Kaj Busch's Black Death

[Guest TelcoBroker]

Dunno if and of you raiders have ever noticed a particular rod that Kaj Busch uses from time to time on the Rex Hunt show. He calls it "The Black Death". Basically I would describe it as an overhead rod about 6foot long with the first guide being overhead, the next guide being on the side and the rest of the guides being underneath. The first time I saw it I thought it was a 2 piece that hadn't been assembled correctly.

Is there any advantage? What is the purpose?

[bung]

the reason for the guide configuration is by having the line leave the rod tip from under the rod, you get less torsional (twisting) force on the rod, which the angler would have to fight against, than with a standard overhead setup. this would be especially the case on heavy overhead gear (say 30-50lb braid) that buschy seems to enjoy using on GTs, reef ooglies etc, on rexy's show.

[Guest hottuna]

You haven't seen the show where he snaps it.  One of the best one-liners ever.  Snaps the rod, Starling is in fits about the end of the Black Death.  Bushy say very straight-faced "Merely a flesh wound" and overlays the two pieces, binds them together & proceeds to catch another 5k fish on it    .  Great viewing.

45099[/snapback]

AKA roberts wrap. I have used one onboard and one of my crew got a 20 kg dollie on a 10kg version that Allen Glover made and lent too me. I like em alot. The rod loaded, simply does not want to king in your hand

Dan

[Guest Target]

Spirals are great - for a specific purpose. As bung and dan said, great for heavier overhead outfits where you are not using a gimbal and dont want the rod to spin when loaded. Allen does a fair few from what I understand.

For interest, I had a spare 6' 3kg spin blank that I made into a baitcaster - the action was way too slow for a conventional baitcaster and would have required about 10 guides to make properly, so I mucked around and made a spiral wrap. Works a treat. I'll also add, many people have been sceptical about how they would cast with the line going through a twist in the way to the rod tip. I have exactly the same blank in spin configuration and in the spiral baitcast. Cast side by side on the same day with 7gram lead lure, spin with 8pd braid, spiral with 10pd braid, shimano 1500 spin compared to ABU 5600D5. Casting difference was on average about 3m less for the spiral baitcast compared to spin, and I'll put that down to light weights on a baitcasting reel rather than the guide configuration.

Food for thought - mine does mainly trolling work and just a bit of casting though.

Adrian

[trev]

I have an old rod I built in 1984 on the butterworth fmt72L blank it is now a spiral .......as the fibreglass is slowly unwinding

Still a favourite when bait fishing for bream not cause its a great rod just it was the first I ever built myself.

Cheers

Trev

[Guest Jewel]

Not unwinding Trev, tightening up.

The blanks continue to cure, I have quite a few of the same vintage doing the same thing

[trev]

Jewel,

Thanks your a gem..pardon the pun This might also be the reason why the action has changes so much. The rod seems to have become much stiffer in action.

This rod has sentimental value so I would not rebind it but if you are careful you can remove the guides and rebind?

Cheers

Trev

[Guest Target]

Hey Guys

Sounds awesome, do they make light-weight ones for like Bream fishing and Casting small lures for Tailor.

cheers

gabzi

Gabzi

As stated before, spirals are not needed on lighter gear, only for overheads in 6 -15kg range. Bream spin gear is usually threadline and again its not an option. The one I made is really only for gimick value. In most situations you dont need spiral wrap on overheads - light stuff you actually hold the reel plus the torsional forces are not great, so really a waste of time, and with heavy gear with a gimbal, the gimal holds your rod so probably not needed there either. Things like 6kg to 15kg casting rods with overheads is where they can be of the most advantage.

I have never seen a factory rolled spiral either, so most are custom built jobs.

Allen Glover is the man if you want one.

Adrian

[allen glover]

All the other guys have nailed its advantages already so no need for me to repeat what they have said.

But if Ken will permit me a link to "the other place"

heres something I wrote about them a few years back

The next wave. Spiral wrap rods

A

[Guest Jewel]

Trev,

Its no huge problem to strip a rod and rebind but you do have to take some care, particularily with removing tip on older rods.