Swimbait Rod

only three short weeks after ordering my swimbait rod from JB Custom Rods, (and it's twin for redbug) it showed up on my doorstep!
the specs of the rod i ordered were as follows:
7'9" casting rod, spiral wrapped guides, 14" grip (ended up being 13.5" for balance, redbug's is .25" shorter due to his reel's slightly heavier weight), rated for 1-4 oz lures, 15-25lb test line, and balanced for a shimano conquest 400 (japanese version of the calcutta)(redbug's was balanced for his calcutta 400). i like stealth in my rods, so i wanted blank colored guide wraps with subtle gold accents to match the reels.

JB and i had a nice discussion on what techniques id be using it for, how i normally cast, what i expected out of it, and what he thought he could put together. he ended up going with the specific blank that the maker of the basstrix lures had picked out as best for the swimbaits i would be fishing.

so my swimbait setup will be this rod, the conquest 400 reel and 17lb sufix siege camo.

heres the pix:

top view of the rod and spiral wrap:


view of the handle area and reel:


viwof the grip and how it fits perfectly in the crook of my arm for perfect swimbaitin action:


view of the reel:


cant wait to fish it!

Dang, that's a helluva nice lookin' rig you got there! Hope you catch a bunch with it! 8)

Very nice!

Let us know the sweetspot lure weight for that rod!

So what do the spiral guides do? Never seen anything like that.

flounderhead59 said:

So what do the spiral guides do? Never seen anything like that.

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I think that they only look cool and cost a little more. They certainly do not make anyone catch more fish :roll: :roll:

The only thing close to that was I saw a rod that had the bottom two guides on the reel side, the third was 90 degrees from that and the top guides were on the opposite side as the reel. It was used with a down rigger. The guy said that when fighting a fish it put less strain on the line and rod. I donno.

flounderhead59 said:

So what do the spiral guides do? Never seen anything like that.

Click to expand...

they are there for a purpose, other than for 'looking cool', and they dont cost any more than a regular setup, as they same amount of guides are used. in fact they lighten the weight of the whole rod due to the ability to use single foot guides after the rotation is complete, unlike a regular casting rod where double foot guides are used throughout.
they are used on a casting rod to eliminate rod twist and torque when under duress and to keep the line from touching the blank (which on a regular casting rod with the guides on the top proper guide spacing should eliminate the line from touching anyways).
there is no loss of distance in casting.

i like the spiral guides, and if i had a choice, id go with them everytime. i have 5 other rods with the spiral wraps, only 2 without, and of those two, one will probably be replaced with a rod with spiral wraps, (my airrus puls-r i really like and will have a hard time getting rid of)

first I can't wait to get my hands on my new toy!!!! i have been waiting for the new rod and am very excited.. this will be my second rod
with the spiral wrap I think that it help the rod load better when fighting the fish..

Wayne

man im jealous, that things looks nice

That is a nice looking rod. I am glad you have your fishing rods colored in a stealthy manner, the fish will never sense it coming :? That sufix camo line looks nice, I was thinking of trying it. My great g-pops old fishing rods were spooled with a line that is colored similarly. I am assuming the they use the different shades in the line so it matches some of the background under water.