Older Rod Re-wrap

[Rivverrat]

I just read this.
I've often pondered an acid wrapped rod. But the again I've found a gimbal butt & simple lightweight belt seemed to solve any issues the acid wrapped rod solved. I began placing gimbals on all my rods that were worth a hoot. The fact they kept the reel facing up in the holder with bait out made it worth it.

[Jon Vadney]

I just read this.
I've often pondered an acid wrapped rod. But the again I've found a gimbal butt & simple lightweight belt seemed to solve any issues the acid wrapped rod solved. I began placing gimbals on all my rods that were worth a hoot. The fact they kept the reel facing up in the holder with bait out made it worth it.

Gimbals and plates certainly have their uses. One thing they don't prevent is the rod tip rolling over when the rod is really loaded. Twisting of the rod blank under load most certainly isn't good for the blank.

With that being said, there still are a few rods that I would wrap conventionally:

Dedicated stand up big game rods with rollers that will be fished on a private boat/yacht
Deep drop swordfish rods
Chair trolling rods
Aaaaaaand that's about it lol. 

The reason I mentioned the private boat/yacht up above is that on party boats, I believe the rail is a far superior way to fight a fish.  Rail = no plate = spiral wrapping provides stability

[steelfish]

All joking aside about spiral guide placement, it's actually a helluva lot easier than standard placement in my opinion.  Here's why: on a conventionally wrapped, say....7' rod, you have to worry about the line touching the blank in between 8 or 9 guides.  On a spiral wrapped rod, you only have to worry about it on the first 3-4 guides (transition guides).  After that, it's impossible for the line to touch the blank.

Now in terms of spiraling methods, throw out all of the jibberjabber formulas, guide wheels, and all that other crap.  It really over-complicates something that is simple.  Here's the thought process I go through when spiral wrapping a rod:
What is the intended purpose of the rod?
Does this intended purpose require a lot of casting?
Is the blank fast, moderate, or slow in action?

Those 3 questions determine what kind of transition I will use.  So lets say that I'm building a Calstar 700M (30# boat rod) for a guy who is going to use it for live bait fishing out of SD:
What is the intended purpose of the rod? - live bait fishing, mostly sardines, occasional swimbait on the slide, medium sized tuna and YT
Does this intended purpose require a lot of casting? - a little casting, but casting isn't the main focus
Is the blank fast, moderate, or slow in action? - the 700m is, imo, a fast rod that is verging on moderate.

OK, so now that I've got that figured out, I will probably go with a 3 guide transition.  This will give the angler the ability to still cast if he wants to, but it doesn't need to be some ultra slow transition and I can get the guides to the bottom of the rod as quick as possible (the more guides you have on the 180 degree axis, the more stable the rod will be).

Now.... youre probably thinking "jon...this doesn't tell me crap about WHERE to put those guides", and you're right, as it would be impossible for me to tell you where they go.  What you have to do is this:  put a reel that is similar in size to what will be eventually used on the rod, in the reel seat.  Measure 22" from the center of the spool up to the blank and make a mark.  Next, install your tip top on the 180 degree axis.  Measure 3.75" back from the tip and then progressively increase the spacing back to the stripping guide.  A rod this long, with it's moderate-fast action should require 8 guides.  Tape the guides on and run the line through the guides.  Put the rod in a rod holder, or have someone hold onto it for you and load the rod to it's maximum (do this by pulling down on the tip of the blank, not on the line as you'll just pull the guides off of the rod) and keep the line taught.  
What you are looking for here is the line to make a straight path to the bottom of the rod when the rod is loaded, when viewed from the side.  What you do not want is the line to make sharp angles in between the guides.  An easy way to think about this is you want the line to touch the ring of the guide at the point which is closest to the blank.

Below is a picture of someone else's build.  If you look at the 2nd guide up, you see how the line isn't straight and there's an angle in the line between the 1st and 3rd guide?  You don't want that.  I would have moved that second guide slightly more to the "right" to give that line a straight path.

sorry, JOe, I will hijakc the thread a bit


Hey Jon,

can you point me where to find information on instruction on how to wrap a rod on spiral layout (acid wrap?
Im thinking to re-wrap my favorite inshore rod,  a musky rod 2-6oz  20-50 line, 7.6ft, but currently 7.2ft since lost 3-4" from the tip.
as most Musky rods are, the action on this one its pretty fast a bit on the stiff side, but once you have a 10# fish it makes a nice bend the last 3/4 of the rod, I was thinking to put some better guides like fuji MNAG on spiral wrap.
any recommedation?

this is the rod, as you can see it "charge" nicely a 4oz jig to cast it to the moon with the calcutta 400TE



thanks in advance