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Re: What size gut for blind eyed hooks??

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 1:18 pm
by wsbailey
I know of one person actually raising silk worms to make gut.

http://feathersmc.com/product/twisted-silk-gut/

Re: What size gut for blind eyed hooks??

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 2:06 pm
by Bazzer69
wsbailey wrote:I know of one person actually raising silk worms to make gut.

http://feathersmc.com/product/twisted-silk-gut/
I bought some twisted gut from John last year along with a number of other materials. I had no idea he was making his own. It's a messy business if you make it Spanish style. The article you quoted was very interesting. In it there is a old ad for drawn gut which is what I will be using. I've dry tested my 4lb gut and it very strong, next I'll wet test it knotted after a good soak. Of course I could use fluorocarbon and probably catch more fish, but I would like to experience how it was back in the 1800's. The Book you mentioned, I downloaded it, is very interesting to me because I have fished a lot of the North Devon streams many years ago. On the Taw, which was once a terrific salmon river I hooked a large salmon on a 6ft Partridge trout rod and a tiny dry fly, it was on for only a few seconds before it broke off. It was a total surprise to me since I was only fishing for the odd brown trout on a very warm summers day.
Thanks again for all the information you have given me, I really appreciate it. I've been a guide for many years but I'm still learning.
Regards
Barry

Re: What size gut for blind eyed hooks??

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 2:15 pm
by wsbailey
At one point I thought about getting a jeweler's draw plate and drawing some myself but never pursued it.

Re: What size gut for blind eyed hooks??

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 2:25 pm
by Bazzer69
I'm not sure what a jewelers draw plate is but I can imagine. Here in Northern California Mullberry trees are common, some even have delicious fruit on them. But think I'll leave the messy process to someone else!

Re: What size gut for blind eyed hooks??

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 2:29 pm
by wsbailey
I would use gut that was already made.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/251917461/ ... aQod31gFAw

Re: What size gut for blind eyed hooks??

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 2:43 pm
by wsbailey
This book mentions silk gut in numerous places. Type in gut where it says search inside this book.

https://archive.org/stream/anglerscompa ... 8/mode/2up

Re: What size gut for blind eyed hooks??

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:21 pm
by tie2fish
Three or four years ago I tied up some snelled gut flies for a project that Don Bastian was working on at the time. This one, the #8 Grouse Hackle pattern in Mary Orvis Marbury's "Favorite Flies and Their Histories", is tied on a Size #4 Mustad 3399 with the eye cut off and snelled with 6 lb polished silk fishing gut produced in "Occupied Japan" after the end of WWII. The card it came on says the coil length is 10 yards, so it must be drawn silk.
#8 Grouse Hackle per M. O. Marbury.jpg
#8 Grouse Hackle per M. O. Marbury.jpg (220.94 KiB) Viewed 5417 times

Re: What size gut for blind eyed hooks??

Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2017 6:23 pm
by Bazzer69
Yes, it's the same Japanese gut that I have. I believe they used various chemicals to clean the gut and to overlap sections to get the longer lengths. I have 4lb, 5lb and 20lb. Obviously I'm using the lighter gut for my small soft hackles. If you don't try to "horse " a fish upstream then the lighter tippets are fine I see to many fishermen point the rod at a downstream fish and crank away. One of two things usually happen, either the ripper breaks of the side of the fishes jawbone gets broken! I like alight tipper because at worst you just leave the hook in the fish which will rot away in due course.
Are you sure you snelled the gut to the hook or did you just whip it on after flattening a small section?

Re: What size gut for blind eyed hooks??

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 3:35 am
by wsbailey
This site shows some gut being pulled.

http://www.wormspit.com/silkgut.htm

Re: What size gut for blind eyed hooks??

Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:27 am
by tie2fish
Bazzer69 wrote: Are you sure you snelled the gut to the hook or did you just whip it on after flattening a small section?
You are correct, of course. This technically was an inaccurate use of "snell".