Underwraps unnecessary?

[Fishing Hawaii]

What's the purpose of an underwrap?

One school of thought says they are just decorative and serve no practical purpose. For the home rod builder, they say, the underwraps are extra work and extra expense with no value added. In fact, the underwraps are something else to get damaged during use and require repair. The more wraps, the more potential problems.

Another school says that looks are value enough.

You cannot always tell the cost of a rod from the amount of decorative wrapping, even whether or not it has underwraps. I've seen very expensive high-quality rods with no underwraps and cheap rods with full underwraps.

I'm particularly interested because I've made dozens and dozens of rods and have repaired hundreds more. I've made rods without underwraps that have been in continuous use for 25 years and still look great (don't you love high-build finishes) and rods with lots of decoration that have come back to the shop after just a few seasons because of damage to the underwrap. When I have removed guides and underwraps to do repairs, I have seen no difference in the amount of damage to the rod blank, itself, between rods that had 'em and others that didn't.

What say you?

[paul708]

yes 2 schools
they are probably not needed
if the feet are preped right and have no burrs
IF
they have a burr..how much is a piece of thread going to stop it cutting the blank
good guide feet prep..

pricing.
of course you see some "cheap" rods with a little nice design..but the componets are usually CHEAP
and some high dollar rods with just guide wraps..

if the people arent familiar with guide quality/pricing they may think they are getting something good
BUT
rods may say silcone carbide guides
but some Sic guides are 15.00ea
and the same "look alike" guides are 6.99
BOTH called SIC
sorry for the rant
but it just is amazing to see some of the stuff being sold

on some of my personal rods i use very highend blanks and guides
and no underwraps,

[shoefish]

Like you say, who knows if they are really, truly needed. I do underwraps on all of my rods for 3 reasons.

1. Whether or not it makes a difference, I feel like it offers more protection to the blank...when that rod is under load I'm not thinking about it, which I like.

2. It's a high likelihood that at some point one of your guides will need some sort of repair. With an underwrap I feel it is easier to do the repair.

3. Aesthetics.

[Fishing Hawaii]

I realize my question and opening comment may seem like heresy if you are into decorative wraps -- and the fancier the better. But my purpose is to bring the discussion back to the basics. Returning to first principles is always a good practice in any endeavor.

So here's a story (story-telling is how I earn my living). For 35 years I fished with Zander Budge, a charter captain who made all of his own rods and worked them very hard. You might even say he overworked them. He built his trolling rods on 20-pound-class blanks, but used Penn 50s loaded with 50-pound-test line. He said his charters enjoyed their mahimahi, wahoo, and tuna catches more on flexible rods. He chartered every day and caught thousands of fish on those rods. The guy knew a lot about how to make a tough, hardworking, durable fishing rod.

Zander never used under wraps. He said they were self-defeating. He said the strongest and most stable foundation for a guide was the direct contact between the metal and the blank with no thread in between. Some posters have talked about the “cushioning” effect of the thread. Zander said cushioning destabilized the connection, keeping it from being the solid footing he wanted. His experience with wrapping and rewrapping rods also paralleled mine; having no under wraps did not lead to any damage to the blank.

He said under wraps were also self-defeating because they represented more opportunities for damage to wraps during use. The top thread works against the under-wrap thread as the rod flexes repeatedly, which causes the over wrap to begin to separate. And, of course, the under wrap represented more thread to get damaged during use, creating more reasons to have to rewrap the rod. And more thread to rewrap meant more time and effort.

When you have 12 to 15 rods in use on a daily basis, creating more need for rod maintenance didn’t make a lot of sense to him (or to me – I have over 120 rods in my personal collection).

For more stories, visit my website at www.FishingHawaiiOffshore.com. I post five new ones every week.