In spite of the title of this thread, the same rules apply to fly rods. I am now a certified member of the "I'm An Idiot!" club. i'v been going off on how nice mya lates build is. I tested casting with a foam hopper and Kelly Galloup's Long Streamer line. All was great.

I just got my new Airflow Universal Taper floating line for the spare spool. I'd previously put gel-spun backing on the spool. I attached the fly line, and carefully hand wound it into the spool. I attached the leader, tippet, and flt (dry fly caddis). I changed the spools on the reel and was broken hearted. I'd wound everything for a right hand retrieve. I retrieve left handed. It took an hour and a half to get everything corrected. There were minor bird's nests in the backing that were easily sorted out. It was the same for the fly line. However, that leader and tippet just all coiled up into a nasty mess. With patience, I got it straightened out as well. The rod is now ready for the litmus test of throwing a dry fly. But me, i just want to take a nap. So, measure twice, cut once, or, make darned sure you line your spool correctly the first time.

Tight Lies and frisky fish

RJF

Robert,
Better than”cutting it twice but it was still too short”; at least you were able to salvage everything. But don’t beat yourself up over it = I’m sure we have all done it or something similar = you’re not an idiot unless the rest of us are as well. I would think that after as many thread wraps I have done that I would not forget to install the pull-through loop in,,,,,,, but no!

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Robert,
I'm trying to understand how that happened.
Didn't you use your left hand to crank the backing and line onto the reel??

And - by "hand wrapped" - do you mean you did it yourself vs a fly shop using a machine?
I hope you don't mean that you wound it on by holding the spool fixed in your hand and rotated your other hand like when useing a manual kitchen mixer.
Herb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2022 04:41PM by Herb Ladenheim.

Until you have accidentally created a Rube Goldberg machine wherein moving said step ladder to another hook causes another item to fall off said hook. Falling onto a shelf and bumping a spool of electrical wire. Said electrical wire rolls off the end-of the shelf and falls onto the cord plugging in the rod turner/dryer. Thus yanking said turner off the workbench and sending that freshly epoxied rod flying across the garage.

You haven’t really joined the idiots club, special Murphy’s Chapter. I still fish that rod as a reminder ;)

Herb Ladenheim Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Robert,
> I'm trying to understand how that happened.
> Didn't you use your left hand to crank the backing
> and line onto the reel??
>
> And - by "hand wrapped" - do you mean you did it
> yourself vs a fly shop using a machine?
> I hope you don't mean that you wound it on by
> holding the spool fixed in your hand and rotated
> your other hand like when useing a manual kitchen
> mixer.
> Herb
I already had the other spool on the reel. I was at my fly tieying bench when, I added the backing to the spool. And yes, I just held the empty spool in one hand, and wound with the other. I connected the fly line, leader, and tippet to the backing, and just continued the process. Since the backing was put on backwards, so were the rest of the lines. I was just in too much of a hurry, to do it correctly, with the spool attached to the reel. Ah well, lesson learned LOL.

Tight Lies and frisky fish

RJF

I am happy to report that I just test cast my ne Airflow 6 wt. floating line with universal taper, with a 14 size caddis dry fly tied on. This line casts short, accurate casts, and shoots effortlessly, no double haul required. The fly turned over beautifully, and landed like a dandelion seed. After all the hassle, i have a dry fly, nymph setup, and a weighted streamer set up, both of which wprk extremely well. And the CTS rod, well it's pure joy. I am again a happy man.

Tight Lies and frisky fish

RJF

Robert,
One should never wind line that way.
Every turn you put on the spool that way creats a twist in the line.
Herb

Same story - different subject:

I happen to be left handed.

When I coil ropes, coil electric cords, coil anchor lines, coil fishing lines - I always coil with my left hand.

As a result, all of the items that I have coiled over the years, have a certain set, have a certain twist, and for myself work perfectly well.

But, when I have a family member, friend or other - take one of these items that were coiled with my left hand, and they try to coil it with their right hand - they find that to do it right, they have to fully uncoil the object, recoil it with their right hand - making sure to put their particular twist on the line - which is opposite to the twist that I put in the lines that I generate when coiling with my left hand.

So, absolutely - if coiling a line that results in twisting the line - by all means coiling with the right hand and coiling with the left hand are 100% opposite and the line twists are 100% opposite for each type of line coiling completed.