Ian Crabtree
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Did you try to order the sidecut ride? http://www.granitegear.com/products/backpacks/technical_day/sidecuts/sidecut_ride/index.html
That one actually looks pretty sweet. I’m not sure if it will hold the tripod as well as the other though.
This shows the drag system in a little greater detail, including the spring you’re referring to that prevents the caliper from being jammed against the “brake drum”
I was under the impression that the drag system in the Tibor lights were considered caliper drags. I thought they were cork as well…?
I am hitting the vise again, and I’m trying to find a way to tie glo-bugs that doesn’t end up looking like a mangy former NBA star’s $10 haircut.
What is your method for tying glo-bugs?
I have heard nothing but great things about this jacket.
Thanks mendingmachine,
I’ll see if I can get my hands on one of those and take a look at it.
I started off with a standard Regal, and switched to a Dyna-King Barracuda this summer. I’m still trying to force myself to take advantage of the Barracuda’s rotary abilities, but it’s hard to kick old habits.
I’d definitely start with a rotary vise. You can’t go wrong with Dyna-King or Renzetti if they’re in your price range.
I’d say my responses to these questions would be pretty predictable, but I’ll do it anyway.
1) For trout I’m not really too concerned with the reel, so long as it stores the line and a reasonable amount of backing. If I were fishing for big trout on 5 and 6 weights I’d go for something like the Tibor Freestone (which they discontinued – sad…).
I doubt many trout fishermen would like having a heavy reel on their trout rod. Sort of like your question last year to Taylor about having that Tibor Backcountry on his trout rod. I’ve fished with enough heavy reels that I don’t mind the extra weight. I don’t expect many would feel the same way though.
For 6 weights and up I use draw-bars, but not for any particular reason other than I like the reels that use them.2) Buy it once and be done with it. I’m not going to play the upgrade game for the rest of my life on reels. So I’ll pay the up-front cost to cover a reel that will last. You get what you pay for.
3) All by feel. I’ve never had a break off that was related to the drag pressure, but I’ve seen it happen with clients who changed it during the fight. I’m not sure how you would go about setting the drag to a specific level of resistance. This is even further complicated by decreasing diameter and increased resistance as line goes out.
4) I was surprised when you called the Tibor and Abels traditional, as I’d never thought of them as such, but in comparison with Lamson, Ross, and Nautilus, traditional is probably an accurate description of Tibors and Abels. Call me a traditionalist I suppose, although I’ll go with large arbor every time.
5) It’s a piece of equipment, it’s going to be scratched and dinged, I’ve accepted that. I’m not too interested in a more durable coating, especially if it adds to the cost.
I know Taylor bought his Rhythm instead of an Evolution because he was worried about bending the frame of the evolution if he fell, making it unusable. I hadn’t thought about this until he mentioned it, but it’s a good point in highlighting the benefits and drawbacks of the weight of a reel.6) For the average person I’d recommend synthetic because they’re zero maintenance, and there’s no worry about compressing the cork by leaving the drag tightened down. I prefer cork, but I don’t mind the care required.
If I were to add some questions to your list:
1) How important is the weight of the reel?
2) How important are maintenance requirements?
3) How important is drag range on the reel?
4) Does the reel need to be saltwater safe? Even in lower line weights?I’m actually glad you brought this up. I’ve lately started questioning myself on using fluorocarbon, which I used almost exclusively in the past.
Honestly, I think even in the 6x and below range the fish are probably seeing the tippet anyway, they simply don’t mind. It’s all about drag… (in my opinion)
I’ve gone back to mono simply because it’s more supple than fluoro in comparable sizes. I noticed (and didn’t like) the stiffness of fluoro with midges especially. Pretty much the same reason that fluoro leaders haven’t become too popular for trout fishing outside of streamer use. I switched from 6x and 7x fluoro to mono and certainly don’t think I’m catching any fewer fish.
Mono + loop knot = lots of natural movement in the water column.
However, if I’m at all concerned about breakoffs from abrasion, I’ll go with fluoro every time.
I’ve done this with plastic beads, but I didn’t think it would work with glass beads. Zach you’re going to have to try it in the name of science.
I suppose you could put it on the hook itself if it would fit, but I’d worry about it closing off the gape of the hook.
I’d fish them like beads, and in that case you’ve got three options:
1) Pegged – Stick a toothpick into the hole of the bead to peg it above the hook. Just jam it into the hole and then use a pair of nippers to clip off the excess toothpick. Regs on some rivers in Alaska require that it be 2 inches or closer to the hook to prevent the hook from injuring the fish on the strike. Basically, the length between the bead and the hook is how far the hook could potentially stick the fish outside of it’s mouth. Hypothetically you could hook a six inch fish in the tail if you pegged the bead six inches from the hook. I’d suggest you follow the two inch guideline. Some people favor using heavy monofilament instead of a toothpick to “peg” the bead.
