North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Hi All

I'm looking at getting a rod built by a custom guy for barra trolling.

A 6'3" 10-17lb, and he has asked if I would like it to be spiral wrapped. I've seen this before on rods but never really knew why, so after asking a few questions and reading a bit on google, I thought I'd ask a local community as oppossed to the magazine and web page write ups about their opinion.
So, does any one use them? If so, is it something you would have done again if you were building a rod?

Cheers, Rhet

Hi Rhet,
the spiral wrap is purely decorative. It is a decorative bind at the butt of the rod directly above the foregrip that has a couple of twists and turns in the cotton work. The Spiral wrap adds no benefit, action or value to the rod (unless you intend to sell it at a later date). In fact it adds additional weight to the rod through the extra cotton and additional filler / coating that is used to cover it.

I have built numerous rods over the years for other people with spiral wrap and decorative bind but I still prefer to keep mine plain and simple.

Cheers

Warren

Ummm. I think he is talking about a different spiral wrap where the guides wrap around the rod. Also known as 'acid wrap'. Was a fad that never seemed to take off.

Swoffa wrote:Hi Rhet,
the spiral wrap is purely decorative. It is a decorative bind at the butt of the rod directly above the foregrip that has a couple of twists and turns in the cotton work. The Spiral wrap adds no benefit, action or value to the rod (unless you intend to sell it at a later date). In fact it adds additional weight to the rod through the extra cotton and additional filler / coating that is used to cover it.

I have built numerous rods over the years for other people with spiral wrap and decorative bind but I still prefer to keep mine plain and simple.

Cheers

Warren

The but wrap that you are calling a spiral wrap I use to put on some of the rods I made in the seventies so as to stiffen the bottom half of the rod
There was not too much development back then in blanks for stand up gear on boats and blanks use to bend right through to the but cap
Then but wraps became all the rage with 4 way diamond and fish binds and a few others
Spiral wrap in guides is another story and not without contraversy
Back when I was building rods you found the backbone of the blank ,which is the point to where the blank spun to when under load and built the rod accordingly
Now some one came up with the idea of placing guides spiralled around the blank to compensate for the twist ,not a good idea in my thoughts as it is twisting the wraps of fibre glass or carbon fibre and graphite and boron and will cause weakness as opposed to building the blank propperly on the backbone so as it does not twist IMO

I think it looks funny however have never used a rod with the guides spiral wrapped. Rod thread art however is awesome and whenever I make myself a new rod I all ways try to make it look as flash as possible.

If you have a rod that doesnt look pretty, people will point and laugh at you

Perhaps I should have defined my inquiry better. It's got nothing to do with aesthetics. It has to do with an overhead configuration blank having the striper guide as per normal, and then one, two or three transition guides "spiralling" around the blank so that the last few guides are opposite the reel. So basically the same as a spin rod would be configured as the line leaves the rod.

A couple of people know what I mean, with regards to attempting to negate the torque on the rod when loaded at an angle. I too thought that it seemed to contradict building on the backbone.
I can understand the concept of it, but im not sure if it is as functional as the theory suggests. It seems that it is purely professional custom builders who actually do it, and I can't see why the would do it if it had a negative effect.

Sounds awful! I'd suggest ...

1. It would be butt ugly
2. It would create more line friction on the guides
3. It would put torsional stress on the guides
4. It would partly defy the blank's backbone
5. If it was good you would see it more

If I saw a rod like that at a garage sale I'd only buy it for parts

dodgyone wrote:Ummm. I think he is talking about a different spiral wrap where the guides wrap around the rod. Also known as 'acid wrap'. Was a fad that never seemed to take off.

My bad.... I have only ever heard them called "Acid Wrap"

Hi there,

I am not 100% sure, but I think that last year, Shimano released a spin rod with this type of wrapping, where the line guides spiral around the rod.
I am just not sure if it was a spinning or jigging rod...

Have a good day,
Pecheur

The whole idea around spiral wraps was to move the centre of gravity below the blank to stop the rod from twisting under load, mostly used in jigging rods with conventional reels (overheads) where they are used in a up down fishing situation in deep water etc. Never seen one on a spin stick, kinda defeats the whole purpose.

Don't know if there would be any benefits in spiral wraps on a barra stick, to me I reckon it would impede the cast, less distance and less accuracy

A mate of mine bought a rod in Cairns a few years back with the guides wrapped around. He was convinced it was the future of barra rods. Didnt seem too bad but certainly wasnt any better than the standard setup and the good St Croix and Loomis sticks are far superior to his. He paid a lot for it too.



As far as decorative spiral wraps, check out this bloke makes some serious customs! Real rattlesnake grip!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GENUINE-STRI ... 48452090d3

maxpower wrote:A mate of mine bought a rod in Cairns a few years back with the guides wrapped around. He was convinced it was the future of barra rods. Didnt seem too bad but certainly wasnt any better than the standard setup and the good St Croix and Loomis sticks are far superior to his. He paid a lot for it too.



As far as decorative spiral wraps, check out this bloke makes some serious customs! Real rattlesnake grip!

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/GENUINE-STRI ... 48452090d3

Only in America hey Max.

Bushy use to have one a few years back when he was on the TV, he called it Black Death!

As said they never took off.

I have used a Duffrod that my brother for chasing murray cod had and it was great to cast, unfortunately didn't get any fish so I can't tell you what it was like loaded.

I thing Steve Duff is a pretty big fan of the spiral wrap.

Steve

Well one thing has become very clear from various replies and other messages I've had.

Anyone that hasn't used one, only has an opinion on them, they are more than entitled to of course and is more than welcome, but the lack of hard evidence certainly doesn't swing and votes in their favour.

Those people that do use them, won't go back to straight configuration. They say there are many benefits, mainly based on reducing the twist in a blank bending at angles along the backbone, but also accuracy in casting and in some cases a very minor gain in distance.

I'm certainly no expect on this subject, hence my inquiry. However the two professional rod builders and both tournament fisho's have painted a very clear picture as to the benefits. These two guys are both independent business operators and whilst both agree it is possibly not something that the mainstream public will adopt, they both offer the service to clients but don't try and sell it to them as there are a lot of doubters.

Primarily used in larger overheads for jigging, trolling, bottom bouncing, but also making their way into the smaller barra style baitcaster on request.
Shimano released a t-curve model a couple of years ago that was spiral wrapped (or acid wrapped as other have pointed out) but again it never really took off.

For interests sake, Steve Duff is one of the guys I have been talking to about this. I originally approached a custom builder for a rod and he asked me whether I wanted it spiral wrapped. Hence started my investigation. I then approached Steve as I purchased a custom barra stick off him a few months ago (5'10" 4-7kg) and it would have to be one of the crispest rods I have ever touched. I emailed him asking his opinion as he hadn't asked me about spiral wrapping when we were discussing my build. He offered his professional viewpoint and his own personal very educated opinion, and he basically has put the icing on the cake as far as my decision goes.

Only time will tell if I have made the right decision, but at least I have made an informed one.

Thanks all.