|
|
Posts: 236
| I'm curious to see who else uses them? all in favor say "I" | |
| | |
Posts: 480
| I use spiral rib rods from st.criox. I made them from blanks I got at wild river distributing. They seem a little heavier and stiffer than my favorite rod but I use my for bulldawgs and the like. They're durable and not as pretty as most but neither am I. Capt bigfish | |
| | |
| I'm not sure everybody knows what a spiral or acid wrapped rod is! It is a casting or levelwind trolling rod where the guides are spiraled to the underside of the blank, making the rod much more stable while fighting a fish. I've always resisted spiral wrapping muskie rods because of the heavier weights we cast, and the torque of casting makes me a little nervous. Also, the rod is usually held by the foregrip, and the rod is rarely held in one position for more that a moment or two during a fight, so a rod that wants to rotate is not usually an issue. However I am certainly open to a counterpoint! For a trolling rod, where the boat is moving during a fight, spiral wrapping is definately the way to go. | |
| | |
Posts: 236
| Why would a rod that is held in the same position not torque? It will torque no matter what won't it? | |
| | |
| A rod under load will always want to spin so the guides on the loaded part of the rod are nearest the load. In other words, when fighting a fish, the side of the rod with the guides will want to rotate so the guides are on the underside of the rod. With a spinning rod or a fly rod this is not a problem because the guides are already there. On a casting or levelwind rod with a conventional wrap, the rod will want to rotate when fighting a fish. Many fishermen find this twisting of the rod annoying, and, in the case of rods used for long battles with large fish, quite tiring. A spiral wrapped rod eliminates this problem.
In the case of fighting a musky hooked on a cast lure, rarely, if ever, is the rod locked up with the fish and used to pump the fish to the boat. So, in the fight with a musky the rod will try to twist, but I've never found it to be an annoyance. However, when explosively loading and unloading the rod when casting a heavy lure typical to musky fishing, a spiral wrapped rod will twist and untwist on every cast. For this reason I have shied away from spiral wrapping musky casting rods. Again however, I'd sure like to hear a counterpoint to my thinking! | |
| | |
Posts: 236
| Rodbuilder,
I never thought of casting heavy lures as being a problem but that is a good point. I'm not using it for casting heavy lures I acutually have it on a flipping stick that really gets pressured to the max when I'm fighting a nice size fish. I guess its a hypothetical question because hopefully I'll never break my rod but how much more pressure do you think I can put on a fish Vs. a regular wrapped rod?
do you think the main reason rods break is due to the twisting?? | |
| | |
Posts: 1137
Location: Holly, MI | I am at this moment waiting for the flex-coat to dry on the butt section of a Steelhead Casting rod I am making. I considered the spiral wrap but decided against it for the same reason mentioned above. On a rod expressly for casting the rod is loaded more often on the cast than on the fight, so I decided to leave the eyes on the top where they (imho) belong on a casting rod. If I was tying up downrigger salmon trolling rods I would spiral wrap them for sure. They get a constant bend "south" while trolling and while fighting a fish. | |
| | |
| Muskiebum, You should have nothing to worry about when pressuring a fish with either design as long as some common sense is used. The main reason that I've never spiral wrapped is that I've never noticed rod twist when fighting a musky with a conventional wrap. It's not that it isn't there, just that it isn't something that I notice when I've hooked a musky. The casting issue might not be as big a problem as I think it may be, I'm not sure. But then again maybe it is.... There is no way to find out unless we use a spiral wrap, and we weigh the advantages and disadvantages, which I haven't done. I will say that a rod that twists when casting will not be as accurate as one that doesn't, however, so that is something to think about if you need to make long, accurate casts with the rod.
Lodi, I too am an avid steelhead fisherman, and I'll say that I would spiral wrap a steelhead casting rod. Please don't think I'm saying the way you made yours is wrong. It's just that for the way I would use a casting steelhead rod, a spiral wrap would be the way to go. Less weight is casted, and I don't load a steelhead rod with as much power as I do a musky rod. And the fight with a steelhead is very different than with a musky. | |
| |
|
Anyone use Spiral Wrapped Rods?