This exchange has prompted me to expound a little bit concerning the "swing weight" comments on my post yesterday. Both Bill and Emory have touched on the subject with their comments have reinforced my thinking on the matter of of lightness/balance vs. sensitivity (bite detection). Let's say that you were comparing 2 rods/reels/lines that were identical in every way (including overal
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I think there is an area of mostly unexplored science behind the design of fishing rods that borrows from what our friends in the custom fit golf club industry learned a long time ago that relates to the difficult-to-quantify science of "feel." Admittedly golf clubs need to be within narrowly defined physical parameters in terms of size and shape to be deemed legal under USGA or R&A
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I had a very similar experience with Swampland this week too. I talked to Lance on Tuesday who was extremely helpful in selecting the right blank and my order was on the front porch when I got home on Thursday. I was very impressed with the Castaway products too. We have an excellent group of vendors as sponsors to this board and, while I don't know that I could choose an absolute favorite, Swam
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I've worked with this stuff on two rods based on the glowing reqviews and positive comments that I had read, I decided to use it on a couple of trial rods following some of the written recommedations that came along with the material. Based on my LIMITED experience with it, I would say that it's okay and a good product but my hands-down, number 1, no questions asked, undisputed champiion of the
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Stick to your principles, Bill (if it's more important for you to have your way than to live in harmony). I don't think I've ever used much metallic on a fly rod except for maybe just a small touch to compliment the guides or reel seat hardware. But my tastes run to the conservaive - particuarly with fly rods. When I have a really attractive piece of wood for a reel seat spacer, I'll sometimes us
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It's hard to find a blank that garnet doesn't look good on.
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Here's the point I've tried to make about rod sensitivity over a number of years but I don't think I've got too many people to buy into it: the benefit in rod sensitivity is limited to the human body's ability to react to it. Translated into terms of fishing success (presumeably hooking up to and landing fish), what difference is there in the intensity of "feeling the bite" as long as y
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What Mike said. There's a whole list of excellent suppliers listed in the left margin. I've dealt with a good many of them at one time or another and can't remember a bad experience with any of them. We have a bunch of top notch sponsors and I think all of them do their level best to please their customers. I think many people (like me) would be hard pressed to pick a single favorite. You won't
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If you want to try a color combination that's a bit unique and out of the ordinary, try Gudebrod gunmetal gray (with CP) and a very thin trim band of metallic gold. I've also used gunmetal gray, a very thin band of metallic black, then tipped with a little white/gold trimar. I probably have a photo or two I can share. Send me an email if you're interested.
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An important part of any business is understanding who your customer is and what he wants. Often you need to coach your customer through what he wants and part of that is knowing what type of fishing he does and how the rod is likely to be used. You know more about making rods than he does and you need to lay out the options. We've gotten into the discussion here many times over what is or what i
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I have a graphite fly rod blank that was painted and then finsihed into a completed rod. I've been asked to remove the current painted finish and wraps and to re-wrap the rod with the blank's original matt grey finish. I know there are a number of solvents out there that can remove the paint but I'm concerned that too strong a solvent or one left on too long will damage the blank. It's already a
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If you want to see what your wraps will look like when completed, do a test wrap, apply the CP (assuming that you're using it) and let it dry. Then apply a little cooking oil or olive oil to the wrap and rotate the blank just a little bit to let the oil level out. That's what it's going to look like. Be careful with the oil around your work area that you don't contanimate any of your materials. A
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I'm sorry that you're dissatisfied and I understand the frustration of looking forward to receiving something only to be disappointed. I've used a number of Struble products and been fortunate to have always had good stuff. Mudhole is excellent to work with; I'm sure that when you contact them that they'll make it right. Sam Stoner
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One of my favorites is rust (#257) and I don't think there's a blank made that doesn't look good with garnet. But I'm with Mike - make what looks good to you. Choosing the stuff that you like, not what someone else likes, is part of the enjoyment.
