A friend has one of the original Browning Tennessee Handle rods from the mid 1980's. He loves this rod for
fishing shaky heads on Lake Lanier for spotted bass, It is pretty well used, and so far I have stripped the guides
and finish. Going to put Microwaves on it. Also, the handle is pretty ratty, and I am going to sand it down and repaint it.

He was asking about attaching the reel using some heat shrink. Has anyone ever used the Flocked heat shrink from
either ATC or Batson to hold a spinning reel in place? Normally he uses tape, but does not want that now. I know you can
use Steve Gardner's method from his Vibronic design, but he does not want the reel to be so "permanently" attached.

Any thoughts or insight would be appreciated.

Bert Nagy

I've tried it. Whether or not it works well enough to hold a reel comes down to the piece of shrink tube size and the grip size. You want the tube to really pull down tight. If the tube is too large or the grip too small, or both, you don't get enough tension to trust it to hold the reel in place. Take a short two inch section of the tube you plan to use and shrink it off the grip. Then compare the final shrunken diameter to that of the grip OD. If it's a good bit smaller than the grip then you're good to go. If not, don't trust it and get different diameter tubing. The reel isn't going to fall off but you need enough tension to keep it from slipping side to side.

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the reply. the tube is .93 inches, and the Batson X flock comes in .98 and 1.18 inch. Was thinking of getting the 1.18 because of the reel foot. Also, was going to put a couple of wraps of fiberglass wrapping tape to anchor the reel. Have you tried that combination??

Bert

Haven't tried that but it sounds like a good idea.

Might consider putting the shrink wrap on before the stripper guide goes on or you may not be able to use a shrink wrap that will come down tight enough to hold a reel and fit over a reasonably high MWG stripper. I have never done it before just a thought.

Cheers

Mark Newcombe
Old Bar NSW
Australia
markscustomfishing.com
American Tackle Pro-Staff

Ken, I have done this in the past using automotive heat shrink. I found that it holds much better if you do it with 2 layers of tubing one at a time. Lynn