I inharited all of my fathers fishing everything, fly tyiing,equip. tons of fethers hooks rods reals rod building tools
ill get to the point, all his fyl lines are well taken care of cleaned every year and put into cigar boxes for storage
43 lines in all I know their from 3wt. to 8wt. in every configuration, he had a system I don't know of for
non of the lines are marked what weight.

at one time I read a article about a Dr Bills fly line analyzer great looking tool just what I need for this situation.

does this devise still exist and ware can I get one?

Thanks for all your help.

Curt

Dr. Bills fly line analyzer is a homemade tool to check fly lines. I actually threw mine out because it was easier to measure out the first 30ft of a fly line and just coil it up on a gram scale that I bought for under $20. One gram equals 15.4323584 grains. That being said here is a chart with what fly lines should weight in Grams.

1wt 54-66 best at 60
2wt 74-86 best at 80
3wt 94-106 best at 100
4wt 114-126 best at 120
5wt 134-146 best at 140
6wt 152-168 best at 160
7wt 177-193 best at 185
8wt 202-218 best at 210
9wt 230-250 best at 240
10wt 270-290 best at 280
11wt 318-342 best at 330
12wt 368-392 best at 380

Dr. Bill's system allowed you to match the lines to their proper AFTMA weights without having to weigh them or have to acquire a scale for that purpose. Simplicity has always been the name of his game.

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Jimmy,
Are those weights just for floating lines?
With sinking lines having varying densities it would seem there is no way to just weigh them to determine line weight?

Thanks

Thanks Jimmy that's just the ticket.

Paul the sinking tip well sort of is made denser by the line being woven much tighter than a floating line, the diameter of the line is much smaller made with the same amount of material, think water displacement

it displaces less water making it heaver than water.

Curt

Not to argue with you Tom because you know a lot more about rod building then I for sure. But isn't Dr. Bills Fly line analyzer basically a sliding weight scale like they use in the doctors office? I think he even refers to it as a grain scale if I remember correctly. I feel that it is much easier to buy a gram scale and use math to figure out what it is in grains. Plus you don't have to have his crazy contraption laying around your house. I use the same gram scale I use for baking to weigh my fly lines so I duel purpose it that way. If you want to build your own Dr Bills fly line analyzer here is the URL : [www.common-cents.info]

Paul this will work for sinking lines as well. You need that much grain weight to load the rod correctly. The only X factor here is whether or not the manufacture decided to stay in the specs of the rod weights standards. Usually it will be in the higher range of what is acceptable. Sometimes you will buy a five weight and actually get a six wt line. Another thing to read on the box is the head length on the box. Some manufactures will now quote that it has a 20ft instead of 30ft head. I still think this is just another way to call there 6wt line a 5wt line lol. Also remember that sinking lines aren't meant to keep the whole line up in the air with alot of false casting. Sinking lines work best by stripping off as much line as you want to cast out. Airalzing the head of the line only and shooting the running line out as the head bolts to your casting location. So that said if you only load the rod with the first 20 feet like the box says then you are casing the correct grain weight for that rod. Switch and Spey rods do follow other rules then these.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2015 11:12PM by Jimmy Crain Jr.

Jimmy Crain Jr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

>
> Paul this will work for sinking lines as well. You
> need that much grain weight to load the rod
> correctly. The only X factor here is whether or
> not the manufacture decided to stay in the specs
> of the rod weights standards. Usually it will be
> in the higher range of what is acceptable.
> Sometimes you will buy a five weight and actually
> get a six wt line. Another thing to read on the
> box is the head length on the box. Some
> manufactures will now quote that it has a 20ft
> instead of 30ft head. I still think this is just
> another way to call there 6wt line a 5wt line lol.
> Also remember that sinking lines aren't meant to
> keep the whole line up in the air with alot of
> false casting. Sinking lines work best by
> stripping off as much line as you want to cast
> out. Airalzing the head of the line only and
> shooting the running line out as the head bolts to
> your casting location. So that said if you only
> load the rod with the first 20 feet like the box
> says then you are casing the correct grain weight
> for that rod. Switch and Spey rods do follow other
> rules then these.

Thank you for the explanation, I didnt understand how the line weight worked before

Jimmy,

Yes, but you don't have to buy the scale - pennies are used to note the weight against the chart. It's not at all a crazy contraption. It's simple, Inexpensive and it works. Whether you chose to spend more money or get more involved than need be is entirely up to you. Dr. Bill's entire idea was to make things more simple, less expensive and easier. He certainly accomplished that.

Not all line makers adhere to the original AFTMA standards any more, which further muddies the water. But this also makes Dr. Hanneman's entire system just that much more important and helpful these days.

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JMHO but buying a scale to do what you can do with Dr. Bill's gadget which costs next to nothing and requires that you only need to match up a couple numbers is like the people who will bother to try and weigh their epoxy finish part by part rather than just draw the stuff up in simple syringes to equal amounts. But, JMHO.

I guess to each their own. I would rather have a small Gram scale sitting in my Kitchen that I use for other things, then a bent up coat hanger with two pieces of cut up pizza boxes hanging from it. The plus is that its free. That is unless you have not ordered pizza in awhile or have nothing but plastic hangers in your closet. Not to say I didn't build one myself. I did and I used it for a bit. But once I realized I could use my scale that was already sitting in the kitchen that hot mess went in the trash.

Most folks don't have a scale.

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Effective fly casting results from the harmony of three components: rod, line, and fly caster. I myself would hesitate to make a recommendation without knowing the environmental conditions and the species of fish the rod would be used for, the type of presentation the line would be expected to make, and the level of proficiency of the fly caster.