Do you have a hack?

[mfrench]

So, hack yourself some shoulder straps on those rod cases; I'm ultimately glad that I did. I wasn't going to leave them in the truck, as, well, it is within the greater expanse of the L.A. basin area, and, who knows?!?,....

Gasp, and you didn't invite me along? Crushed.

You could have slept beside me in the passengers seat all freezing night long.
Maybe not?

[SalmoNewf]

I did have a hack for a long time but I finally gave up smoking cigarettes.

[mfrench]

I was given a neat little LL Bean reel. Its a nice small reel, with a bright chromed inlet ring.
I wanted to use it for a rod that I finished a couple of months ago. The reel foot is of stamped metal (aluminum I believe), similar to what you have with the Pflueger stamped foot, for ease of description.
That foot was just that bit too short to fit the rod that I'd like to use it with. The reel just wobbles in the ring/cap.

The rod came to a finish first, and the reel came along later, as gifts from a friend; his fathers cane rods and their reels. S', I'm having to "match"/fit the two after the fact.

So, I had a notion to try some adhesive-backed Velco (real velcro - by product name). I tried small sections of the fuzzy side, to cover the feet contacting points. I tried fitting it on the rod again, and, it fit perfectly, nice and snug. It also does a nice job at protecting the insert from the metal foot. It made a really nice soft shim.

[JoeBolt]

Last week, I was fortunate to find a gently used pair of Size10 Gary Borger wading boots (Goodyear sole) on Craigslist for $30. Knowing they would be a squeeze for my 10 1/2 feet, today I baked them wet in a cardboard box at 250° for 2 sessions at 30', and used a dead blow hammer and some leather conditioner to soften the very stiff toe cap, and apply an internal stretcher, and some bench top pressure to create a more flexible toe cap.

I was able work and hack some needed extra room. Before, during, and after photos of the R boot:

[Brooks]

My favorite hack of the week by reading a 3-year-old Fly Tyer magazine that sits in a collection in the bathroom by the throne:

Cut a piece of pencil lead (like the kind steelheaders use for bottom bouncing) to a length that fits slightly narrower than the width of your tying thread spool, so your bobbin can still go on the thread spool. Put it in the hole in the thread spool. Weights the thread/bobbin very nicely for "hang time" while you're tying. Really works great!

[henkverhaar]

2X; It's currently brassy, but here's a YouTube jeweler's hack, proven to (tarnish) darken silver using hard boiled egg whites. I'm certain in my own bumbling case that I've never spooked a fish via sun glinting off my ferrules, but I have aesthetic needs, and maybe so do you.

While this would certainly work on silver (egg yolk should be even better), not sure it would on nickel silver/alpaca. The tarnishing is from the sulfur contained in the egg yolk/white, combining with silver to form silver sulfide. DOn't think either nickel or copper do that readily...

[Holland]

"Honey, why are you buying another reel? You have a couple of dozen in the fishing closet!"

"But I have aesthetic needs..."

Thanks JoeBolt, I'm using that for sure!

[baughb]

Tried the rubber band technique for drying CDC.... I feel stupid for not knowing this sooner.

[AlexP]

Tried the rubber band technique for drying CDC.... I feel stupid for not knowing this sooner.

I think that most people that hear about the rubber band hack for drying flies with CDC disregard it. When I first heard about it (including seeing it in action) I totally thought it was not going to be as effective as the fancy products they sell at shops. Well, after a while I did try it myself, I always use a rubber band now...

I felt stupid too for not trying it sooner....

Tight Lines!

[DrLogik]

This is more of a DIY belt project than a hack but it works really well for me. I bought used military surplus components (all Molle) off of the auction site, much of it hardly used. Most of the components are made by London Bridge Trading (AKA "LBT"). They have these components in black, military green and various camo patterns.

This stuff is the genuine article and issued to most military branches so it is durable, built like a tank, made in the USA and not all that expensive compared to an equivalent commercial fly fishing belt. Plus I can swap out pouches as needed, which is important to me. I use it with suspenders from First Lite. It's not a "light weight" setup but it isn't heavy either. With the suspenders I barely realize it's there.

I put this together for about $100 bucks. My great grand children will be using this some day.

[Brooks]

I haven’t fished silk in probably close to 25 years. After reading all the different praises for silk on this forum (especially Big TJ), I decided to break out a Billard Whisper taper silk line I had—it’s never been fished. I’ve been treating it as directed, working the line salve into it. When it finally warms up, I’ll give it a go.

But i needed a line dryer. So I asked my wife if she had a small ‘lazy susan’ type thing stashed anywhere in our basement with all our old frypans and paint cans and crap. She delivered! A miniature square lazy susan about 1’ X 1’ with spinning base with bearings.

I bought four 1/4” X 7” carriage bolts and washers and nuts and “hillbilly engineered” my new line dryer (shown here hanging on the back of some shelves in my garage). It’s small enough that I can throw it in my camper.

[retro-1]

All kinds of hacks due to being cheap, and everything costing 5 time what it did a few years ago.
Make my own floatant from a mixture of bees wax & Mink oil. Strike indicators from craft foam
with pipe cleaners running through them to attach to the line. Pennies to make both, and don't
worry about chasing a $2.00 strike indicator down the river. Small see through fly boxes from
old women's makeup containers( clam shell type ). A few fancy boxes from 1930's makeup clam
shells ( flea market & antique store finds ).

[Bee]

I had to do the search engine to find the rubber band hack. Appear to have been first posted more than a decade ago. In the Thread titled “Let them eat Drakes” is anyone else needs to see it. January 10, 2013