I was out with some friends this last weekend at a beautiful remote lake. In the middle of the night woke up to some nibbling noise. Jumped out of the tent and found a porcupine munching on the cork on the fly rods!! This rodent was able to rotate the rod so as to remove the cork evenly, like corn on the cob. Who would have thought the would have such a taste for cork??

We also found a chewed though hole in one of the bellyboats, and, to top it all off we didnt catch any fish, ran out of food, and developed some memorable blisters and sore spots hobbling back 25 kms with 65 pound packs on our back. I guess the only way it could have been worse is if we had run into a bear! whew! no thanks!

Anyway i am going to have to do some repairs to about 3 rods, removing the reel seat, old cork, putting on new cork etc. I have never had to do this before. Suggestions on softening the epoxy to remove the old stuff?

calvin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2006 07:36AM by Tom Kirkman.

The porcupine was most likely after the salt from the sweat on the cork & float tube. Try a hairdryer to heat the epoxy to soften it to make it easier to remove. This may work, may not. A hairdryer works on Flex-Coat & LS Supreme on wraps. I usually sand or scrape off epoxy to replace cork and/or reelseats. Ralph

If at first you don't succeed, go fishing, then try, try again.

what grade cork do porcupines prefer? lmao sorry calvin that really stinks (oops not a skunk) sorry to make light of your misfortune but you have to admit thats a original story. good luck woth your repairs billy

I would not completely remove the old cork. Just turn/sand it down to a small cylinder and bore the new grip to fit nicely over that.

............

Calvin:

That is some bad luck...... I need some porcupine quils, as they make good bobbers for speck's ........... I KNOW THAT YOU GOT TO HAVE A FEW ???? As for running out of food -- I heard that they taste like chicken ??? My neighbor had a nutty-buddy chew on a nice cork handle of a rod I had built him & he wanted me to fix it for free because the tree rat came from my yard !!!! I did the same thing that Mr.Kirkman said I turned down the damage & stuck a cylinder of new over the butt ,it was lucky it was just the butt .
Tight lines
Bill Rice

Actually i thought it was going to chew up our shoe insoles because we had them out of our boots to dry. You figure thats where most of the salt would be.

Well maybe that type of salt doesnt taste very good....

Do porcupines really taste like chicken? Im curious now, will have to try it sometime!!


calvin

I had a mouse pull that same trick on me with my first fly rod as a kid. He chewed off around 1/3 of the handle before I found out. I now always store my rods in their tubes, but then again, I don't hike 25km into go fishing so lugging a rod tube along would be a real pain. Good luck in the repairs and let us know what you did and how it turned out.

Jim Smith

Porcupines are actually quite tasty. Ate my first in a survival situation and have since gone back for more. A bit more gamey than chicken but not bad at all. You also get the added benefit of all the quills which have more uses than you can possibly imagine as well as being a hot item for craft people on @#$%&., and the HUGE teeth make interesting watch fobs. I prefer rattlesnake however.

Derek L. McMaster
Rohnert Park, CA

Born to Fish, FORCED to Work

Ferrets do the same thing!

PL