Has anyone heard of, or personally built a rod, adding a spring type wire to the inner blank. A friend is recommending doing so to increase the weight throwing capacity on a North Fork Composite, surf blank. The blank is rated to heave 2 to 8 ounces. It is a blank NFC lists for trolling as well as surf use. Having examined the front blank section, my friend believes the rod will not handle much more than 4 + bait. He believes the (no longer available) Team Alabama Surf rods were built with spring wire to bolster weight and casting capacity.

Please advise if you have any knowledge of this procedure.

Many thanks
Tom

The modulus of blank is almost certainly higher than that of a "spring wire" and therefore the blank would be carrying the wire, including upon recovery. Furthermore, a wire is not going to structurally strengthen the rod blank. Therefore even if you could effect some stiffening, the diameter and wall thickness of the blank would remain the same. Overloading it with more casting weight than the manufacturer recommends could easily result in blank failure.

If you want to "bolster weight and casting capacity," you need a blank designed and built to do just that.

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The NFC 360 Pro rods are displaying their trolling weight recommendations while also pulling a flasher, or dodger, I haven't seen a casting weight and bait rating for those blanks. NFC should have an idea, that said, my experience with casting weights with other salmon rods is very similar to your friends thoughts, divide the trolling weight rating by two to get in the ballpark.

Thanks so much for confirming my beliefs about adding a spring wire. I will pass on your input to my friend.