BEYOND THE

VISE

 

by Paul Egan

TIPPET SPOOL

 

Let’s go beyond the vise - WAY BEYOND THE VISE.  Let’s go all the way to the river or stream of your choice. One on which you would fish dry flies and nymphs during the same day, sometimes within just a few minutes of each other.  The problem for me is should I carry two rods or tie new tippets at every pool or run?  Nymphs need split-shot, fluoro-carbon and an indicator, whereas the dries need tapered monofilament  with tiny strong knots.

 

This dilemma could use a lot of line and cost a great deal of fishing time, both of which are frustrating; or worse yet, breaking the extra rod, or, with my scattered brains, leaving one of them behind on the bank somewhere.

 

While fishing on the Yuba River with Pete Koistinen, I was tying and retying leaders and tippets.  Pete, who is an avid dry fly fisherman, said he was going to switch to nymphs for this one run.  And then I saw it - Pete pulled out of his vest an old fly line spool with his leader already wound on it with his flies tied on and ready to go.  He unspooled it, looped it onto his fly line, wrapped his dry fly leader with flies onto the spool, and was fishing before I could cut my fly off or even start to tie on some more tippet.

 

 

When I got home I made one of my own. 

This is all you will need:

  1. An old fly line spool

 

  1. A pair of cutters (snips)

     

  1. A couple of rubber bands

 

 

 

I used a Cortland fly line spool with holes.

  1. Cut two sections out of the side of the spool. (If your spool does not have holes, just make two cuts side by side and bend the tab you just made to the outside and cut it out, repeating for the second one.

 

  1. Take the butt loop of your leader and hook it between the notches (over the divider) you just made and wind it onto the spool.

 

  1. Hook your last fly on a rubber band and then wrap the rubber band around the spool and to the notch.

 

  1. The last thing I did was to make a very large loop in the butt section that is connected to my fly line. This allows me to slip the leader through with flies, shot and, indicator.

 

 

 

Copyright 2006 by Granite Bay Flycasters unless otherwise noted