DonAndersen

Be careful out there. Flotation devices made in the USA and overseas may not and probably are not approved for use in Canada. But you are SAVED! Here's your chance to get better equipment, made in Canada, approved for Canada and sold in Canada. Of course, you can use them in the US. CDN standards are higher. No surprise there. There are 2 suspender types built in Canada. Nautilus and Mustang - both are DOT approved for use in Canada. Both are available in CDN stores. Wholesale, Fishin Hole and Canadian Tire sells one or the other. See for Nautilus: http://nautilusbyprotexion.com/Catalogues/...Eng%207to14.pdf See Mustang: http://www.mustangsurvival.com/products/category.php?t=1 I have one of each. Both are good. The Nautilus is mine, the Mustang is my wife's. catch ya' Don

Headed to my friendly Google and punched in "Builders" - the plastic boys piled outta the woodwork. Plugged in "makers" and there was the cane guys. My apologies to all assemblers, Apparently Google believes you are builders. Hot damn, learned something today. Google changed the English language. regards, Don

Guys, read over the information presented @ http://www.common-cents.info/. Here's' my take on the info. What the guy is attempting to determine in the line weight, rod action and frequency of any rod by using methods readily available to all. Has he succeeded. I'm not sure. He introduces both techniques and formula without defining what they are. I've read and reread the stuff and I'm still looking for answers. I have may just plain missed them. Still, if the measurement system works, I'm sure the it would put a lasso around a lot of the subjective opinion on what is meant by slow>fast rods. Took me a while to figure out that limp tips were fast rods. That certainly makes sense after I thought about it for a while. His take on multiple section rods is right on. But what I'm doing now is weighting some of my fly lines. Will post results after the weekend. Then I'll do some rod testing. What should be required reading for all is Tom Kirkman's Editorial on Fly lines. regards, Don

Hydropsyche, Born in Calgary, Lived in Pincher Creek, Raised in Turner Valley, sold our land near Millarville. Am in Rocky now. Tell you anything? Don

Fishietales, See the Blob in a number of Brit. FF mags. as a go to flies. Are there just used on fresh stockies or will they work on real fish? They look a whole lot like fish pellets. Don

Alan, You tried them. How was the pot? The recipe was handed down to me from a guy who survived the 30's. He made his owns wine. He also netted suckers out of Stauffer and canned them. Don

bigbadbrent, You want the most seductive hackle - try hereon. Whack a 1/2 dozen or so and do our fishery a good turn. Do it quietly though. The fish cops just maybe watching. Heron apparently eat well. Just slather them with cheap red wine and boil till the meat falls off the bones. Now to find a use for pelican/loon/ feathers. enjoy, Don

Rainbow, Think that we just best start a new thread titled Commonsense Fishing Rod method. Wouldn't want to leave out the Fishing Rod from the title - specially as there is a Provincial election going on - some might get confused. Don

Lets move the Commonsense discussion to another thread. This discussion could go on for days for those interested in rod actions/line weight/frequency and how most anglers might be lead down the garden path. Read the Commonsense methods - got questions. catch ya' Don

Life continues, Got to go fishing for 2 of the last 3 days. Caught some too!!! Get to dip varnish 2 rods today and perhaps temper one more, read a decent book, ponder why Trojans come in three flavors [dog found a empty box in the yard so I didn't get a taste test], contemplate whether or not I want my ass kissed or for that matter want to ride in a $25,000 jet boat [i generally only lower myself to ride in $40,000 boats], do some more reading on the Commonsense method of determining rod action/line weight and chose a new piece of cane for some butchering and lastly cook supper. Hey guys - relax - February is about over!! catch ya' Don

Steve, The intent of the original post was to separate the BS from the buckwheat. Hence the discussion of rod line weights. The comment of who discerns the taper was mine as I think I'm one of the few that make their own tapers. As far as I know, there are no individual builders of graphite rods in Canada and few in the world. When you acquire a graphite rod, you get what the rod designer believes the rod should cast [if he is honest]. The difference between a person who designs his own taper & translates that into a finished product and the person who assembles equipment provided by others is hours of work. There is no question that both require some level of craftsmanship to complete the job. People assemble rods for several reasons: 1] They think they may save money. 2] They want to install more bling than the manufacturer does on a particular rod. 3] They want to "individualize" their equipment through handle shape, thread work, inlays, reel seat construction and the like. Rod builders have floundered with what is a builder as well. The guy who builds the blank may not & probably didn't construct the ferrules, guides, mined the steel, smelted the aluminum, skin cork trees that he grew in Portugal , cut his own cane from his plantation in China. BUT, what he did do is take the materials and create a blank with his own taper. He had some idea of what he wanted and how to get there. The installation of the rest of the equipment is somewhat secondary to how the rod will cast. And Steve, I have no idea who Fishead is or you for that matter and to deride someone who has attempted to shed some light on the line weight question kinda ticks me a tad - deleted the rest on second thought. Enjoy your February, Don

