I am preparing to build a couple of 130# Stand-Up tuna rods for a friend in NY. I understand that there was an authoritative article done in the past in RodMaker. Since that issue is no longer available, is there a way of getting a copy of that article? Tom...is that something that you could do? I would certainly appreciate it. Let me know the cost...

Thanks!
George Roth
Weiser, ID.

Get the CD George, Task Specific Rods on the RodMaker Magazine site. Good to hear from you again.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2020 01:15AM by Spencer Phipps.

Thank you for that information, Spencer! It is nice to be back. I've been gone too long!

The CD has been ordered. Thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2020 12:50AM by George Roth.

The article was also reprinted in a more recent issue. I'd have to look it up but I think it was somewhere in volume 19 or 20. The back issue page would have that information.

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

Hello Tom.

It was in vol / 21 - issue / 3 - page / 22 "Complete Guide To Building Stand-Up Rods. By Tom Kirkman, Mike Ballard, Ian Miller, & Tom Kohl".

Hope that helps.


Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

Thanks, Tom!

I appreciate you helping to assemble that article. It is very timely for me.

Bob...I appreciate your time to look it up.

George



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2020 06:41PM by George Roth.

The RodMaker article, “Stand-Up Rods” in issue V-21, I-3 was a wealth of excellent information. I commend Tom and his associates for a job well done. Armed with that insight, I built a 6ft, 80lb, spiral-wrapped roller guide rod for my personal use and it performed flawlessly on tuna to 120lb; a real joy to use especially with the spiral-wrap. I do not know when the original article was written, but it may have been back when we were not allowed to rest a rod on the expensive mahogany rails of charter boats. Today’s “Rail Rods” may be cause for consideration of utilizing a rod 6-12in longer than suggested in the article to accommodate resting it on the rail. The specialist I consulted while deciding which blank to purchase suggested a 7ft blank but I was so impressed with the information afforded in the article that I stuck with a 6ft blank. Even after a battle of nearly an hour, my rod never touched the rail although I was admittedly considering so near the end.

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

An hour? My arms would be mush! I am usually fishing for bass & crappie. I appreciate the additional insights. I went tuna fishing once, out of Newport, OR. My friend lives in NY and will be pursuing yellowfin & bluefin tuna. As an aside, don't they all become "black & blue" after flopping around on the boat deck? Sorry. Just my odd SOH surfacing...

Billfish, dorado, tuna colors all fade after they are pulled in, the billfish do it in the water when they are tired out and ready to come aboard.

Spencer...I apologize for my SOH. (Sense Of Humor) I appreciate the insight about the colors fading after or during the fight. I had heard that about Dorado but wasn't sure about the others. One thing that I didn't know about tuna was that they were warm-blooded and had to be bled out after you catch them. They are beautiful fish!

George,
At 66, I am not the stud-muffin I used to be and had a smaller 2-speed reel with only 24lb of max drag. I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt the spiral-wrap was a huge factor in enabling me do battle that long without wasting energy/stamina death-gripping the rod to keep it from twisting; otherwise my arms probably would have been mush. I strongly suggest you at least consider spiral-wrapping your rod!!!

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

George is a rod builder with many years of experience in spiral wraps, grip designs and other forms of rod development. He was well known and had quite a following. He was also a medical professional, don't know if he still is.

Goodness, Spencer. You make me blush.

I appreciate your kind comments. I did build a number of rods, back in the day. Back surgeries and other issues have interfered with my time at the wrapping table and being able to keep up with all the cool stuff that everyone else is doing. Some of the decorative butt wraps are simply amazing. Billy Vivona and others have been instrumental in making those wraps within reach of most every rod builder. I learned the Spiral Wrap from Rich Forhan and his Revolver Wrap. I did mine a bit differently, but Rich was always testing and refining the best way to improve our tools of the fishing trade.

I was a Physician Assistant and I am now retired after numerous back surgeries and other maladies that tend to occur with the aging process. I do miss taking care of my patients in the ER/Urgent Care. I don't miss the hassles with the insurance companies & the pages of electronic medical records that regulations now demand.

