Guys. Thank you for your insights and effort to help me. Herb, I should contact you for more information regarding the CTS option. I already have 2 CTS 9 footers, which I bought directly from Stephen Pratt some time back for saltwter work. It is apparent that the length of the switch rods i what enables better line management for mending over the riffles and current lanes, something that a 9 foot
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Hi Spencer. I too have never used a Bloke Switch rod. Indeed, I have never used any switch rod, but I have built and used hundreds of single-handed rods, mostly for saltwater applications. With that being said, now that I am based in the UK, and salmon and seatrout fishing is what is right on my doorstep, I would like to explore the possibilities for using a switch rod. I could buy an off-the-she
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Hi guys. Its been a while since I have been active here. However, I have now a need for some info and opinions on blanks for switch rods. What I am looking for is an 11ft blank in the #6-#8wt range to built into a switch rod, One for overhead casting, and another for primarily roll casting. The rivers are relatively small, being just about 30 to 60 meters wide, fishing for Atlantic salmon, and s
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Lol. They'd have to prove their metal.
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black marlin 60-200kg, with 50lb lines, short curved bent butt stand up with natural baits off flat line not from the riggers. These will not be for skirts.
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Hi guys. I am looking to build myself some trolling rods-I'm an experienced rod builder, so no difficulty with completing the project. However, being that I am based in a country(Philippines) where there are no blanks available, I have no access to any to try, I need to ask for the experience of others on what specific blanks they would recommend for the job. What blanks would you ideally choose
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I'm looking to build some stand up all roller marlin rods with short curved butts for trolling skirts from a small center console using 50-80lb lines. Any suggestions would be appreciated for blanks. I would like to put Winthrops Excell rollers on and also do leather grips if they are an improvement on hard EVA. I have had a suggestion that the United composites Challenger Platinum 50-80 could b
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Hi Ron. Sorry to tell you that I don't have the size of the bore needed to fit the over the hood of the reel seat. I make my grips from cork and ccork/rubber compound rings that I bore out individually to fit over the reel seat hood and their respective position on the blank, then after glueing, turn the grip to shape on the blank. I build the fixed fighting butts the same way. The fighting but
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Hi Ronald. I have just built a TFO BVK #7, #8, and #9wt. I have built these rods for a trip to Christmas Island this Feb. The #7wt is the rod I expect to use most of the time for bonefish on the flats. I opted to go for a 16mm 1st stripper, the Fuji TKWSG 16 which also has a titanium frame with Silicone carbide insert, followed by an REC double foot wire stripping guide RSG 12mm 2nd stripper. Th
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Steve, "Mudhole has rings to 1 1/4 and discs to 1 1/2. if you need bigger send me an email. I needed some 2" discs for the butts of blue water fly rods, but none of the sponsors here were able to supply. I eventually found a source in Portugal that were most helpful and supplied me with no hesitation even though it was only a few peices that I needed. Earl Hamilton
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I have a couple of CTS rods I built for blue water and now want to try the medium weight blanks-I thought Fishsticks carried them, but don't see them listed. I tried a search of CTS blanks-found nothing after thre pages-so now I ask the board. Thanks
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A good few years back I used to build light weight fly rods and other light weight rods using Talbot size 60 thread. This thread is finer than the usual size A Gudebrod and has less bulk on the wraps and also carries less varnish resulting in less weight. Size #30 is about the same size as size D Gudebrod, Size #40 is the equivalent to size A , and size #60 is finer again.Talbot have been out of
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Hi Tim. I have dabbled a bit in the past, and have continued with twisted leader butts. There was quite a bit of information floating around at one time including a forum specifically on the subject of furled leaders, the url was it may be of some help for you. Personaly I use the golden ratio of 1.6:1 by length and strength for a guide line on my twisted leaders-they are heavy and I use them
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Walt. I think the guide is chromed stainless. You could probably find this if you knew your way around the UK! but in the US I would not know. I would think your best bet is probably to contact Hopkins and Holloway or even Hardy's in UK, they may be able to advise you.
