No-Wrap?
When I hear something that I think is unusual, such a putting on a Fuji LCSG Low Ryder on back wards to reduce line slap (thus increase casting distance) on the stripper guide, I like to test such an unorthodox application before putting on a customer's rod. In this case, after hundreds of test hours over an 18 month period, I concluded that this was not true, and and could say with confidence to the customer that putting the guide on back wards did not increase casting distance, or reduce line slap.
Other things that I test are not related to what I will ever offer to incorporate into a customer's rod; they are simply to expand my knowledge of the materials and parts that I work with.
The following is such a case.
I will need to state first, that I triple wrap my trolling rods with Aftco Roller, and Double wrap most of my SW rods. Depending on the application and rod type and use, I single wrap many of our lighter FW rods.
Many discussions have been had over double vs. single so I wondered how no thread at all would hold up. I did not do this to hope to make rods with not thread work--using thread is how I get paid.
There is a rod that gets a lot of use from me and my crew--it is a glass bass rod that I use for chucking rats and frogs on 50 lb. braid at local ponds. Fishing "Ninja" is rough on tackle, especially on guides.
In this photo, you can see one guide that has been taped on with masking tape, then soaked in waterproof "Tsurimeijin" superglue--an on the water repair. What happened?
No pulled out guide. There are many ways to lock in single foot guides so that it is next to impossible to pull out the guide. If you bang the rod/guide hard enough, it will break, especially if it is a titanium frame guide; I have seen dozens broken this way.
My crew borrows this rod for local Ninja exploits--'cause it is fun to fish with. Evil E returned it to me like this one day. I said "WTF?".
He said, "Don't even ask".
That all said, this rod gets a lot of hard use, so I thought it would be a good candidate for a "no wrap" guide (since the SiC ring had been cracked out of the previous guide).
So...I took a size 10 gold ring guide, and super glued the bottom of the foot to the blank (a little crooked, by the way). Then I coated three times with my regular rod coating.
After quite a bit of use, you can see there are some scratches to the coating, and guide frame, but it is still on--not loose at all.
Actually, I thought if might fall off the first night I used it.
What does this prove?
Nothing. I will not bother to try to make a heavier SW rod to see what happens. However, I did get a better understanding of just how strong, and important good coating is on a rod.
I plan to strip off all the guides (especially the dreaded single foot ones that keep breaking) and re-wrap when I have time.
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