Ron Mc wrote:um, I disagree, that photo has everything on topic.
As far as spiral wraps, I've never fished them, but the logic is easy to understand.
They're not needed in casting (not a detriment to casting), but reduce contact of line on the rod when trolling and fighting fish.
I was referring more to the poor image quality of the photo because I had to rip it off one of my 10 year old facebook posts; it doesn't show the intricacies of the wrap well.
I agree with the logic that keeping the line off the blank is better and there's the potential for a more sensitive rod, but the two quirks I experienced kind of put me off to the rods. Also since my rods were pre-built (mine are from 2006 & 2007 and I think he used St. Croix Premier blanks) and I didn't have any input on action/line weight/length/power I ended up with two rods I would not have spec'd if given the option to build one from scratch.
Just to re-iterate that I'm not knocking the rod because the craftsmanship is outstanding. It's just after fishing with them a few times I felt the rods didn't suit my needs and now they're pretty "trophies" to look at from time to time.