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Many years ago I was given a peice of advice by the late Hugh Falkus, a well known sea trout and salmon expert from the UK. He advocated placing the first runner close to the tip, about 31/2 inches to help straighten out the kinks and coils in fly lines to control the lines better as they are cast. This was probably truer on some of the older lines, but I think less necesary for today's modern fl
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Aren't fly lines given an aftma rating based on the weight of the first 30 feet of the head? and would that not suggest that the ERN no for an eight weight would suggest optimal performance based on the AFTMA standards for the line-in that as I understand it that would mean optimal performance could be expected with 30 feet of arialised line, standard average of course? If that were not the case
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This is about line control. Where the tip goes-the line will follow. It is the hand of the caster that dictates the rod tip direction and its track, and therefore the track of the line. there are many who are capable of casting a line with no rod at all! It is only at the end of the back cast and the forward cast that the resonance of the rod could affect the efficiency of control of energy tran
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I use a diamond file when dressing the feet of guides-I was given them 25 odd years ago, Good for Aftco big foots(though a bit of work) to #6 snakes ! Their still as good as new and they cut fast with no heat.
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Thank you all for your replies. I stared this thread to see who else had found this happenning without apparent reason. I was pushed to post out of curiosity by the fact that the last guide to do this on me was a heavy framed Fuji, I was quite surprised. A deep pressed heavy framed guide designed to take some abuse for heavy work, in this case a tuna rod rated at 30-80lb.... This phenomenon has n
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I have had several guide frames crack and split over tha past few years. This appears to happen for no apparent reason. I normally find that a guide has split when taking the rod out of the rack ready to go on a trip when the insert falls out onto the floor. I decided to put up a note here after i found a cracked and split frame on a Fuji CHBNG heavy duty silicon nitride II guide on my Calstar GF
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I am talking an actual trigger type formation in an Eva grip that is fitted immediatly behind the reel seat. The ones I have made have a shorter fater trigger that you'ld see on an average reel seat, and would be closer to the "trigger" that you find on one of the Fuji palm reel seats that are popular on overhead reel deep jigging rods. It would probably be classed as an "ergonomic
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I had to make mine. Carefully carved on the diagonal cross section from 2" bored block supplied to me by Mudhole. I found their block is quite a bit denser than their round tube type grips. Billy Vivona at Nerbs might like to take up this challenge. I used my eva trigger grips on deep water jigging rods.
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Hi Phil, You should be able to do just as you said and just twist off the reel seat once the fighting butt is removed. I'm not too sure about the later models of the Enigma rods, but the originals that were built in the UK circa 97-98 had Struble reel seats with a carbon cloth barrel-I built them for Tight Lines in Ammanford. I hope its not one of these. The later models were made in Korea. I st
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Talbot size #60 was a thread that I used to use that was finer than Size "A". But I can't find any now that I want to get some more. Some one somewhere has some in a dusty old box. If someone can come up with an alternative that would be really great.
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I used to do this when I was back in the UK with a silicone rubber pad. It is a very quick way to get your logo onto a blank permanently, but really only economical if you are doing a run of blanks because of set up time and cleaning the equipment after. A freind of mine made the printing machine for me. Finding the right hardness of silicone rubber for the pad was a bit of a trial as was getting
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Epoxy Coating Co was doing it. I don't know if they are still in business. The UV epoxy is nice to use as it has no pot life, but over time it can go brittle (a couple of years) The Ovens and the UV bulbs used for curing are expensive. I was looking at about $1500 a few years back. I don't kow what the other companies may have now.
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This is a very interesting picture. I blew it up on the computer to take a better look. It does indeed look as if this cast was caught imediately after the release as Steve Gardener describes. Further more, I think that the picture indicates as Bill Boettcher suggests that a taller guide frame could be beneficial. My own opinion would suggest to me that as well as a taller framed guide, the actua
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Henrey wilkes had a brother William who distributed the Osprey brand of fishing tackle in Toronto until 1910. Henry wilkes & Co exhibited their fishing tackle at the 1929 trade fair in London.I rememer the Osprey brand as a kid in the early 60s, but I could not say that it was from Henrey Wilkes & Co. There is a little history available on google. It is quite probable the the rod is mad
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Hi Tom. I would love to read the article, and many others. Sadly to get the magazine to the Philippines is just to expensive or unreliable on a regular basis. Perhaps I should order several issues and have them shipped, I could do with the reading. Jason. I have never yet done any carbon skinned grips. I would like to, but unfortunately the materials are either not available here or are prohib
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The formula you give here Tom would give me a grip of 0.853", or 22mm diameter for my hand at 200mm from the tip of my middle finger to the first wrist crease at the heel of my hand-would that be for the minimum diameter of a full wells grip or would that be for the maximum diameter of the grip? At 6'5" tall and generally thought to have big hands (very few XXL gloves fit my hands), I f
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