Tako, You got that backwards. First you drop 40 points and then you become a Flames Fan. I dropped 60 points and never watch hockey. Tried once - fell asleep during the final game of the cup - score tied. IQ now <40. catch ya' Don

Taco, I adjust as well to most rods. Think it may be a function of getting close to "overthehill". Silver Doctor, My head won't take it. Bamboo building is a craft. No artsy stuff involved. Just a lot of repetitive grunt work, lots of thinking and a sack of doing. You should watch a good machinist if you get a chance. Now there is art! Curiously, a lot of cane guys I know are real anal. Dentists, surgeons, airline pilots, engineers and the like. They don't mistakes or folks die. catch ya' Don

GopherBoy, I agree with whatever you meant and am going to the basement and hide till Feb is over. Don

CDone, Perhaps the way to deal with assembly vs builder is to look @ my personal experience. I assembled my first fiberglass rod in 1969. Bought the parts on Friday and was fishing it Sunday. Total time about 4 hours. Blank, handle, guides & reel seat were premade. I supplied glue, varnish, a Campbell soup box to hold the rod while wrapping, a tea cup to hold the thread, a dictionary as a thread tensioner and some masking tape. Total tooling about $2.00. Instructions were provided on a single sheet of 8.5*11 paper. I started acquiring the equipment for build cane blanks from scratch in 1978. That took 3 years while I got forms, the dipping tank, binder, sharpening system, workshop built, tempering oven constructed and on and on. Total tooling about $5,000. Then I purchased a lathe and milling machine. Whoops, there goes another $15,000. And then I got the parts needed like cane, cork rings, ferrules, guides, wood inserts, threads, nickel silver round stock for reel seats and on and on. Damn this is getting expensive @ another $5,000. And then to start. First to chose a taper and translate into a blank. Then to understand what the taper was designed to do. Well, that took about another 28 years so far and it's done yet. And after all of the $'s outlay, I finally got a single bamboo rod that I fished once and bust it over my knee as it was crap. Only took another 10 or so years to have some understanding of tapers so I could get close to what a decent fishing rod is all about. Of course, all the while that the taper learning was going on, I was increasing my skills in construction, experimenting with glues, oven tempering temperatures and the like. To sum up, takes about 50>70 hours to make a cane fishing rod - I can crank out a graphite in about 4>5 hours while watching TV. While I realize that I'm building rods whose construction techniques by in large haven't changed a lot in the past 100 years, I get a kick outta the travels and learning. Further, there are more cane rod builders out there now that there ever was. Putting fancy thread wraps etc on some ones else's idea of a decent fishing pole is similar to painting flames on a 56 Chev. Really makes it go faster. Don

Al, Graphite scrims come in various tensile strengths from 400,000>700,000 psi. Then depending on scrim design with the incorporation of fiberglass for hoop strength, pattern dimensions, scrim thread orientation, + the various construction operations, the design of a decent casting graphite rod is one tough cookie. I know I wouldn't want to try it. There are so many variables. Further, the scrim itself was changing driven by the aerospace industry. Just when you had a scrim you liked, along came the manufacturer of the scrim and discontinued the line. The aircraft industry drives the graphite industry. Just imagine how many graphite fishing poles that could be built out of a F117. From early 1970's to present, the graphite rod guys have had a moving target to shoot at. At the same time, they were attempting to grab market share. Hence they also were exploring the how's and why's of graphite technology. That's the primary reason why some graphite rods are junk and others not. Plus graphite has some interesting design problems. In order to make the blank cast light weight lines, the OD of the tip had to get progressively thinner. This resulted in a lot of breakage. For example, a tip top of 3.5/64 = 0.047" OD. Now subtract a mandrel of perhaps 0.015" leaving you with a layer of graphite of 0.032" thick divided between each side equals 0.016". The builders of the blanks, in some part, can get around this by increasing the tip OD and shaving the amount of graphite further down the rod. To sum up Al, I haven't a clue. There are so many variables to making a decent graphite rod. regards, Don

