Another Seeker Hercules

[Jon Vadney]

Finished this one up for a buddy of mine last night.  Hercules 80H, 8', 30-60#, Fuji SiNII guides, custom seat, acid wrapped. On one of the images I took a picture of the decal that is on the rod, it's hard to make out in the picture for some reason, but in person it's easy to read.

[Dr. Jekyll - AKA MeL B]

nice Jon! looks like the stripper is 5 degrees to the left. if so that's how i like my spiral rod...

[Jon Vadney]

Yep, for most boat rods that are spiral wrapped I start with the stripper a few degrees to the opposite side of the reel handle.  This makes leveling much easier as all you have to do is push the line across with your thumb and it naturally comes back to the other side on it's own.  For freshwater rods, I spiral them the direction that the reel handle is on.  The reason I do this is that for freshwater rods (ie: bass rods) the angler sets the rods down on the deck of their boat and usually the rod will rest on the side plate of the reel.  By spiraling the guides the direction of the handle, this keeps the guides from being on the deck and helps to minimize the chance of a guide getting bent/broken.

For vertical jigging rods, 99% of the time I do what's called a "simple spiral".  Stripper guide at 0 degrees, rest of the guides at 180 degrees and between the stripper and the next guide up, I place what's called a "bumper" guide at 90 degrees.  The placement of this guide is figured out through static testing where I load the rod and see where the line is touching the blank as it makes it's transition to the bottom of the rod.  This is the point where I place the bumper.

[TechTeach]

Nice!

I have yet to wrap an acid. May have to for next winter project. Need to make two jigging rods one for a Baja special, and one for a T4NK 113h. Was thinking one spiral, one not but everything else the same.

Who makes the seat?

[Jon Vadney]

Nice!

I have yet to wrap an acid. May have to for next winter project. Need to make two jigging rods one for a Baja special, and one for a T4NK 113h. Was thinking one spiral, one not but everything else the same.

Who makes the seat?

I think once you fish the one spiral wrapped rod you will have wished that you did the other one spiral as well!  The stability it affords you once you are on a fish is ridiculous.

My customer provided the seat, it's a Fuji PSS soft touch but it was customized by someone down at the Fred Hall show where he picked it up.

[TechTeach]

Any blank recomendations for me?

[Jon Vadney]

Any blank recomendations for me?

What pound line do you plan on using, what weight lures will you be using, and what are you looking at spending?

[TechTeach]

Probably 60lb braid and 8-16oz jigs for tuna, striped bass, bluefish, etc.

Price? Under $200??

[Jon Vadney]

Probably 60lb braid and 8-16oz jigs for tuna, striped bass, bluefish, etc.

Price? Under $200??

Under $200 for the rod or the blank?

If it's for the blank, I would recommend a Phenix TJX606H-B or a Black Hole Cape Cod Special 52 350gram

[ossipeter]

I like it!

[TechTeach]

Probably 60lb braid and 8-16oz jigs for tuna, striped bass, bluefish, etc.

Price? Under $200??

Under $200 for the rod or the blank?

If it's for the blank, I would recommend a Phenix TJX606H-B or a Black Hole Cape Cod Special 52 350gram

Blank, I build my own rods.

And thanks, I'll look into those.