Tom My vote goes to a 9' 7weight. My thinking for largemouth bass (don't know from smallies) in favor of a 7 weight is: easier to cast the big, heavy and wind resistant things bass love to eat; easier to cast sinking lines when you've got to get down to where the fish are, and; easier to horse the bass out of the cover they love. Never engage a bass in a fair fight - you'll likely as not l
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David You might be pleasantly surprised with the appearance of a third, thin as possible coat over the entire wrap. Suspect it is the light reflecting through the additional depth of epoxy and the epoxy application boundary layers.
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Sid Yes, length does matter - there is more grip to rod or mandrel surface area so the grip sticks a bit more as the length increases. So does the number of glue joints (my experience with epoxy is limited as I prefer the ease of turning to shape using glue). For example, if you are building a faux birch bark grip using 1/8" cork rings there are a bunch more glue joints than when usi
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Michael Elmer's Wood Glue will work - very similar to Titebond III. So, if you've a supply of Elmer's use it and then try Titebond. Candle wax. paraffin or mandrel wax will help protect the threaded rod or a mandrel and make removal of the grip easier. And yes some glue will "leak through" as you put it. That's normal and a good thing. You want the entire face of each cor
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Joe I feel your pain. Fortunately the fix just might be easy. First, a wider brush or spatula, or, as Victor suggested, a credit card, can help level things - initially. However, if excess finish is applied no change of application tool will completely solve the problem. It is truly a case of less finish making fewer if any waves. Think of the waves as a series of shorter, guide wrap fo
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Brennan Roger Wilson is spot on correct. I'll pile onto his response with an example. About 18 months ago a local big box store was selling 6, 7, and 8 weight fly rods with a reel for $45 plus tax. My elder son bought one after I offered to build an 8 weight for him, at no cost to him of course. Had I build him an 8 weight the reel seat alone would have been more than his total cost for
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Jim Hope your flight connection worked. I use 10 mm on 4 weight fly rods. Nothing wrong with a 12 mm. I suspect any performance gain for the larger guide is marginal. There is one complication. (There is always a caveat.) Not all stripping guides are similarly measured. Some (actually most) sizes refer to the inside diameter of the guide in mm, but some (agate guides come to mind) i
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Jim A word of caution. Applying epoxy finish at a pace beyond your comfort zone and ability to control the process to avoid finish waste is a false economy. If your pace applying finish is more deliberate than fast, there is no dishonor mixing a second batch to finish each coat. Even so, a 2 oz kit should be sufficient.
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You certainly can wrap a guide in place of a tip top, a locking wrap is a good idea and a tiny bit of over hang is OK, just do not get carried away. The tacky question is do you know how much weight is being avoided, if any, after consideration of guide plus wrap plus finish? Yes, avoiding weight at the tip is generally a good thing given the leverage that weight has way out at the tip. But h
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Try this link I've not purchased from them - turn my own - so no experience with the company.
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Bill In addition to knowing the bend location it would also be helpful to know if the blank is bamboo, graphite or glass. Bamboo ought to be straight, but can take a "set", and a new blank ought not have one. The blank maker ought to straighten it for you. Graphite is usually nearly straight, just not perfectly so. Fiberglass, and especially some of the lesser expensive
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Skip Last "root beer" color rod I built was an Orris blank, and I'm still wondering what the good folks at Orris drink thinking it is root beer! I used Clover Tire 50 weight silk (it's about the same diameter as size A nylon), color #055 (clay) without color preserver. It worked to my eye. Do try a test wrap first - the color shift that occurs when finish is applied and the silk
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Robert As Phil E advises, life and fly rods are full of trade offs. Your initial thought for guides sizes are large, and maybe too large. Think about it this way - is the line diameter or line to backing connection so large as to require a 20 mm or even a 16 mm strip guide to pass? What other advantage might oversized guides (other than the tip top guide) provide? The answer might be li
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Barry An old W C Wells comedy scene has Wells as a policeman in an amusement park. A small child tugs on Wells' trousers and announces that he cannot find his parents. Wells looks down and says "There are so many places they could be hiding!" Similar situation for CP and epoxy; there are so many possibilities for both the CP and the finish. My guesses in ascending order of proba
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Jay The poly is OK, and CP is not needed. Similar to nylon, there is a modest color shift when the finish is applied, so a test wrap is always a good idea. Last I looked the color variety was not so wide as nylon or silk.
