(Re)Building a switch rod.

I miss swinging a twohander.
The thing is, my 14' is arguably a bit large in my local rivers, the shooting head alone covers more than the rivers withd.

So a thought emerged some year ago to rebuild one of my seldom used onehanders into a super light,short twohander.
Call it a switch if you like.

I've been looking for components for a while without really finding anything i liked.
But when going through some stuff in a wardrobe i found an old spinn rod and as i never fish those i thought that what the hell. Wasn't an expensive one anyways.

Using a hacksaw as my main tool i opened the end of my flyrod, sawed of the reelseat screw from the spinn rod along with a portion of the rod that fitted perfectly into the end of the fly rod.

Extended reelseat.

To be able to remove the reel it was nescessary
that i could unscrew the back handle a bit.

Filling up the hole in the middle of the old top handle from the
spinn rod.

And here she is.
Can't wait to get on the water.

A bit of tape to fill out the gap to the screw, some glue and filling up the end of the new but with some foam and i got myself my light twohander.

Not accounting for the new handle it's now a #6/7 9' switch.
I'll be able to practice casting and adding some sinktips when using a skagit cast.
I'm thinking about a new line, one with a shooting head/shooting line setup but i don't really want to loose the ability to fish close as well as adding a bit of distance.

Why not just rollcast with a onehander you say?
Well, it's just for the fun of it, i really like to cast twohanded.
And again, it's a short rod that will work perfectly for overhand throwing as well.

My only problem now is that the rod tube is to small...
I might keep on working on this and make some sort of detachable handle.

Tight lines!

Making loops and mending lines.

Since wintertime means less fishing (no not "No fishing") it's a good time to look over your gear.
In this case i've done a bit of repairing on a couple of broken lines.

The factory made loops are good ans strong but WILL break eventually, especially when you fish in the wintertime, the guides get frozen up and the line is put through a LOT of stress.

So here's a quick and easy guide on making new loops, either if you want one on your line or shooting head or want to repair a broken one.
It's not the prettiest repair but i've always been one for cheap,simple and durable solutions.

What you need:
Broken line in need of new loops.
Sharp knife or scissors.
Strong thread and bobbin.
One pointy needle (not nesseseraly sharp but pointy)
Epoxy glue,aquasure or similar.Any glue that retains a little bit of flexibility once dried.

The bust.
As you can see the line is bust and the braid is showing.
It will continue to wear and eventually break.
Possibly while fighting that price salmon.

Sever the ties!
Nothing fancy,just cut it.

The new loop!
Here's the trick:
Fold the line back WITHOUT removing the plastic coating.
The thread will grip the plastic way better then the braid and give you a very strong loop.
Hold the loop with both hands and swing the bobbin between your fingers 'round the doubled line.
Spinning the thread like this gives more pressure.

Cut the thread and go back between the two lines a couple of times to secure the thread.

Between the lines!

Now you are left with a bit to spare.

Cut it with your knife.
This is the reason i want a sharp knife, you can make a closer cut.
Make the cut angled so you get a taper.

Slab on the glue!
If you want to you can add some colour to the glue to make it look really neat.
The glue is to secure the thread further but more importantly protect it from wear.
Notice that i've let the glue a bit in to the loop to keep the thread
from splitting and that i've built a taper down to the
main line for easy transitions through the line guides.
Now you just hang it by the loop to dry and you are done!

In further news i've added Flies over Nebraska to my Blog Roll.
I like Erics simple and explorative style and enjoy seeing him catch what is to me exotic species, often small ones showing that you don't need insane trophy steelhead to have a very good time fishing!

What's new?

Dries for the summer.
Skater Wooly Bugger with foam top.
Hares ear Streaking Caddis.
All time favourite Elk Hair Caddis.

So. What's new?
First of it's February.
We are slowly progressing towards warmth,spring and eventually summer.
The days have gotten longer and a bit warmer and i spent a couple of wonderfull hours down by the river today swinging flies for rainbow trout.
No takers but i couldn't care less, the weather was amazing.

Unfortunatly one of my line-guides are busted and in need of repair and i'm looking in to how to do it,where to get new guides etc.
Got a couple of broken loops on my shooting line and T-17 tip respectivly so i'm gonna take care of those as well.
Mayby i'll upload a little tutorial of my way of making new loops.

And of course there's been some fly-tying!
Mainly new dries for the spring and summer, some for the twohander,some for my smaller rods.
Some of them you can see above.

Lastly there's been an icefishing session with my girlfriend.
Nothing caught, we tried for rainbow trout angling with shrimp.
They are there in the lake but they are very spaced.
I thought we'd catch some perch at least but no luck there either.
Ahh well...

Happy couple.
Notice the ice dubbs,very important to stay safe on the ice.

What's down there?

Keep on fishing, the spring is almost here!

FLY TV - This is Skagit

So here we go.
The followup to "What the hell is Skagit".
I had been looking forward to this since they announced it last week but unfortunatly it was a little bit of  a letdown.
First of it was a bit short.
But more importantly it felt more like a long commercial...
Of course they want to sell their gear and the vid is released without us poor fishermen having to pay for it but still.
I like Visions skagit gear, i fish it myself but i really would have liked to hear more about the techniques, line placement, anchoring, mending, what flies are typical skagit flies and why to use them on our sea trout.

It's still a nice clip but unfortunatly not as good as the previous FLY-Tv videos.
Sorry guys.
More fishing, less selling.

New line - Ace Skagit

I have been looking for a used skagit line to save some money but couldn't find  a proper one and buckled (or got myself a birthday present,after all it's upcoming!).

I landed on the line iv'e been looking at all along, the Vision Ace Skagit.
got a 610 grain/39 gram line for my #9-10 Zpey Zero 14'.
Bit on the overload perhaps but it's a fairly stiff rod.

On the other hand,some swear by it that you can and should overload a rod for skagit severly.

The box says "A package full of kickass" and i'm hoping that'll hold true, tossing big flies is allright with the scandi line but the heavy tips hardly lift of the water (well,not getting any distance at least.)

So here I go, skagit, i'm gonna pop down to the river at the first chance and try it out.