Larry, If the slip rings are identical and slide freely along the maple insert, then neither of those rings are to be inset into the cork/grip, rather they are used to slip both ends over the ends of the reel feet. This allows you to position the reel at a variety of different places along the mortised maple insert. One thing however, It sounds like you might be missing a part often called t
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If you're using loop to loop connections, you may want to go bigger. I personally don't like loop to loop connections and use nail knots/super glue splices instead, and the size 4 Minimas are just fine for a rod throwing a 6 wt. line with my connections.
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I hate to further convolute Terry's question, but I'd bet good money that one particular length of rod that is most likely in the hands of most flyfisher's is 9 feet in length. I personally own 6 flyrods that are 9 feet in length. The remaining number of flyrods that I own that are not 9 feet in length are 5. The weight is another thing all together, but I own a few rods that are ideally suited
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Bill, I've felt your frustration as well. I learned to use the metallics as an introduced alternating band - only (meaning it's wound in between my nylon wraps for a very short area of my wraps). I've also learned to twist the metallic thread prior to pull through in such a fashion as to tighten the foil "spirals" around the center floss-like core. You could also consider using
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I've built a spinning rod for a friend on a 2 pc. 6'6" Matrix Blank - Extra Light, and my friend uses it for everything from small stream trout to Largemouth Bass. He says he's quite impressed with it. The only thing that he (and I) did not like about it was how the twill pattern terminates very ununiformly up the blank. If you were to wind over this area to create a more aesthetically pl
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80-100 hours on a rod with a color change weave is actually pretty fast!!!
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A 5 foot 5 weight? Wow, that's a specialty rod! Are you throwing streamers into tight pockets with little back cast room, and "horsing" the fish in once hooked? I'm intrugued. As far as which line to use, you might want to do a CCS test profile on that blank. Look at the Ross Evolution line. They've redesigned this model and the older models can be had for a pretty good bargain
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This is a tough one. I often peruse tattoo art websites to download pics in .gif or .jpg format and then alter them slightly using a MS Paint to create a pattern for weaving. I do this so that I have something "different" from what is currently widely available on weave software. If it's been done before, I generally have less interest in repeating it. But these very tattoo sites ar
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Lou, The Minima 4's are metal guides, even the TiCH (which is more or less a powder coating). I'm not sure they will hold up to braid in the long run. You may want to stick to ceramic ring inserts for braids.
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I tend to use the forhan locking wraps on rods where I know that the end user will likely be walking through the brush or between trees/shrubs. This is usually the case when fishing rivers and streams, moving from pool to pool. I always recommend walking with the butt of the rod leading the way and the tip following behind, so that any "hang-up" will impart a pulling motion. If a gui
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Good point Bill. The tip top sees the greatest amount of friction and surface contact of all the guides and it's the first to see debree from the water where it acts to "wick" away some of the sediments. After enough time the metal only tops will develop grooves.
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FYI, be prepared to pay almost 4 times as much for the "coatings" over the price of the hard chrome. I'm just guessing, but I believe these coatings are applied in the same fashion as powder coating is done. Correct me if I'm wrong. Still, I really like the looks of the dark titanium (almost black), but I don't really believe that there's any performance upgrade on these over the har
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If I'm using size 4 Minima's (as I'm assuming what you're referring to) I wrap on a size 5 guide as the tip top. This size should work just fine for a 5 wt. floating line. Having a ceramic ring tip top is a good idea, but not absolutely necessary. By winding on a guide for your tip top, you keep the same theme as the remaining running guides - which makes the visual flow better. Fly lines are
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I second Tom's suggestion for using Minima's. Now that I've discovered these, I don't think I'll use anything else on another freshwater flyrod again. Light weight and actually somewhat elegant looking.
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Look into the Pac Bay Minima Guides. Their size 5's have at least as much clearance as the Fuji #6 Alconites, and weigh about one third as much.
