Zach Matthews
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Brian –
It would certainly be possible to break off a big fish on fine tippet no matter the connection, and it will undoubtedly kink, but then again, so will any knot.
I would probably tie a half-hitch loop in the leader, and then with the loop coming out I would pass the *whole loop* through the eye of the hook on my hopper and over the back of the fly and then tighten it so the loop cinches up against the eye. That will give you a “snell” connection; basically a loop to loop knot using the eye of the hook as one “loop.”
If you want to move the hopper, you should be able to tease the loop back open by wetting the connection and holding the line-side tippet while gently tugging on the fly. Then un-loop it and re-tie wherever you want to put it. This is how my balloon indicators are attached and I move them this way as well.
Zach
I would mostly want a source because I swap lines around a lot and some lines (Spey lines especially) will eat the majority of the space on a reel, but I always hate cutting the backing because I know when I go back to a narrow sinking line later I’ll have a ton of space.
Zach
That’s what it looks like all loaded up. I think what I am going to do, though, is make a separate axle for the canoe alone, and pull the metal sleeve back off and size it for that. You don’t need the weight support for the pontoon boat, which is much lighter.
The axle itself is easy to build and cheap to make; dowel + threaded rod + epoxy. That way I can get both the weight and the profile down a little bit.
But you get the idea.
Zach
It’s built that wide so it can also accommodate the pontoon boat, Steve, but even for the canoe it’s only maybe 18″ wider than absolute minimum. This wouldn’t get you down a forest trail but it will take you down a cart path, which is about what we have here.
And no, I’m not turning the canoe over; the point is to be able to carry everything at once (including a cooler), so it needs to ride rightside up. I just use the same strap I use to secure it to my roof to bind it tight to the bar; my Old Town Guide is flat enough on the bottom to ride just fine that way.
The problem with a saddle is that then there’s a “rightside” up for the axle itself, meaning it would somehow have to be held in that position while loading the boat.