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Jay What Tom wrote. A more detailed explanation is the distances from the reel to the collection guide and from collection to the transition are really important, and 'the secret' for MicroiWave guide sets for spinning or bait casters. Check the instructions that cane with the guide set. Thereafter it is the usual trial, error, and adjust static load testing to find the optimum locations
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Kevin No, do not cut, sand down or otherwise alter the ferrules. From your limited description I suspect the ferrules are reinforced sleeve-over ferrules. Regardless of whether the ferrules are spigot or sleeve over, do not alter the ferrules. For the female section of each ferrule I suggest you make a ferrule reinforcing wrap with a length equal to about twice the female ferrule's diam
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Bill The grip inlet diameter and depth for unlocking fly reel seats vary reel seat model to model. Inlet diameter is critical. Depth can be a wee teeny bit too deep an be OK. Your choices are: (1) measure the seat or seats you intend to use and inlet as needed, or (2) buy the correctly sized, pre-inlet rings some reel seat manufacturers and retailers offer. As you intend to make grip
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Do you mean #2 or #2/0 snake guides? A #2 snake strikes me as overly large and heavy for a 2 weight, which tends to get really skinny at the pointy end. Maybe tape the guides in place (you are probably going to do that anyway for the load test to confirm guide locations) and have a go at the lawn trout using the leaders you intend to use? Easier to experiment by taping on guides than removin
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Wyatt Rambling thoughts in no special order of importance: First, an 8 weight can do double duty - fresh and salt water - so regardless of guide sizes think about having all hardware ready to deal with the salt; Secondly, a blank manufacturer's recommendations for guide sizes and locations are a great starting point. Those recommendations might or might not work for you, but they will g
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What Ron Weber wrote. No good comes from forcing a too small check into place. Try different weight thread to take up the space. If color is an issue (and when isn't it) wrap the thread back over itself if a single layer is not enough.
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Roger Yours is the simplest solution yet. I'm curious what you do when the wraps are translucent. Do you just not worry about the contrasting trim tag ends being visible? On second thought, if the main wrap is a darker hue than the trim band then maybe the tag ends ere not noticeable? Think I'll crank out a few test wraps. Thanks for the tip.
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Sid You've received some good advice. Here are additional thoughts and cautions. The "tents" along side the guide feet can be and frequently are a problem. It is really important to get CP into the tent void else the spar or epoxy finish most certainly will find its way there and you'll have a mess. Remember that epoxy contains agents to help it penetrate the wraps and it will d
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I feel your pain for those hateful tags on a 3 or 4 turn trim band. What Billy Broderick wrote in his first response works, and to which i would add a few thoughts. First, if you are not going for translucent wraps, you can lock in one end of the trim band under the main wrap and thereby eliminate one tag to trim, and decreasing the opportunity for a nasty tag end nub by 50%. Secondly the tr
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Matthew Built a 9', 4 piece, 5 weight fly rod a couple months ago using YLI Silk Sparkle, which is 3/0 silk with a single nylon metallic thread for all the guide, ferrule, winding check, and inscription wraps. There is a learning curve. Back off the tension. Be prepared to pack a bit more than usual. Depending on blank vs thread color it can be difficult to see gaps so pack, pack, pack. E
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Steve: What Tom wrote; it's a yes and no, and probably no. The amount of packing will vary by blank material (bamboo vs. other), thread size and material (silk vs. nylon vs. polyester) to name but a few of the variables. Purchasing or building a power wrapper to avoid packing will probably disappoint initially. The first challenge will be to adjust and control the power wrapper. And even a
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John Painter's tape, blue or green varieties, cut to thin strips, will hold guides in position and will leave behind little to no glue residue. Don't make yourself crazy trying to perfectly tape guides into position. You can gently "wiggle" errant guides just a wee bit for alignment after wrapping.
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