ThreeJsDad

Thank You, It did come out pretty nice. The dark stain is growing on me. I am normally a natural wood with a clear finish kind o guy but I thought I would try something different.

This is my newest project. It is designed to build Furled Leaders, Tenkara lines and shooting heads or short fly lines. The head unit pops off so it could be set up further from the lay-out board for Tenkara lines or other projects. The lay-out board is hinged but they are removed for the photo. It is solid oak and has no need for a drill or other power system. Plug it in the wall and get going, push the button and start building leaders.

I never really move forward on it. Too many ideas all at once. I may sell this one because I want to build another one. Right now I am developing a furled leader machine so folks can build lines, leaders and Tenkara lines at home.

Here is mine

We have even seen some Hendricksons up near the border. Lots of Cornutas lately. Olive nymphs have been deadly fished on the bottom on fine tippets.

The DH creeks in NC have been fishing real well. A buddy and I had an awesome day last Sat. He each landed more than one fish north of 4lbs. along with those pigs we landed over 20 fish each. I have fished in Cherokee one weekend and I was not thrilled. We caught some big fish but just not my cup of tea as they say.

We worked hard for them and we have some skills......LOL That was also between the two of us. We had a great day with over 20 fish each but we fished a lot of water. In some ways I think brim can be harder to catch because you have to find them. I read the water very well and know how to fish to trout so they are easier for me than any lake dwelling species. For me Bass and Brim are very difficult unless they are in shallow water. If they are in shallow water I can find structure they will hang around. With a Trout stream I can read the water to find the seams and pockets they will hold in. The real key this time of year is getting a natural food source down where they are. The water temps are still pretty low so they wont move much for a meal. So, no they are not easy at all but that is pretty much all I have fished for for 40 years. Put me in a Bass lake and I would be lost..... PoopDeck, You have inspired some great idea this week and I thank you for getting me thinking.

Thanks and your comment our nymphing gave me a chuckle as we both know they work well in most applications. Just two days ago my buddy and I landed over 40 trout including some north of 4lbs and every one of them was caught on a nymph attached to a furled leader.... I am not sure how seriously I am going to pursue this project as I just got hired for a full time position in a cabinet shop. I need to do some serious market research beyond just the folks we chat with on here. If you think the info is bad now regarding this subject you should have seen what was available 20 years ago when I started making them....UGH !!!

You misunderstood the point. Personally, I do not spend near the money you listed. I realize that in the world of fly fishing I am in the minority. My point was that the majority of FF would not bat an eye at spending 12.00 bucks each for a chest pack full of furled leaders therefore they will have no desire or motivation to make one themselves. Leaders will never have the grandeur and mystique of a beautifully tied fly so the comparison to fly tying is a reach. Now cheapos like me don't want to spend 5 dollars for a tapered mono leader so I furl my own since I can't extrude my own tapered mono leaders. Perhaps your right, I have been wrong many times in my life and I am to scared to risk my money on an invention. My hats off to you for taking a risk. I'm just offering an opinion, an opinion from somebody that happens to be the exact demographic you will be marketing your system to. A picture of the system would certainly help. Believe it or not I am also in the minority. I do not spend the funds I listed but I have plenty of friends who do. I started this whole thing 20 years ago because I like to build stuff and they seemed to have some advantages. You may be right about the fly tying and leader building comparison. On the flip side maybe people liek you and I can change that to where people start showing how nicely they tapered their leader and how smoothly they turn over. I really enjoy grabbing a leader and hand casting it. People's eyes get wide when they see how it casts just like a fly line. I had a thought, I will ship you a machine as a demo. Since you build a bunch of furled leaders you can give me and others feedback on the machine. Who knows you may be able to help me make it even nicer !! I have also been wrong on many occasions and I am sure I have a bunch more times coming...... Paul

I've not used my Uni thread furled leaders very much. Even after treating with beeswax, they promptly sank. And on/near the water's surface, they stick out like a dick in a pie. Maybe I need to try a furled leader of different material. Like you I am not a fan of the uni thread leaders. I use a mono nylon sewing thread I buy in bulk most of the time. I have tried mono with some success. Very fine braided fishing line works well. I had someone explain it to me like this, fish see all kinds of junk floating down a creek. A leader doesn't look much different than some weeds or grass or a willow twig. I run 3-5' tippets. Give me a rod weight and a preferred tippet size and I will build you one to try.

With the braid I have right now I can go down to a 3wt but below that the leader gets a little stiff. Damn, I was hoping for 000wt and 1wt... I can do those but not with the braid I currently have. I can build those leaders quite easily with other materials I have on hand. I fish a 1wt quite a bit.

Valid Point and well received. That was a bit of a knee jerk reaction. I try very hard to be more understanding than that. I offer my apologies to anyone I offended.

I do not take offense and I am very much like you. I do not have much more than $100 in any of my current rods (I snapped my Winston) as I build my rods. For many years I waded in over sized hiking boots I would turn into wading boots by gluing carpet to the bottom. I have a few nice reels but none over $100. I do use nice fly lines but I found a real nice line maker in the UK who sells his lines direct so they are under $50 TMD. I built myself a very nice vice a couple of years ago because I wanted something special. My other vice is an HMH Spartan I have had for 25 years and I tied flies for a shop in exchange for the vice. I have NO issue with your comments because you write how you live. I take issue with people who think it is too expensive but they have all Sage rods and Hatch reels. Actually I respect and admire you for keeping what should be a simple pass time just that a simple pass time. That is not my nature with anything I do so I am a bit envious. I also design and fly RC sailplanes and even there I constantly push the envelope.

I have been pondering Poopdeck's comments as well as the comments of others. The one school of thought I find very interesting is the cost of a nice machine like I have designed. If anyone who thinks $150 is too high and ties their flies on anything but the cheapest vice available needs to step back and read what they are posting. Based on the logic that something jury-rigged will do just fine you should be tying your flies using a pair of off brand vice grips with cheap scissors from the drug store. Do you have a nice tying desk or do you tie on a flimsy card table. The card table will work just fine, hey why not a folding TV tray. During this process I have had to seriously look at all facets of this. I have designed this machine to look like a piece of furniture you would be proud to show friends and family members. It has been designed so that building a leader is actually easier than tying a basic nymph. It is designed to that leaders are repeatable in every way from stiffness to stretch. This is basically a full proof way to build high performance leaders at a fraction of what off the shelf generic leaders cost. I have left nothing to chance, no guessing here or fudging there. I have been involved in fly fishing for 40 years and I have had to fudge and cut corners so many times it is ridiculous. My first fly reel was something I put together out of my erector set. I had no choice so I threw something together. Based on the some of the logic that has been shared here I should be still using it today. Why do people buy the smallest Hatch reel with the disc drag that could stop a car? They buy that reel because they want something nice. That reel is way over engineered but it is beautiful in every way so people buy them. A simple click an pawl reel would work just fine for those light weight rods but the Hatch is really something special. I could go on and on pointing out examples where something clumsy and rudimentary would work but something nicer makes life so much more enjoyable but I am sure you see my point. Here is the one I built 10 years ago and I way beyond that now.

That is one of the things that will be with the machine. We will also have some formulas we have used for given situations. If you build a lot of furled leaders maybe I need to send you a machine to test out. paul