Tom S

PM sent yesterday. Did it work for you?

Yeah, it's changed ownership a few times since then. I remember when Hanson's was Hogeterp's. Don't go there much myself, I usually make a trip to Highland Packers if I'm looking for something specific. Interested to see what comes of that restaurant. I think if they have good everyday food they'll do fine, due to the lack of options out our way. Pusateri's is a high-end market out Toronto way. They've now got 6 locations. Great place for a foodie to go window shopping, but you'll probably want to leave your wallet and/or wife in the car.

LOL. Our Foodland is awful. They could do so much better, but I guess when you don't have have any competition within 25km you get lazy. I can remember my wife breaking down one night because we were on our last diapers for the twins and they did not stock newborn size. Ridiculous. Any of you gents been to a Pusateri's?

Huh. I thought it was a pretty good satire of both stereotypes - the elitist fly guide with an Orvis-endorsed pickle up his arse and the meat hunting spin fisherman using marshmallow for trout. But I guess if you need to explain something it's probably not that funny in the end.

For all those who may be fly-curious. It's good when we can laugh at ourselves.

Cool story. Didn't know that anyone still hunted with ferrets in modern times. Did you ever go Ferret-legging?

If you're serious shoot me a PM. This one does not have a home yet.

Completed my build this morning. Really happy with how it turned out.

Take Spiel up on his offer. His work comes with free Mojo.

Go see angling specialties. They'll be able to fix it for you or provide you the parts if you want to do it yourself. Any rod builder should be willing to do it, repairs come with the territory.

Rod Builder Supplies is pretty good, even if you don't see something in his catalog, ask and he can sometimes get it in. Not always the fastest though if you have ordered a non-stock item. Mudhole works, never been hit with a duty fee when receiving parts from them. But, their international shipping is very high and the free shipping promotions don't apply to international orders. I find the First Cast to be hit or miss, they only stock so many parts. Same with Angling Specialties in Scarborough. For my fly rods I've got a relationship with an online shop out of Grand Rapids where he calculates the actual shipping charge on the order and passes that on to me, rather than a blanket international shipping charge. But he only deals in fly rod components from certain manufacturers. Other option is getting a US postal box, or having things mailed to a relative you see every so often.

Figured I might as well do something while trapped inside. Instructions? I don't even need epoxy. Going to try dipping this rod in finish for a super slick finish.

Really? I figured you would have to produce a PAL in order to be able to purchase.

Trying out the new photo features from the forum upgrade. Pictures of a fly rod build underway, finished wrapping this afternoon and ready for finishing.

Or how to operate their boat correctly....

I think they need to hire a marketing firm to rethink the name.

Brick and retail stores still have a place in today's business market, they just need to be smart about how they approach it. In your Loblaw's example they are closing a number of stores and starting up online retail. But be honest with me - who is going to buy meat, produce, and bakery though an online retail? You want to see and feel those products, which also happen to be high margin products. The center of the store items that are low margin? It's a race to the bottom on those and going online means that you can distribute from a central warehouse and reduce your staff overhead. If you watch which stores Loblaw's shuts down they'll be in areas where they don't make out well on meat, produce, and bakery and will do just fine with online shopping and delivery. For an outdoor store they need to focus on the items that either can't be had online (guns/ammunition) or that people want to touch and feel before spending a lot of money on it. They want to be an outfitter, and not even try to compete with Crappy Tire or Bass Pro on hooks and split shot. I would think that Toronto should be a large enough market to support a store like this if they do it right.

Watching the Warplane Heritage Museum's program right now. Thank-you to any of you who have served or are serving.

What type of epoxy did you use? Hardware store epoxy may not be flexible enough after curing to withstand the flexing of a rod without cracking. The real strength is from the thread (or braid in your case), not the epoxy - so you may still be ok as a beater rod.

Lol. It's called head cement for a reason. Loon has some products that are a bit less volatile. Looks good so far. Hold a fly over a steaming kettle to fluff it back out again if you've over handled it.

Most definitely. Like most skills practice is counts. Yep - always trim from the hair side. You can try moving a bunch of hair around on the hide to try to get the tips to align before you cut it. Might want to look for a hair stacker if you do a lot of work with hair, otherwise there are hand stacking techniques. I also found that some hair (dyed bucktail in particular) was very hard to stack until I washed it. It seems like if the extra dye wasn't rinsed out completely the hair was tough to work with. Just make sure you dry it out completely again to avoid mold or mildew. Davie McPhail is a classic. Love that accent.

Whip finishing will become instinct soon enough. I'm no expert by any means, I haven't even tied in a year or two, but here's what I found made the biggest impact for me. 1. Don't crowd the hook eye. Make sure to leave yourself space for the whip finish, otherwise you're constantly fighting materials in your way. 2. Tie a number of the same fly at the same time, rather than jumping from pattern to pattern. Try to make the next fly better than the last, focus on the small details. 3. Less is more. A sparsely dressed fly is easier to tie and fishes better. Skip Morris has an excellent book, Fly Tying Made Clear and Simple, that will take you from a very basic caddis made from only dubbing all the way to dry flies. It's a nice way to learn techniques and build on them.

You sure can. American Tackle makes a half decent cheap metal ferrule, for the price of a well made ferrule for a bamboo rod you'd probably just replace the graphite rod.

You can install a graphite or fiberglass stint along with some wraps to repair a rod, but it will never be the same again. You've created a stiff section that will result in a change in the action of the rod. A break near the bottom of the rod will result in more tip action and possibly a faster rod, a break near the top of the rod will result in less tip action and possibly a slower rod as the butt comes more into play. Braided line and a paintbrush handle seems a bit MacGyver'd to me, it's not really that hard to do it properly.

I think you're seeing a strip-set. When fishing for an ambush predator like pike they'll sometimes run up from behind, grab the lure, and keep on running towards the fisherman. Lifting the rod won't take up the slack so you can't set the hook. You've got to strip line until you feel resistance, then continue stripping to set the hook, then when the fish turns you can raise the rod and start fighting. Trout and bass often hit and turn right away so you can just lift the rod to set in most instances (called a trout set)