Fly Blog

by Mark Waldin Custom Fly Rods by Flycatcher  – Small detail but adds to beautiful results.  If you have selected a metal winding check (what’s a winding check you ask: a ring of metal or rubber that covers any gaps between the grip and the rod blank and makes it look nice) for your new rod be careful.

Usually your rod component supplier will have matched the winding check diameter to your blank and you will be fine.  However, if you are trying to size a winding check to your blank you could cause a problem.  If the check is too small it will drop part way down the blank and lodge there.  If you weren’t careful loosening it and sliding it off will cause small scratches in the blank’s finish.

My advice is to start with a ring you are pretty sure is too big.  Slide it down slowly, and don’t drop it on.  If it looks like it isn’t going to go all the way down then move up a size.  Once you get one on see how loose it is and move down in sizes one step at a time until you get the right one.

No scratches and a perfect fit.  You’re set.

by Mark Waldin Flycatcher Custom Fly Rods  You ordered all the parts.  They look great and the rod will be wonderful.  Uh oh, you ordered an uplocking reel seat to go on the Flor grade western cork grip you had in your arsenal and now you realize you have to create an inset in the cork to slide the hood of the reel seat into.  What do you do?

Well, it takes a couple of tools but nothing too expensive.  First thing you need is a drill and a hole saw.  You want to get a hole saw that is 3/32  to 1/8 smaller than the diameter of the reel seat hood.   The hole saw has a drill bit in the middle.  You want to tape the bit so that it just fits nicely inside the hole that runs down the center of the grip.  This will be used to guide the hole saw and keep it true.

Wrap tape around the hole saw just above the depth you want to stop drilling to.  This will keep you from going too deep.  Now, drill out the grip butt.  Once you have done this, you will have a cork ring inside the grip butt that you will need to break out.  You can easily do this with your fingers.

You now have a roughed out hole you need to clean up.  To do that, you will need a dremel  tool.  You can get one for about $20 which is less than the cost of the cork grip that you will ruin if you don’t get it.  Use an abrasive stone cutter on the dremel and slowly increase the diameter of the hole.  Test the diameter frequently as you are going by trying to insert the reel seat hood.  Take your time and you will have a great result.

One other thing, get a reel seat that has a flange on the hood.  This will cover any slight imperfections you create and give you a nice finish.  This usually means a slightly more expensive reel seat, but it will be worth it.

by Mark Waldin Flycatcher Custom Fly Rods – Psaros Fly Fishing of Sweden introduced a new fly reel today that is extremely different.  THE main benefit of the design is the ability to have left and right hand retrieval at the same time.  Indeed the reel comes with handles on both sides.

A secondary benefit of the design is that you can much easily palm the reel to add drag.  That said, palming is the only way to add drag.  The reel has no built in drag system.  I’d really love to try this reel to see just how comfortable and managable that is.

For those who are curious Psaros does this by putting the bearings on the outside and not having a center hub.  In other words this is a cage inside a cage with roller bearings between the cages.  The inside cage is reel spool and the outside cage is the frame.  Breaking is done by palming the roller bearings which are exposed.

Price for this unique design: $750!  Is it worth it?  Let me know what you think.

by Mark Waldin Flycatcher Custom Fly Rods – I took an order for a custom fly rod yesterday from Dennis of Colorado.  Really nice fellow.  He was interested in maniform fly rod grips and what I thought about them.  I do offer them on my custom rods but don’t have a lot of personal ‘use’ knowledge of them.  I have read some reviews and comments and I could offer that as advice.

Dennis is wheel chair bound so his fly fishing is a bit different than other folks.  I think a maniform my actually be useful to him.  I think the pistol grip style can help with keeping rod control and I have seen many positive comments.  I cautioned him that fit to the hand could be an issue.  I plan to send him a grip and let him decide if the fit is good.  If it is, I’ll build the rod with it.  If not we’ll go with the reverse half well.

In any case Dennis going to get a beautiful rod.  He ordered a Winston IIx 9ft 5wt.  It will be outfitted with a nickel silver Struble reel seat with Fiddleback maple insert, REC recoil guides and tip top, and japanese silk thread wraps with trim.

Anybody have any insight into these maniform grips?

by Mark Waldin Flycatcher Custom Fly Rods 12/1/08 – There are a number of small gotcha’s when you build a fly rod.  They are often the result of ‘boy was I stupid’ actions.  Trouble is they are easy to do, hard to fix, and nobody warns you of them!  So, here is the first one: Forgot to align the reel seat arbor in the reel seat assembly.  If you’ve ever done this, you will remember it.  Most things in building a fly rod can be fairly easily fixed.  This one is one of the hardest.

Many reel seats come with an arbor that has a cut-out notch along it’s length.  This cut out is where the reel nestles into the  reel seat steadying it.  It is not so hard to epoxy the reel seat in place and forget to align the cut out with the reel pocket on the reel seat.  Once the reel seat epoxy hardens it is next to impossible to remove the reel seat.  About the only way to do it is to cut off the reel seat with a hacksaw (very carefully).  If you can avoid damaging a $300 rod blank you will still have destroyed a reel seat that probably costs $30 to $50.

Geez I hate that.  My advice is to create a checklist for assembly of your rod and add a visual check for this in the checklist.  Have you ever done this?  How did you fix it?