Spiral Guides on casting rods

[LongCast]

Take a look at this:

http://www.rodnreel.com/articles/articl ... toryID=693

I didn't understand the concept until I looked at the picture. Have you seen or heard of Spiral Guides? What do you think?

LongCast

[ezcue]

I have heard of them, mostly from custom rod builders. I have never had the opportunity to cast one of them though.

[bitesize]

I think there was a past thread on this. Believe some members
actually only use this style to fish with. There is also a rod
review on this on the main site.

[sdesign]

This is a big area of debate on some of the other forums. I've read about it a lot and it is very intriguing but I've yet to take the leap of faith to actually try it. One of our T3 Team members is a custom rod builder and can better speak to the advantages of this feature than I, but he hasn't had the time to participate of late. I'll send him a note to see if he can squeeze in the time to share his thoughts on the matter.

In the meantime, here's one manufacturer from whom you can buy these rods at fairly competitive prices:

Tactical Assault Rods

[Reno Reeler]

[font=Century Gothic]The concept behind the spiral wrap design of the rod guides is to remove contact between the line and the rod blank. I own a Vance's Tackle ultra-light spiral wrapped casting rod that I use for trolling (trout and kokanee salmon). When the rod is loaded (as it is when you use a downrigger) the guides twist and line up straight preventing line-to-blank contact.[/font]

[sdesign]

Reno,

If I may, I've heard a different explanation and that is the spiral wrap mitigates against the tendency of the rod to rotate out of your hands reducing stress on the rod and increasing the longevity of the blank. That's basically how I remember it. I've heard conflicting reports of it actually increasing your casting distance. I'm not the best to explain that theory fully but wanted to throw it out there for people to digest.

SD

[kbookert]

Must be a salt water thing. I do not believe that I have ever run across this topic.

[sdesign]

Must be a salt water thing. I do not believe that I have ever run across this topic.

Actually, KBT, it's gaining notoriety in bass fishing. That link I provided above to Tactical Assault - I believe all they do are bass rods.

[kbookert]

Oh ok, I just read it. I don't think I would like that at all. Talk about getting line twist. Im sure it doesn't, but in my mind, I know it would.

[catch'em-all]

Hi all,

I build custon rods and I also am a huge fan of the spiral wrapped rod. The advantages of this design are clear. On a traditionally wrapped rod, with the guides on top, when loaded (fighting a fish), the line will come in contact with the blank, the guides out closer to the tip will want to be pulled to the bottom of the blank from the pull of the line, causing the blank to twist and the rod will also want to twist, causing the fisherman to have to counter the rods tendancy to twist.
Spiral wrapping the rod, when done correctly, will eliminate all of these problems, releiving the blank from these twisting forces, eliminating line contact on the blank and making it more comfortable to the fisherman. There really are no negative effects of the spiral wrap except that many fishernen who don't understand the concept will shy away from it due to the somewhat untraditional look of the rod.

Here is a quick test you can do with your traditional rods. The next time you have a fish on or are snagged, load the rod and push the butt into your stomach or belt. Support the rod on the foregrip with and open palm underneath the grip. Watch how quickly the rod will flip over and the guides and reel wil be on the bottom, upside down. With a spiral wrapped rod and the same test, the rod will remain absolutely stable under load and will not twist, meaning less effort and less blank fatigue.

I haven't noticed any change in casting distance, good or bad, using the spiral.

Many of the best custom builders will only build casting rods with the spiral wrap. There is a reason for this.

The reason you don't see the major manufacturers do it is because it requires a great deal of care to set up the guides correctly, and the factory production lines don't have the time or skill to accomplish this efficiently.

Mark

[kbookert]

Very interesting, thank you.

[dazzle]

I'm not into saltwater fishing, but how come I don't see more
big game rods built this way if it sounds so beneficial?

--Daz