Spring and Pawl Drag Fly Fishing Reels

Written by Brett Fogle


The first type of drag system isrepparttar traditional Spring-and Pawl-drag. Just because this drag type if traditional doesn't mean it's outdated. In fact, spring-and-pawl fly reels are ideal for trout fishing, particularly when using light tippets. When line is pulled out of a quality spring-and-pawl fly reel, it is pulled out very smoothly indeed. There is no "jerkiness" or "unevenness" inrepparttar 116044 tension that is applied torepparttar 116045 line. The line instead leavesrepparttar 116046 reel at a very smooth rate, without any variations inrepparttar 116047 amount of tension. By getting rid ofrepparttar 116048 unevenness in tension,repparttar 116049 fly reel goes a long way towards protectingrepparttar 116050 tippet.

Try to think about it this way. You have a large fish on line. The fish starts pulling out fly line at a good rate. Then,repparttar 116051 tension onrepparttar 116052 line suddenly increases then slackens again. What happens? If you're using a light tippet, you're fish is gone, that's what. The sudden increase in tension inrepparttar 116053 raterepparttar 116054 fly line came out ofrepparttar 116055 reel partedrepparttar 116056 tippet material. Its not much different than giving a good jerk onrepparttar 116057 fly line when you want to breakrepparttar 116058 fly line because of being hooked on underwater logs or rocks.

So,repparttar 116059 moral ofrepparttar 116060 story is this. A quality spring-and-pawl drag system is excellent for most trout fishing situations, particularly those where you will be fishing using light tackle and tippets.

What'srepparttar 116061 drawback of a spring-and-pawl drag fly reel? They are not designed for very large fish, like large bass, steelhead, salmon or saltwater species. While they work, they don't work as well asrepparttar 116062 newer disc-drag models discussed below.

Do-It-Yourself Building your own Fly Rod

Written by Brett Fogle


Every so often somebody handy at creating things wonders “hey can I build a rod myself?” normal response has been, "Get a bunch of books." Here are a few additional observations, some gained fromrepparttar rich experience that only comes from making mistakes, which can be far more instructive than doing things rightrepparttar 116043 first time. Doing something right and you only learn one way to dorepparttar 116044 job; do it wrong and you learn two ways AND whyrepparttar 116045 right way isrepparttar 116046 right way.

First, likerepparttar 116047 man said, get some books. One ofrepparttar 116048 best is L.A. Garcia's Handcrafting a Graphite Fly Rod from Frank Amato Publications. The photos are excellent. Skip Morris has maybe a more comprehensive book, The Custom Graphite Fly Rod, which as I recall from scanning it atrepparttar 116049 book store, covers repairs as well asrepparttar 116050 essentials. Dale Clemens's excellent volumes are encyclopedic-probably more than you want or need to know about all kinds of rods.

Then get some tools: a wrapping stand (about $30-50), a slow motor to rotaterepparttar 116051 rod onrepparttar 116052 stand whilerepparttar 116053 epoxy dries (shop for a cheap one and fit it onrepparttar 116054 wrapping rig however you can), a small file, and an X-acto knife.

Materials you'll need are two kinds of epoxy, one for rod wrapping and another for makingrepparttar 116055 grip and attachingrepparttar 116056 reel seat, and some masking tape. Something called a "bubble buster" is fun. It's an alcohol torch for popping little bubbles before they dry inrepparttar 116057 epoxy on your wrappings. It takes a light touch, though, because it makes your epoxy runny and it can fryrepparttar 116058 nylon thread wrappings underneath.

If you can hackrepparttar 116059 $140 or so for a Flex Coat cork lathe powered by a hand drill, do it. Shapingrepparttar 116060 handle onrepparttar 116061 blank is a lot easier thanrepparttar 116062 jury-rigged methods I've tried for making grips offrepparttar 116063 blank then boring them out to fitrepparttar 116064 blank. The lathe lets you bore and fitrepparttar 116065 cork rings one at a time, giving a perfect, on-center bond of cork to blank. Shaping grips offrepparttar 116066 blank too easily leads torepparttar 116067 embarrassment, aggravation, and expense of making a new grip when you ream out too much ofrepparttar 116068 core or get it off center. If you getrepparttar 116069 lathe now, maybe getting a friend to sharerepparttar 116070 cost, you can amortizerepparttar 116071 cost over allrepparttar 116072 rods you build.

One advantage torepparttar 116073 lathe is that you can make your grips fat, which some find makes them more comfortable than those on off-the-rack rods. If you want to slim it down later, just tape on a guide(s) to counterbalancerepparttar 116074 stripping guide(s) onrepparttar 116075 lower section, put it back inrepparttar 116076 lathe, and sand away. (Skip Morris does rough shaping on a lathe using a high-speed Dremel tool, which invites disaster if you slip and it digs intorepparttar 116077 cork. You get more control and less risk using 40 or 60 grit sandpaper for that chore.)

Now forrepparttar 116078 rod itself. I suggest making a spinning rod first because your mistakes will be a lot easier to live with. When you're done, you can afford to keep it or give it away, unless you're too embarrassed byrepparttar 116079 outcome. The important thing is that your brain, eyes, and hands will have learnedrepparttar 116080 basics of epoxy flow, wrapping, guide alignment, and grip shaping inrepparttar 116081 process. Even if you can afford to do a clumsy first job on a $200 blank, why make something you don't want to fish with?

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