Has anyone here ever fished with a spiral wrapped casting rod?

How'd it fish? Make any difference?

I don't think I'd get past the look. I'd be constantly wanting to line up the guides.

Not the guides, the glass

I have one, a genuine Shakespere Ugly Stick, that I must have picked up at a garage sale somewhere. That extra ridge of glass or graphite cloth wrap is left on for strength - on most rods it is ground off for looks but I guess they wanted the Ugly Stick to live up to it's advertised strength (this is the one you used to see doubled back on itself in ads to demonstrate it's strength). Don't know why I got the thing other than it was probably cheap. When I do fish for bass I prefer to use my steelhead rod (they call them flippin' sticks in the tournament circuit but they are really steelhead rod blanks - got a long story about that I may relate some time ). Anyway, about all I have used this for is jigging herring - it will lift a half-dozen Westport horse herring right out of the water just fine thank you Other than that it casts somewhat like a piece of whippy bamboo - 'bout as sensitive too :p I suppose a nice beefy spiral wrap rod would make a good halibut or sturgeon pole, and it would probably take banging around in the boat better in the long run, but for anything other than that I'd stick to smooth and sensitive

No, Spawnout, I was actually refering to the rods where the guides start out on top near the casting reel, then transition to the bottom like a spinning rod near the tip. The theory is that it better stabilizes the rod and prevents it from wanting to roll over under stress.

I've read about them and it seems weird as heck. Just wondering if anyone has seen or used one.

My son haa a noodle rod he built as a spiral wrap. It casts fine and keeps the line off the rod surface when fighting a fish ( that's the reason for a spiral wrap). You will get a few funny looks. But it will work ok.

Good luck
Bob

The theory is, that you can use less guides on a spiral wrap,making the rod lighter. I 've seen one in a rod-building book I have,it just looks really strange.

That is true HBP, but you can also use a casting reel on a noodle rod and end up with the eyes and therfore the line on the underside of the rod so the line is not rubbing on the blank. Which it would do if it was built as a convintional casting rod. I agree you could do the same thing with putting more eyes on the blank but that many would change the action not just the weight.

Bob

I'm sticking with the conventional set-up.

I've tested a spiral or Roberts wrap, against the convental method, and the results are the same. What hapens with the blank is that, when the line is under the rod, it pulls the blank down. When the line is on top, it will have the dentencey to roll the blank over to a side. (You can see this when fighting a fish with a baitcaster). As with the weight issue, you can add a bunch of fly guides to the Robert's wrap, which would be lighter than useing a higher, maybe even double foot guides that the baitcasters use. My $.02 Jon

I really thought you were kidding Wrapping guides all around the rod like that would not only look like hell, it probably would play hell with the spine. When I first tried rod building and didn't know about taping the guide on first my rods came out somewhat that way, but not on purpose Just put enough guides on, and if you are worried about a couple extra grams, use one footed guides

Actually only the first two or three guides are spiraled around the rod after that the eyes are on the under side. It dose look a little different. Some people like this on trolling rods because they think the rod fights a fish better with line on the under side, but the want to use a casting reel. And this gives them what they want.

And in the case of my son he also wants to use a casting reel and wants a noodle rod. A spiral wrap is the only way to make that work.

But while it dose look unconventional it is not that uncommon.

Bob