Hi Ray - Nothing dumb about the taper question. There is no one answer to it, however. In the early days of cane rod making rods were almost all made in professional rod shops, and pretty much everything about the designs and process was considered a trade secret. That gradually changed over the las...

I prefer bamboo for wet fly fishing primarily for its ability to protect tippets both on the strike and when playing a fish. I prefer it for dry flies too, but more for the slower pace and accuracy you can develop. I am not opposed to graphite, but really only for heavier line weights and longer rod...

Now you guys have me thinking, which is usually a dangerous thing. Ray, how about adding a small slow speed, or variable speed electric motor to the setup? The motor has a cam shaped drum on its shaft, placed so that it just touches the line that hangs the fly into the tank. When the motor turns, it...

I like the approach. It also looks like it would make it much easier to tie the bugs on small size hooks. I suspect they might be very effective for use in spring creeks in the summer months.

Ummm - A word of caution from the rod makers shop. If you tie a tenkara line to the tip top, and then in the course of fighting a fish or trying to free a snagged fly, point the rod in the pulling direction, it might be possible to separate a ferrule. In that case, your tip section winds up in the m...

Rick - I was a customer of Dale Clemens for a long time. I got started rod making with glass and graphite, and basically got all the stuff from them, and I was close enough to go there to pick it up. I got to cast a few of those apogee blanks when they started carrying them, and really liked them, a...

Dana, That story about the Japanese factory being destroyed has a familiar ring about it. Any chance the custom rod you have is based on a blank marketed by Dale Clemens Custom Tackle under the name "apogee"? If so, I can add a bit to the story.

+1, I am really enjoying this book as well for all the reasons already mentioned. I also have to smile at the contrast between Paul Gaskell's crisp, economical, modern writing style and the more expansive prose from Cutliffe. It must have been a much simpler time. Also noted that Cutliffe's observat...

Hi Ray - My twister arrived from Japan and I played around a bit this afternoon. I made a 7 foot butt section for a tenkara line out of 1X Fluorocarbon. I turned the crank 150 times for the individual strands, followed by 100 turns to twist them all together. It is pretty tightly twisted, so that ma...

Hi Ray - The line you made looks right to me in terms of technique, so I think you nailed the method. For a Tenkara line, I would suggest you also try fluorocarbon. It's more dense than mono and handles the wind better, I think also stiffer which is desirable on a tenkara line. My formula was lighte...