2) Free Sliding – Just thread the bead onto the leader and let it slide. This works, but I’ve always suspected the bead ends up settling right next to the hook, which might spook fish. You probably get better drifts this way. An additional benefit is very few hook-ups outside of the mouth with this method.
3) Best of Both Worlds – My favored method takes the best aspects of the two methods listed above. Rig up your leader and tie on the tippet leaving long tag ends on the blood knot. Thread the bead onto the leader and then tie in an additional length of tippet with long tag ends. Tie the hook onto the last length of tippet about two inches from the last blood knot. You can crimp your split shot above the first blood knot, and the bead is allowed to slide between the two blood knots, but is prevented from getting too close to either the split shot or the hook. When you get a take the bead slides down the leader and compresses the tag ends of the blood knot above the hook and keeps sliding all the way to the hook- effectively acting like a free-sliding bead would. The tag ends should be able to keep the bead from moving over them while casting – keeping the bead in the “slide section” of the leader.
I’ve never seen anyone else use this method, but there’s too many creative people in the world to think that I’m the only one doing it. This rig probably wouldn’t be legal on rivers requiring the 2″ rule. The only drawback I can think of with this method is the additional blood knot giving you one more knot to potentially fail, but I think the benefits far outweigh that downside.
The tag ends of the blood knots should be around 1.5x the diameter of the bead.
Rudimentary Drawing
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JI have to agree with Snaggletooth. We fooled around with these a little bit in Alaska on Dolly Varden, and found that both glo bugs and beads out-fished hot glue eggs by a significant margin, and I have no idea why. Dolly Varden aren’t exactly the pickiest fish in our river, so I was doubly stumped.
I’ve thought about forming the eggs around a dubbing needle and inserting small beads into the glue as it hardens to create a hot glue bead that has a fast sink rate. A lot of guides in Alaska prefer glass beads to plastic because of their greater density – unfortunately glass beads break when they hit anything hard while casting. Forming hot glue beads this way would allow you to do some pretty killer customization with shiny beads inside the glue, and maybe even adding some glitter into the glue to give it some sparkle. I wonder if there’s something you could add into the glue to decrease its density and make it float higher in the water column…
I’ve actually thought about adding hot glue over the lead eyes of salmon patterns (in a MOE style) to give them greater durability. I haven’t gotten around to it yet, but the egg sucking leeches I’ve seen with hot glue heads seemed pretty cool.
http://www.uniproducts.com/english/fcs-prod.asp?no=23
Is this what you’re referring to?
If it is, then it looks like it’s somewhat similar to Diamond Braid, although it would be hard to tell without looking at it in person. I imagine it would hunt.
Try taking a few strands of krystal flash, tie it onto the hook, and then spin them tightly together into a rope. You’ll get an interesting two-tone effect when you wind it onto the hook. For example, red krystal flash gets a black and red woven appearance to it when twisted, while still having defined segmentation in the body. Every color of krystal flash has a different companion color that can create some interesting effects.
pretty solid rumors are that it is Carabelle, FL….it was a great show, lots of hook ups, lots of break offs, an hour of X-itement
I was hoping it might be a location a bit more remote than that (i.e. Africa), I thought the Apalachicola area was pretty well known as a tarpon fishery. Either way, that would explain blurring out the registration on the boat – I can’t imagine a whole lot of third world countries require registration on skiffs.
Lightroom has been universal since it first came out. The Adobe team has indicated that they expect the final release to be noticeably faster, as there’s been little speed tweaking with the program itself still under heavy development. I only mention that because Apple’s Aperture runs like a dog on my computer, and that’s at full release (and has been updated several times).
Zach
I’m surprised you said you thought it would run at $400. Everyone on the Adobe Lightroom board seems to think its going to run well below that, but at this point I guess it’s all speculation.There’s also another Adobe program in public beta testing right now called Soundbooth which interestingly (and controversially) is Intel only – no PPC version. Might be worth fooling around with for your podcasts. http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/soundbooth/
I guess I’ll have to stop calling you a prima donna now.
I read the article in AA and I have to say I’m surprised that you thought it might be somewhat controversial. Granted, I don’t know anything about cane rods, but it seemed well-balanced. I guess I’ll have to wait for the fallout in the letters in the next issue.