Reg, As far as I'm aware there have been few folks try rolling their own tubular rods. The cost of the mandrels is quite high. The scrim is tough to get. As far as I know, the only person that I can think of that built a tubular rod was Don Phillips who wrote the Technology of Fly Rods. He made boron rods. I talked to Don and he said that he'd only built a few. Mind you, that was some years ago. Russ Peak also built rods from his own design. I have no idea whether or not he just supplied the design and others translated that to finished blanks or whether or not he rolled his own. Did a net search and found this: http://www.westfly.com/feature-article/old.../feature_14.htm I only build cane rods presently. Got a bunch of Orvis, Fisher, Winstons around here somewhere. Haven't used them in years. Got a St. Croix a few years back that hasn't seen a line more than 1/2 dozen times. Guess I'm a grass type of guy. regards, Don

Let's list the things that have been done in 2007 to effect your fishing that were either lead by or resulted from Govt actions: 1] Recognizing that the oil sands region is an industrial waste land and normal environmental regulations will not apply. 2] Police Outpost Lake regulation changes 3] Fiesta Lake regulations > C&R 4] Quality Lake fishing Policy 5] Land use Policy 6] Commencement of listing of the West Slope Cut as a endangered species. And that is but a few from SRD. Other Govt agencies would have their own list. Like it or not, the Streamwatch program wouldn't be in existence W/0 Govt. And certainly, some folks have been able to effect the direction of Govt. The big effect is @ the ballot box. catch ya' Don

Tim, I frankly perplexed by 2 of your comments. 1] Graphite rods don't have swing weight to bend them any appreciable amount w/o a line. Twitched them every which way and I can't seem to tell a lot other than they are stiff. If someone wants to see the slope of the rod, place the tip against a solid object and place a bend into the rod. You can often tell where the designer put the "meat". 2] Rods load the same whether or not you fore cast or back cast. Don

Toolman, $300 on item #10. Don

Fishietales, Looks like a reasonable imitation of the Callibaetis nymph. Don

Folks, Looking over things that are viewed and a Flames post gets >1400 whereas a post about what really effects your fishing [the election] gets much less. Tells a lot about what is important to us - well make that you. Don

Peter, When I'm looking for a rod, I first determine what size of flies I'm going to cast with it and the type of fishing to be done which determines line weight & rod length. Then I head off to the fly shop with the line of that weight and cast some fishing poles till I find one the suits ME. One big advantage I've got, I can and do rip the crap guides/reel seat/handle off crappy looking/poorly made rods and replace them with better quality parts. So, price is not a limiting factor. The cheapie might cast better for me that the more expensive rod. Casting [and ultimately fishing] is the only determining factor. catch ya' Don

Guys/Gals, For the beginners out there, line weights expressed by the writing on the rod you are considering is what the manufacturer says it is. It is the best line weight for the rod? Maybe or maybe not! The line weight is a starting point. From that starting point, it's up to you to determine what line weight works best for YOU. All the clap trap about overlining fracturing a rod is crap. What it will do is slow it down somewhat making your timing less critical. Now you have to wonder how rod manufacturers determine line weight? 1] The rod suits the designer. 2] The rod line weight fills a market niche. How do I know this. Unlike nearly all on this board, I build rods - from scratch [no I don't buy blanks and install parts and call myself a rod builder - the folks that do this are assemblers]. I determine line weight that suits me. It suits most but not all of my customers. Some will over and some underline my SUGGESTION. But a suggestion it is. Your casting will determine the right line weight for YOU. Got a friend who some years ago was complaining loudly about the 4wt. he'd bought. Damn thing wouldn't cast worth crap. He dropped the problem in my lap. Took out a set of reels [ got lines from 2>9 wt on reels] & starting playing with the rod. A 6 wt. finally got the thing performing correctly. Called him and he tried it out. He was amazed and asked what I'd done. When I explained the line weight increase, he was shocked that I would do such a horrid thing to his fishing pole. But he switched a 6 wt. Then he bought a 2 wt. Same problem - took a 5 weight line to make it perform correctly for ME. He tried it and again was surprised at the line weight increase required. But to this day, he refers to the rod as his 2 wt. although it hasn't had a 2 weight on it for years. Be careful out there. Lot of BS about what line weights suit what rod. catch ya' Don

Mudflap, A size #20 or less Mustad R50 hook c/w black thread body, 1 turn of 0.010 lead wire @ head with a couple of turns of herl. Fish it using a tiny yarn indicator made of steelhead yarn inserted into your tippet knot. The lead is required to "just" get the midge under the surface about an inch or so. If you wish view an article on using the yarn see my site @ http://www.telusplanet.net/public/dmanders/ Don