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Noticably larger hands generally warrant both larger diameter grips and a style that is more like the fenwick taper or full wells. On the lighter weight rods where I might be casting a size 16 or smaller into a tight little pocket, I often find myself casting with my forefinger on top of the grip - which warrants the use of a half wells or cigar. This doesn't sound like a situation you'll encou
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I've seen some pretty hefty rods wrapped in silk, so size A nylon should be fine for just about anything. I actally wish Gudebrod still had the "00" size available for use on smaller flyrods. I actually just wish they just offered the array of colors that they used to. Gudebrod threads seem to keep their "roundness" better when wrapping, more so than the other nylons I've u
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Thanks Bill. I thought my computer was suddenly having issues and I was going crazy. I tried emailing them, but they haven't responded yet.
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When I go to REC's website, and I select products, and I attempt to click on a product (i.e. - Classic Anodized aluminum Reel Seats), the next screen pops up indicating "Unable to connect to database server!" This has been going on for a few days now. Am I the only one having these problems?
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Tom, I've just finished installing an American Tackle U-5 skeleton w/birch bark insert on a blank and both the rear foot slip and front hood are of a size that will accept a reel foot noticably larger than both the REC's and Batson's that I have. I don't think the machining (knurling) is quite as pretty as the REC's but the increased size should easily accomodate the larger footed reels.
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A #2 single foot snake and double foot snake are usually the same size, but the number designation is virtually arbitrary. A single foot guide with a ceramic insert has a number that corresponds to the OUTSIDE DIAMETER of the ceramic ring - in millimeters. The inside diameter tends to vary somewhat due to difference in materials (i.e. Hialoy vs. Silicone Carbide vs. Nanolite vs. Metal), and it
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The feet on the size 4's I have are actually narrower than the 4.0/64th tip on my flyblank. I personally like the added length, and they're still just shorter than my Am Tac Titans in equivalent sizes (5 mm is the smallest Am Tac) and the foot swells in the middle for added wrap failure securtiy. These guides are soooooo much lighter than anything else out there in this style of guide that the
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Look at Dan Craft Five Rivers series of blanks. After using these, I have never even thought about using another Sage blank again. Plus, they're half the price of the Sage blanks. I haven't used the CTS as recommended above, but they spark my interest in that you can get them in different colors. Now that you've found this site, do some research in the Library section and check the links to t
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Earl, I, myself as well - as several others who will probably chime in on this board - use BOTH permagloss and Epoxy on EACH of our wraps. I like the high build of epoxy, but it simply does not have the same durability as permagloss. What I do (of which I copied someone else) is apply PG as the first coat to my thread wraps. Here in Colorado, I have to let it dry 5 days before applying any
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Richard, Myself, as well as many others - I'm sure - know that you couldn't have possibly been serious with your suggestion of using 6's ALL the way. He still needs SOME casting qualities!! That was nothing short of just a smart allec remark!! As for my setup, I expained it more than clear enough! I don't need to go into further detail. I stated very clearly that it was a RECENT build
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Richard Kuhne Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > For even more sensitivity try this- move the > choker guide back to the butt guide location. > Build it with all size 6 guides all the way out. > This will get rid of all the larger guides and > greatly increase your sensitivity. Richard, If sensitivity was Tim's focus, then he acheived it by
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.....................HALF WAY BETWEEN THE SPOOL CENTERLINE INTERSECT (OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE SPOOL UPSWEEP INTERSECT) AND THE 27X INTERSECT LOCATION IS WHERE I ENDED UP WITH MY CHOKE (INTERSECT) GUIDE. I CANNOT ANSWER YOUR QUESTION ANY MORE CLEARLY THAN THAT!!
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......................and the 27X intersect. Again, not following the 27X method to the 'T', but incorporating (part of) it for my SPECIFIC application.
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Tom, The way my (split) grip is currently set up, I have a VERY Slight tip heavy presence, which is oddly enough somewhat desirable for my drop-shotting technique. Plus with the grip further back on the blank I have managed to incorporate a little more of a leverage factor (OK, that can work against me at times as well). Like I stated in my first post, I located the guide between where the 2
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Mike, As you can see, I was just asked to explain/defend my methods. My goals are and always will be to offer ALTERNATIVES to achieve what are very often the same results - in this case CATCHING FISH. Guideless wraps offer an alternative to conventional thread wraps. Are you constantly harrassing Bill Stevens because he wrote an article that went against the conventional wisdom of thread wr
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