[Hamish Young]

OK, straight off I do not have photos of this - you will need to use your imganinations.

I recently purchased a non-large arbour fly reel from a private seller on ebay. Nothing unusual in that.
It's a 4" reel that would most probably have been marketed for Salmon fishing 'back in the day' but I was after it for use as a dapping reel.
The need arose as I sold off a couple of large arbour reels that I had previously used for dapping at the end of last year.

Anyway, I eagerly unwrapped the reel.
"WTF " thinks I, "that looks a lot like dapping floss being used as backing".

It wasn't.

What it turned out to be was an imaginative conversion of a standard arbour reel into a large arbour reel by applying layers of double sided tape and foam to fill out the spool until a 'large arbour' reel was created  
Actually it had actually been done really rather well, I know this as taking the three compacted foam 'rings' and associated tape off the reel took a feckin age.
So there we go folks...... got an old reel you want to turn into a large arbour

You could apply tape and foam layers to achieve the task but personally I'd sell the reel I don't want and buy the one I do.....

H

[Peter McCallum]

Ebay is your friend............ Not 

[Mike Barrio]

I wonder if anybody has ever tried something similar with Gaffer tape ... not that I'm thinking of anybody in particular of course

Cheers
Mike

[Marc Fauvet]

some dummies are doing that with lead wire to balance their DH kits...   

[Lasse Karlsson]

Do you do much DH fishing Marc?

 

Cheers
Lasse

[Rob Brownfield]

Surely we all used to do it...by sticking a load of backing on the reel. My old Youngs salmon reel had at least 200m of backing on it to pad the spool out. It was not there for a fish running, thats for sure

[Hamish Young]

True enough Rob, from one point of view.
Mind you, I'm going to be packing said reel with backing and mono fairly soon - just like my old 1540's
H

[Marc Fauvet]

Do you do much DH fishing Marc?

no Lasse but i know that if we're going to add weight to balance a DH rod it's stupid to add weight to the reel spool.  

[Rob Brownfield]

no Lasse but i know that if we're going to add weight to balance a DH rod it's stupid to add weight to the reel spool.  

Without breaking the integrity of the rod, how would you suggest it is done?

(I balance my rods to a certain reel and line when I build them, so no need for spools of lead )

[Marc Fauvet]

i personally wouldn't bother but if i where it would be anywhere else than the spool. (maybe the reel foot ?)
for the same drag setting, a heavier spool will start turning later with higher resistance and will also overrun more. racing cars have lighter wheels than standard cars because they need to accelerate and decelerate faster. same thing.
cheers,
marc

[Lasse Karlsson]

Salmon don't really fight that hard, so no need for fancy brakes and stuff.... Besides most salmon fishers are in it for the excercise, not the fish 

Cheers
Lasse

[Rob Brownfield]

i personally wouldn't bother but if i where it would be anywhere else than the spool. (maybe the reel foot ?)
for the same drag setting, a heavier spool will start turning later with higher resistance and will also overrun more. racing cars have lighter wheels than standard cars because they need to accelerate and decelerate faster. same thing.
cheers,
marc

I see your point regarding over runs and so on.

Slight disagreement regarding car wheels...placing lighter wheels on a vehicle, be it a car or motorcycle reduces "unsprung" weight. This allows the suspension to operate far more effectively, with rebound damping working the way it should and keeping the wheel in contact with the road surface thus improving traction. The secondry driver is heat conduction away from the brakes discs. This improves braking and helps prevents overheating.

[Sandy Nelson]

The secondry driver is heat conduction away from the brakes discs. This improves braking and helps prevents overheating.

The only reason a lighter wheel helps this is because it is easier to accelerate and deccelerate, therefore the brakes require less effort to function therefore don't heat up as much. The wheel has no effective Heat sink properties due to its weight .
Design of spokes, material, Airflow will all help cool the brakes and may well also decrease the weight of the wheel, but it has no tangible effect. The first half of your comment is correct though, along with a few other benefits including effeciency due to the combination of improved traction and reduced rotational inertia.

However having experimented with this many moons ago, we found altering the Rod/Reel balance has no positive effect on rod performance IMHO, you are better to remove the reel completely and lie it on the ground, that allows the rod to work properly and does improve things, ergo the lightest reel you can use is best

Sandy

[Rob Brownfield]

The only reason a lighter wheel helps this is because it is easier to accelerate and deccelerate, therefore the brakes require less effort to function therefore don't heat up as much. The wheel has no effective Heat sink properties due to its weight .
Design of spokes, material, Airflow will all help cool the brakes and may well also decrease the weight of the wheel, but it has no tangible effect. The first half of your comment is correct though, along with a few other benefits including effeciency due to the combination of improved traction and reduced rotational inertia.Sandy

Read out of context. The secondry reason for fitting alloy/magnesium wheels (and thus lighter), not lighter wheels per se.

[Magnus Angus]

Years ago I met a tackle dealer on the Tweed who was making a decent income altering Sage DH rods. From the factory they came with uplocking seats and the balance of the rod meant you had to hold the blank inches ahead of the cork if you fished a fly with the rod balanced in your upper hand - or you had the rather uncomfortable job of tilting the tip of the rod up as the fly swung around.
His solution was to strip the lower grip and replace the seat with a Fuji, installed as a downlocker, which pushed the reel towards the butt, he then completed the job of balancing the rod with the reel on the rod by plugging the butt of the grip with lead to get the balance he wanted.
the balance he was fussing about had to do with holding the rod and reel while the fly was fishing - not casting. Oh, and his objection to uplocking seats on DH rods, apart from pushing the reel farther up the rod, was the reel foot got stuck in the seat more often than with a downlocker.

[Ben Dixon]

Agreed, I want a DHD to sit slightly tip up at the point where it is comfortable for me to hold it whilst fishing.

Ben

[Marc Fauvet]

interesting comment Magnus. what happens if the client changes reels ? 

[Magnus Angus]

Salmon fishers Marc - they don't change reels unless the sky is falling.