So I'm an avid steelhead fishermen from the great lakes region, and ive been searching for a 13+ foot long bait casting float rod for a long time now but I cant find any manufacturer that makes one. So my thought was just to make one my self, I was looking to build a spiral wrapped casting rod on the 15 foot st croix float rod blank. I have experience building some spinning rods so I know how to build a rod, but all the rods i have built have come with a guide spacing chart, so my question is if anyone has experience building on that blank and has guide spacing for that blank I would really appreciate it, and ive never built a spiral wrapped before so if there's any tips for building one that would be greatly appreciated!!! Thanks so much for any help you guys got!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2020 03:46PM by Jack fulton.

the best tip i ever heard for building a spiral wraped rod was to just lay the guides out for a standard cast rod then rotate the guides 180 degrees and wrap the guides there.

Batson offers some13' center pin blanks and blueprints. Not hard to use the blueprint and adapt for a spiral build.

So ive found the guide spacing chart for the 15ft stcroix so thats the blank im gonna go with since I am only fishing big rivers with it, I currently fish with a 13 foot pin and a 15 footer would be much better, but the thing with float rods is they are 2-4 piece, so I wouldn't want the line to transition from top to the bottom between the first and second piece of the blank because it would cause the second piece to rotate under pressure, so with normal guide spacing im not sure if thier is enough guides on the first section of the blank to fully rotate the line to the bottom of the blank, so I might have to put more then the recommended guides on the first portion to get the line around the blank

Do a simple spiral. It involves a small 'bumper' guide at 90 degrees between the stripper and the next guide, which would be at 180 degrees to the stripper. The function of the bumper guide is to keep the line off the blank. There is a lot of information on the simple spiral, just search the site using all dates in the query, and you will have a ton of reading.
Norm

It sounds like a simple spiral using a bumper guide might work best for the problems you forsee with 2-4 piece rod. If you have time, you might search simple spiral for subject and Tom Kirkman for the author, and maybe all dates for in place of the last 30 days.

Thats a good read, thank you!!!

Sorry Norm, when I started typing you hadn't replied yet. If I had waited a little, i could have saved some typing!

Gary, happens to me all the time.
Norm

Jack,
If a guide spacing chart is even employed at all, it should only be used as a starting point AT BEST. After all, you are building a custom rod, not a generic, off-the-shelf pole. Static load testing the blank, utilizing the 2-line method, will place each guide at the optimum position to evenly distribute the stress from load along the blank and is a great aid in casting distance as well. The very little time required pales in comparison to the benefits gained of a properly performing rod. Charts simply cannot do it.
Utilizing the static load test line will also serve as an invaluable tool while placing the spiral-wrapped guides as they transition from the top of the blank to the bottom. While Ben offered a simple method to spiral-wrap a rod which some builder use, the line may have to “turn some corners” (so to speak). With such a long rod as you are planning on building, you will have the luxury of making the transition with three or even four guides to produce an almost perfectly straight line path and still have plenty of guides on the bottom to take full advantage of what a spiral-wrap is all about!
If you care to do so, consider my method of guide placement for a spiral-wrap. Mount the intended reel. Temporarily attach the tip top and runners to the (bottom of the) blank in a progressively increasing fashion with the first guide 3.5 to 4in from the tip top (use your chart if you must). Mount the stripper and other reduction guides in similar fashion while estimating their position as they spiral to the bottom. Tiny rubber bands cut from surgical tubing works awesome. Run a highly visible thread through the tip top, runner and reduction guides and attach (tape) to the top and center of the loaded reel spool. With the blank held horizontally, affix a very small amount of weight to the thread a few inches beyond the tip top to straighten the thread (a tiny 1in plastic spring clamp works very well). Adjust the rotation of the reduction guides so that the thread just misses (.060in) the blank while adjusting the spacing as well to produce the straightest line path. With such a long blank, you will have the luxury of positioning the stripper at 0* or even a few degrees (*) opposite the direction of the spiral to allow the line to feed onto the center of the spool. After comfortable with the reduction/transition guides, secure a second line to the tip top, add enough weight to put about a 90* bend in the blank and adjust the spacing of the runners so that the thread produces the same angle at each guide and mimics the curvature of the blank but do not move the first two guides more than .125in (to support and protect the tip). Although lengthy to type and read, the actual static load test takes less than 10 minutes; a small price to pay for an optimum performing, truly custom rod.
There are many different methods employed by many different builders to produce a spiral-wrapped rod; and they all work in ultimately getting the line to the bottom of the rod where they perform the best! Some allow the line to rub the blank; I do not. Some make the transition just in one guide; I do not. Some use 90* “bumper” guides; I do not. Some are critical of the stripper feeding the center of the spool; I am not. I developed mine from observing the pros and cons of others and tweeking them to suit myself. All things said and one way or the other, one will never understand the profound difference of a spiral-wrapped rod until experiencing it for themselves; once they do they will never turn back.

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

Wow, thank you for taking the time to write that out, your method sounds to me like the best way to properly transition the line to the bottom with minimal lateral force, I like the idea to offset the first guide to allow your line to come off straight from the center of the spool, thanks so much for the advice!!!

Jack,
Thanks for the thanks; you are more than welcome (and welcomed as well). This site is all about give and take and I have taken a tremendous amount of knowledge from many generous givers. I enjoy and look forward to giving back whenever possible. We are all here to learn! Please keep us informed of your project progress.

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

I use only braided line..it doesn,t care how you arrange the guides to get the line to the 180 guide..you can use any number of transition guides or none at all..it,s all the same with braid which makes the simple spiral as effective as any..