Mark...how are you laying out your roller guides when utilizing the spiral wrap...or did you use conventional guides? It would seem that there would be an issue with the line running against the side of the roller during the transition and possibly finding its way between the roller and the frame. I am always willing to learn. That is why I came here...to get smarter!

Thank you so much for all of your suggestions.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2020 01:30AM by George Roth.

George,
First, allow me to apologize for my relative rod building newness and not recognizing who you are; also to Spencer for bringing it to my attention. Secondly, I am humbled by your interest.
In fact, rollers were used for this spiral-wrapped tuna rod. It is my understanding the only rollers designed specifically for spiral-wraps are those from All American Roller Guides. They are personally built by the owner, Steve, and his wife, Laurie, in Tustin, CA who are extremely nice and knowledgeable and produce exceptional roller guides for both spiral and conventional as well. They are so well designed and fabricated that no thought needs to be given to the line rubbing the frame or being caught between the frame and roller.
While there are many advocates of the simple spiral (0-180) on this site, and while the line gets to the bottom of the rod quickly, the line must rub the blank to do so. I prefer keeping the line off the blank. If I am correct, Rich Forhan’s “revolver-wrap” is essentially a 0-60-120-180 affair, possibly tweaked here or there. I suppose my method of spiral-wrapping could be considered a modified Revolver. With conventional guides, the positioning is approximately 30-110-160-180. With the taller frames of the rollers, the positioning is more like 30-140-170-180. In either case, the third guide is very close to 180 which equates to the line getting to the bottom faster than using four guides to do so. My first emphasis is the position of the stripper and second guide. With all guides temporarily mounted and a mildly taught thread running through them, the stripper and next guide are positioned so that the line is kept <.062in from the blank while attempting to keep the stripper as vertical as possible. The remaining two transition guides are positioned to produce the straightest line-path, both vertically and horizontally. All four guides are then slightly repositioned to produce the straightest line-path while maintaining a gap between the line and blank. While my method may require an extra guide, it also produces a straighter line path that the simple-spiral.
Yes, the line will stack to one side if not employing a level-wind reel. None of my bigger game reels are level-wind and I would have to use my thumb to guide the line onto the reel anyway, so it is a mood-point.
Allow me to offer a brief story promoting spiral-wraps. First of all, in the 40 years I have been fishing offshore here in SoCal, I have never seen a spiral-wrapped rod in use, let alone one sporting rollers; for whatever reason, everyone out here, including seasoned deckhands and captains, seem to be against them. As the tuna in the above mentioned battle was slowly taking out line and with a beautiful bend in my new rod, the deckhand who was babysitting me commented on how my hands were slightly open and simply resting the fore-grip of the rod on my palms. I insisted he take the rod for a few seconds to experience a spiral-wrapped rod. Immediately after grabbing the rod, he proclaimed” Wow, unbelievable”. After giving the rod back he uttered the same thing a few more times.

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

Mark...no apologies are needed. I have never thought of myself as a prominent rod builder. Just a builder that made functional rods to the best of my ability. I actually ran across an article the other day that Rich Forhan had penned regarding the Revolver Wrap. I also typically did a "Modified Revolver Wrap". I believe that Rich also used 4 transition guides spaced 6" apart, to get the line to bottom quickly. I used the New Concept spacing system and got to bottom in 4 guides. What I found over the years that bass rods with Revolver wraps, the anglers would break the guides, taking the rod in & out of the lockers. I used the Forhan Locking Wrap on my guides, so they were not going to simply come out from beneath the wraps.

I find the idea of Spiral Wrapping a tuna rod with roller guides, intriguing. It would seem the ideal situation to employ it, to reduce or eliminate blank twist. I am not certain that my client will desire to give this a try, but I can present him with the option. It is like medicine. We can recommend treatment options but if the patient isn't willing to try it, we can't force that option on them. Nor should we try. Most anglers know what they want and are typically open-minded enough to at least listen to the recommendations that we might have for them.

In this case, I had not built a saltwater rod like this before, so I did know where to come for the best information.

I appreciate all of your input. Thanks!