blank and I fish mine the majority of time. I use it for worms, Senkos, small jigs and creature baits and find it in my hand most all of the time. I would follow the recommended guide spacing provided my Mudhole and static load the rod to adjust the runner guides before wrapping. I would recommend not going smaller the 5mm running guide when you are using braid with a floro top shot. Smaller running guides than 5's tend to catch the knot between the braid & floro lines.

Don Campbell
don@sensorfishingrods.com

While it is easy to prove the stability (lack of torquing in the hand), with the smaller, lower guides of today, I don't think it's a significant advantage , significant enough to complicate your builds. I personally don't believe there is a casting advantage or disadvantage to them. If there is, it's pretty small.
As you get more experience and more familiarity with the types of "spiral" do one.

Some types of spirals do need slightly different guides, possibly one extra, possibly not.

I think the main advantage of spirals is with light power rods in that it keeps the tip from rotating 180 degrees under heavy load. I've never failed a rod due to this, but seems like it could.

Unless you use small guides, like 6's and below, they can look pretty goofy looking down them while in hand. That is not a functional issue, but always bothered me when building with the older , bigger , guides.

I have built 2 spiral wrap rods and have 2 more rod blanks ordered and they will be spiral wrapped, Im a bass fisherman and use mainly crankbait's and spinner baits. I have arthritic hands and fingers and it does help reduce fatigue on my hands and fingers. Using micro guides can be done as i have used them but the first and second guide making the transition is the most important part. I like to use a 10 stripper guide and either a 10 or 8 for the next guide which helps keep the line off of the blank and i use 3 guides to bring the line around. Tape the guides on and play with rod and static check and adjust accordingly.

Tim,
I am also a novice with only 3 years experience building rods. When using a baitcasting/ conventional (on top) reel, spiraled wrapped guides will always produce a rod which is much more stable under load while suffering virtually nil in casting performance if properly executed. However, rods less than 20# do not enjoy the benefits as much as those over 20#, simply due to the weight of the load (a fat, feisty fish) factor. All my 20#+ rods will now be spiral-wrapped unless dictated otherwise and possibly lighter ones as well simply because I can and acknowledge the benefits.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

I appreciate all the advice. While these rods will be used for bass, I don't consider myself a bass fisherman. I fish fresh water just because the salt is a couple hours away. These rods will be used in the salt hopefully for bigger fish more often than not. I too have some grip/arthritis problems. I'll do some more reading and play with the options when i start building them.

Any recommendations on the length between the reel seat and the butt? These will be my first split grip rods, I assume its a personal preference of comfort vs casting power vs being too long and hitting yourself with the butt.

IMO spiral wrapped rods find their benefit in only a few specific applications. The idea that a line pulling on the guide will stabilize the rod only makes sense if you define stabilization as having the reel facing opposite to the direction of pull. In most cases, it' going to be vertical fishing (bottom and jigging). Otherwise, when fishing away from the boat, the position of the rod takes on dynamic changes especially with crank bait or surface iron fishing. Hooksets and the initial fight often start with the rod facing downward or to the side, defeating the purpose of having the guides reversed anyway and it only serves to help turn the rod to the opposite of the pull (which is fine if that is what you want). That is assuming that you can even feel it in the first place, since the force felt is directly related to the height of your guides, which bass rods do not have tall guides at all.

Others may disagree with me on this as there is a lot of literature on it already, but I feel that a properly spined rod does more for stabilization than the reversal of guides. The spine on ultra light rods can be pretty insignificant, but the heavier the rod, the the more dramatic the force of the spine can be. When rolling blanks through my hands that are made for heavier fishing (tuna etc), the change coming on and off the spine can be very dramatic. Right around the heavy bass rod range I find that the force of the spine when the tip is loaded can sometimes be great enough to turn the reel (very light reels) nearly upward, something that line loaded on shallow height runners could never do for me. Not to say that one would normally apply both during a build anyway.

Basically, in my opinion, you really only feel the benefit of a spiral wrapped rod in a heavy vertical fishing application, and the dynamic changes of bass or pelagic fishing forces you to manipulate the rod against its natural direction of pull most cases anyway.

Either way, have fun with the build, good luck.
Nick



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2018 01:00PM by Nick Lam.

Thanks Nick, All good points to consider