I have noticed that Batson's TiCH snake guides sell for considerably less than those offered by Pac Bay. As Bill used to work for Pac Bay, I am lead to believe that his are of equal quality. I used Batson TiCH single-foot wire guides on a 4wt fly rod that I built last year, and have been happy with their performance. I want to use TiCH snake guides on 6 and 8 weight rods that I am planning
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Andy Dear Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Mark, > Not to give you a sale's pitch, but if > you'd spend $29.99 and buy my DVD...all your > problems would be solved, and all your questions > answered in less than 1 hour and 10 min. > > Andy: I do believe that you could sell ice cubes to Eskimos! :-)
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I measured the thickness of the tips of two IBIS blanks with a digital micrometer, and they most definitely differ from what Winston has specified. The 9' 6wt has a tip that measures .060" at 1" from the tip, and the 9'6" 8wt measures in at .063" at the same distance. The Winston chart states that the 9' 6wt and the 9'6” 8wt take 4.5 and 4 tube-size tip-tops respectively
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I have a reasonably well-equipped shop (i.e., hybrid table saw, joiner, thickness planer, floor and bench drill presses, router table et al.); however, I do not own a lathe, nor have I ever turned anything. I am considering turning my own grips using Andy's cork, but I would like to avoid wasting a lot of expensive material learning how to turn. For those who turn their own grips, how diffic
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What is the shelf of flexcoat after the bottles have been opened? I had a bottle of their regular resin go cloudy/crystallize on me in less than a year. I have a bottle a bottle of their "lite" resin that I used to finish one rod last may. It has not crystallized, and I want to make sure that it is okay to use before I ruin my work.
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I use super glue and sawdust. Apply a little super glue to the void then pack in sawdust using a dental pick.
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I forgot to add that the blanks that I scored are the 4-piece 9' 6wt and the 4-piece 9'6" 8wt. I guess that I could call Winston next week, and see if they would supply the information
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Does anyone know of a site where the butt diameters and tip-top sizes for Winston IBIS blanks are listed? I purchased two "Made in the U.S.A." cosmetic blems today at the College Park, MD Fly Fishing Show, and would like get this information for the blanks. I guess that I could measure the blanks myself with my digital micrometer, but I am not sure how much gap to leave in sizing t
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It looks like Hook & Hackle has them on stock. At least, they are listing prices for the new SCIII blanks on their site.
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I have found the CCS to be very informative. I also measured the ERN of my 9' 5wt Sig V, and it came came out having an ERN greater than 5.
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Using Dr. Hanneman's calculation and a 4wt line weighing 120 grains, we get an IP = 10 * 120 + 4 * 60 = 1440 grains. The rod required 1305 grains (the actual figure is probably less because the bag overshot the mark on the ninetieth pellet) to reach the one-third deflection point; thus, 1305 (90 * 14.5 grain pellets) / 1440 * 4 = ERN of 3.63 (using a 114 grain line as the baseline, the ERN wou
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Well, I finally got around to dabbling with the Common Cents System last night, and was amazed to confirm what I had experienced with this blank; namely, it is not a 4wt. I used 14.5-grain lead pellets for the ERN test (not enough pennies on hand), and it required only ninety pellets to reach the one-third mark. That number of pellets gives me a total of 1305 grains, which falls short of bein
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Thanks Scott! I see that you used live in Rockville. I gather that you have fished the Patuxent River headwaters between Maryland routes 27 and 97. I live about fifteen minutes North of that stream; however, I usually fish Morgan Run (the multiflora rose is just too nasty on that stretch of the Patuxent). By the way, did you use the Forecast 6’6” blank on the “McKenzie” rods on
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Thanks Larry! I built a 9' 5wt Sig V last year with lightweight snakes, and it is a cannon! I took this rod to Penn's Creek during the green drake hatch, and could not believe how well it performed. My local stream is so tiny that I usually use a 2-piece 8' 4wt Avid or a 2-piece 7' 4wt RX7 that I also built last year (lately, the seven footer sees the most action on this stream). From what
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Actually, I was hoping that someone who has actually fished the area would chime in.
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I am planning a backcountry trip through Shenandoah National Park this year, and need a backpackable fly rod. Does anyone have any blank suggestions?
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I would bleach the grips, not stain the butts. This process is performed using wood bleach. Fender used this technique to match different colored pieces of alder before applying the translucent yellow base of their two-/three-color sunburst finishes. Here is a link to an article about bleaching wood:
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You should also consider using 3M “Fre-Cut" sandpaper. It does not load like the cheap stuff. It also lasts a lot longer than ordinary sandpaper.
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I just put together a Sig V 5wt using parts that Dan recommended, and it was my most pain free build to date. The blank was already spined. The metal winding check fit perfectly out of the box. The BUL5 reel seat required one wrap of tape to shim. The grip that he ships with the BUL5 reel seat was the nicest one that I have used to date, and it was bargain compared to the lesser quality, but mo
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How do the four-piece Tiger Eye travel blanks compare to their Forecast counterparts?
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Is Pac Bay thread re-branded Gudebrod? Are their colors the same as those offered by Gudebrod?
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Having gotten a handle on building fly rods with snake and single-foot wire guides, I now want to attempt to build one using single foot ceramics. How does one translate snake guide sizes to single-foot ceramic guide sizes? Also, does one use multiple sizes, or will a single size work up to the stripper guides?
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I own both the Teton Tioga and the Ross Cimarron, and the Tioga wins hands down! The Cimarron is toy compared to the Tioga. Take the spool off of both reels, and you will see big difference in construction!
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For future snafus such as this one, you would do well to purchase some Menzerna polishing compound (get their pre-polish as well). This polishing compound is a hi-end product that is used extensively in the musical instrument industry. It performs exceptionally well on modern polymer finishes (the grit is very uniform in size). Homestead finishing carries this line of compounds (www.homestea
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I sent an e-mail message yesterday.
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Has Andy completed his shop move?
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Myles Boon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Your right mate, I wasn't trying to change your > opinion, just thought I would let you know how it > happened here it was more of a storm in a tea cup, > and we weathered it down here, now China is one of > our biggest trading partners, so will the States > over come this hurdle as it has done ma
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I finally had the chance to test out the H&H IM6 7' 4wt that I recently built. All I can say is wow! It casts much nicer than my St. Croix Avid 8' 4wt, which was my favorite 4wt up to this point. With a size 14 Adams, the Orvis WF4F Wonderline seems to float in the air. With my Avid, I could never make soft dry fly presentations. With this rod, the bug just floats down onto the su
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IMHO, the best off-the-shelf, non-botique finish is satin Minwax Rub-on Poly.
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Bill: Is the RX7 IF502 blank available? I would like to build on one of those blanks as a stunt!
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