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I know the busy-ness that you refer to and it offends my eye and my sense of order too. My tastes most often run to the conservative and traditional. You didn't mention the color scheme or layout for your rod but they could be contributors. I think that single foot guides help. Aside from my opinion that single foot guides help produce a better performing rod, the number of wraps are reduced t
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Please forgive me if I'm being a little thick-headed (not an uncommon thing for me sometimes). The process you're describing sounds as if we're discussing finish epoxy and you've mentioned epoxy but there are several references in your post to glue. We are discussing finish epoxy over thread wraps, correct? I only ask because someone posted not long ago that was having problems and it turned out
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Patrick I'm afraid that I might have caused you some public embarrassment over my reply to DR about the broken PG cap and if I did then I want to make a public apology. It's just that, faced with the same situation, I found that wrapping the bottle of PG tighly with a plastic material that one would normally think seals off air (containing humidity or moisture as we now discover as the culpri
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DR I had the exact same thing happen to me a couple of months ago. I can tell you what won't work. I re-secured the cap by tightly wrapping it back on the bottle with plastic electricians tape. My thought process was that if I stretched severals layers of the plastic tape around the lid and down the neck of the bottle that it would seal off the air from the PG in the bottle. The following day
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Try U-40 Ferrule Lube. Don't be fooled by "lube" in the title of the product. It prevents loose connections from separating and keeps tight conections from sticking. I've used it and recommend it. How a substance lubricates and bonds at the same time, I don't know. All I know is that it works. I think you'll find it easier to use than some of the home remedies that I've heard of. Se
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It's hard to find a blank color that GB 206 (garnet) doesn't look good on - with or without CP. Another you might try is regular GB 257 (rust) without CP; it might be a bit too orange with CP.
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Ron, There's going to be some talented folks at the show that should be happy to help. Mark Crouse, one of the most talented I've ever met, will be a presenter at one of the seminars. You'll probably find someone to help and to answer questions at the NERB's booth too. Those are the 2 sources that come to mind right away but there will be lots of other talent there too. My experinece with any
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I was still getting Gudebrod on wooden spools somewhere in the late 80's or early 90's. There was also a period where the spools were made from something that was similiar to a dense styrofoam material.
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My method is like Mike's. I use several different items for a spatula. I normally use either a small stainless steel spatula that I bought from Joe Kasuba at the show a year or two ago or a plastic credit card type object. When I was traveling quite a bit a couple of years ago, I accumulated a bunch of those credit card like keys that are common among most hotel and motel chains. I just trim them
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Bill I guess I"m fortunate that I've never had this happen to me. I'm curious though, was this regular thread and did you use CP? I'm wondering if I used a spool of defective stuff by accident, would the CP flatten the filaments that cause the fuzzies? Sam Stoner
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Someone else may have a better method but I don't clean any excess up until I'm completely finished with the rod. If I happen to get a little CP ooze out too far from the blank I just leave it alone. I don't want to make matters worse by getting any moisure or contamination from other substances into the wraps. I go ahead and finish the rod and apply the epoxy as I normally would. Once everything
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Mudhole Custom Tackle, another sponsor, also carriers them. Click on the link to their website to the left. Sam Stoner
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I agree with Phinla. From my personal experience, the UPS (Brown) tracking system and transit time service is more reliable. The USPS regular shipping can also be very slow in comparision and the tracking system very slow in updating. One gets the impression that odd shaped packages shipped first class are assigned the lowest priority by the Postal Service. The only comparable service that the Po
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I'm with Mike plus I think CA would set up way too fast to be able to apply it evenly and thoroughly. About the only thing I've used that makes an even half-way decent substitute for CP is a liquid floor wax such as Mop 'N Glo. Over the long haul though, it's been my observation that there's really nothing like the genuine article. Sam Stoner
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You could try it on scrap and find out but I think it will dry too quickly to provide the degree of marbling you want and it's brittle when it cures. Expoxies produced for rod making will flex with the blank. Considering that the cost of a small bottle of nail polish, you're probably still further ahead with regular rod building epoxy. Sam Stoner
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I haven't seen the article but my initial reaction is that I would be concerned with the spring creating too much thread tension. Maybe the springs on the traps I have are unusually strong but I have a sense that they would be too powerful as a thread tensioner if I tried to incorporate one of them into my rod wrapper. I may be overly skeptical but I would certainly look at it from that perspect
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