"Stuffed" Micron

fixed line fly fishing
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SnooKen
The Great Mosquito King
Posts: 1528
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:24 pm
Location: Mosquito County, Florida

"Stuffed" Micron

Post by SnooKen »

Just finished up my first experimental line and am pleased with the results. Yesterday the 2 spools of Ultima FloCast hollow monofilament arrived in the mail. Using a fine diameter needle with the point blunted I threaded the 19lb mono up the core of some Micron 20lb braided flyline backing. That takes a while. For the final 30" of flyline I shifted down to 10lb Ultima Flocast to get a bit of taper and finished off with a very short section of doubled 19lb to add flotation to the small terminal whipped loop. Whipped a thread nail knot where the 19lb. overlaps the 10lb core then whipped another loop at the butt end of the line. Finished it off by coloring the white Micron with a cool grey 40% artist's pen for stealth factor then dressed the whole line with Gink Floatant.

The Ultima FloCast mono doesn't look or feel any different than ordinary monofilament, has a bit of memory that stretches out easily. Throw a section on the water though and it does float quite well but will slowly sink if pulled through the surface film. Sp. Gravity reported to be 1.04. Micron has no memory and the stuffed line is only a bit stiffer than empty Micron but still quite limp and lays out nicely.

Tested the new flyline in the swimming pool and it floats very well and quite high. If I push it through the surface film it will sink but floats again immediately after a pickup and recast. Also floated well in the pool pump outflow whether thrown up or down current. Put the line on my Amago for some test casts on the lawn. It's blowing like Hell here today, gusts to 20+, so hard to be definitive but the line weight is definitely within the rod's capabilities and lays out nicely.

All in all I'm stoked by the outcome and see potential to make up various tapered lines using different diameters of hollow mono and woven outercore. They are much lighter than PVC flylines, cheaper and less maintenance than silk and don't seem to have a propensity for self-fouling like some furled lines may.

Oh, yeah. I colored the leader end loop bright yellow and whipped it with orange thread for an indicator.

HighViz line with indicator loop
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Stealth Grey line with indicator loop
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The rods you guys are making today would cause Hiram, Edwards and the Paynes as well as Fred Devine to crap their pants then giggle like boys peeking into the girls' locker room as they strung them up and laid out the first casts.
greendrake
Posts: 836
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2008 5:21 pm
Location: Clear Spring,Md.

Post by greendrake »

Ken,
Just out of curiousity,what type of water and species will you be targeting in Fla. with Tenkara? Panfish?
Or is this strictly for when you travel to trout country?
Will
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SnooKen
The Great Mosquito King
Posts: 1528
Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2007 5:24 pm
Location: Mosquito County, Florida

Post by SnooKen »

Will; It looks unlikely that I'm going to see any trout water this year and although Tenkara was developed to fish small fast streams in Japan for very small fish I will probably first use the rod on my neighborhood saltwater flats just to get some feel for casting. If a ladyfish, seatrout, baby snook or jack crevalle eats a fly I'll just have to figure things out from there. Further forays down here will be for panfish on the St. Johns River. Fishing from my skiff with an electric trolling motor in slow moving current along bank and weedline edges. I think the rod will shine in this setting but turning a small bass or 2lb. crappie away from structure may be an issue. At this point it's all a giant crapshoot but my biggest hope is that Tenkara will improve my short game on trout with conventional tackle. Plus, the ability to poke a charging bear in the eye with a 13' rod instead of a 7 footer seems a real bonus.
The rods you guys are making today would cause Hiram, Edwards and the Paynes as well as Fred Devine to crap their pants then giggle like boys peeking into the girls' locker room as they strung them up and laid out the first casts.
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