Ocean Star No. 36 (Amateur Deep Clean)

[sdlehr]

Yes, a mirror finish on your metal drag disks will provide the smoothest drag, along with the proper teflon-based lube (everyone here uses Cal's drag grease), just like your car's brake discs may need to be resurfaced for proper braking. When drag skips and catches, stops and starts, that's when you're most likely to have a breakoff from a defective drag, and that's what a smooth drag will avoid for you!

Sid

[FlipFlopRepairShoppe]

Thank you for educating me, sir!  The teflon lubricant will go on my "needs for fishing" list.  Where can I purchase the smallest amount available?  

Also, today I'm going to try my hand making some rough imitations of the famous Yozuri Pencil Popper.  Now that I have a few lures made up and curing for my excursion, I can sit back and try to make some more proper gear.  My version will be tail weighted so that it has proper ballast.  Mainly for casting, but also to make up for my amateur level woodworking skills.  Hopefully this will make it swim better than a rough-carved non-dimensional non-ballasted version. While I'm sad that they discontinued them years ago, they'd be out of my price range brand new right now, anyway.  Also, mine will be single hook versions with the barbs crimped.  I like a long fight, and a quick release with as little damage to the fish as possible. 

[thorhammer]

You have my attention here, buddy! I love this thread and the whole idea of going throw-back on the rig.  I've done similar. Back about 20 years ago I was in a specialized niche fishery and wanted some poppers that would launch past stock Cordell Pencil Poppers. I started hand carving and sanding out of stock pine dowels from Lowe's....lemme tell you, your's will catch (where are you fishing and for what?)

I rear-weighted the popper in a bowling pin shape (like the Cordell) and added appx.3/4 oz of lead in the rear. I poured into a drilled hole but you can also achieve by epoxying in split shot weights or whatever. They will flat-out launch. I cupped the faces with a dremel sanding drum, and sprayed with dollar spray paint whatever color I wanted. the whole show was done in the same spirit: hand made, budget, low-tech.

Can you illustrate how you did your through-wire?

I have a bunch of screw-eyes, flashabou for the rear hooks, hooks, small diving bills, etc. left from these projects. PM me your address and I'll shoot you a care package in a couple of weeks when I get back from vacay. Anything else you can imagine, just ask and I'll see what I have. I'll never use all of what I built, plus commercial poppers, so any parts I have I'm ceretainly willing to share.

Carbontex washers certainly work dry (as they are stock in Penn reels) but MysticParts.com has Cal's and you
can get on ebay. I think a 2 oz is about $8 and will do a lot of reels.

One last point...not sure how you lined or what you're after but I threw mine on 12 or 14 lb mono with a 30lb shock leader, and caught stripers in the teens with that setup.


"Edited as per Moderators to correct Scott's Bait & Tackle over to their new store name Mystic Reel Parts / www.mysticparts.com"

[FlipFlopRepairShoppe]

Thorhammer, I appreciate your support, both moral and with whatever spare lure parts that you can spare.  I was afraid that I was going to be laughed off the forum for my first rough attempts.  

I'm in Niceville, but work and fish in Destin, FL.  I stalk redfish, pompano, permit (when available), smallish sharks, Jack Crevalle, and basically whatever is cruising the sandbars here.  I don't like using fish finder rigs with live bait because I catch way too many catfish and stingrays. Plus, bait is expensive.

The beaches are super flat and sandy, so topwater action catches alot of attention.  The waves are rarely over 3 feet, so there's some minor surf slush, but nothing like on the east coast.  I grew up in West Palm, so I've fished offshore and inshore, both Atlantic, Intercoastal, and Gulf.  Down in South Florida I stalk Snook.  It's an addiction.  But up here the game is so varied that I have to keep a variety of approaches on hand.  Making my own rigs is the only cost effective way for me to get back into the fishing addiction.  I left it for about ten years, and only kept my grandfather's reels.  So, I'm basically starting over.  I used to be strictly artificials, all day.  For me, it's more sporting, and it keeps it challenging.  My arsenal used to include something like 30 different lures, kept in a binder, that I'd tote out with my rod and some repair tackle.  I will be back there in a couple of months.

I was actually in the workshop preparing some blanks for through rigging when you sent your reply.  I'll upload some photos.  I've tried the bottom-inletting that some folks love, but I personally am more of a fan of through-drilling.  It's harder for me to get the wire passage perfectly aligned, but that's half the fun.  It gives me a greater chance to make a more unique lure because I carve on belt sanders.  So I can stand there and shape to whatever flowing organic image that I can feel in the wood. Sounds mystic, but I'm sure that anyone who putters around in their workshop knows the feeling when the project takes over, and you take a back seat.  It's half the reason why I like rolling my own, instead of hunting down cheap lures.

[thorhammer]

Naw, you'll never get laughed at on this site for resurrecting anything and/or doing things old-skool by hand. It's the DNA of it. Suggest you read latest post by MHC (Mike) on what he's doing with hand tools and stainless to make frame for a Penn 60, that was just yesterday. Guys are using 80 YO reels on homebuilt Calcutta, because of the same reason you are doing this.

Agree entirely about the zen of it...I started with making jigs and spoons. Then poppers. Then building the rods. Now building the reels, from this site. I was literally whittling with a Queen pocket knife and then sanding by hand, then using the eye screws because I didn't have a good way to through-bore.

I got a belt sander a few months back and trying to get a window to run out a few plug blanks on it.

You need some trebles or are strictly J-hook? I have tons of this stuff that needs to get wet, shelved for over a decade.

PM address.

[FlipFlopRepairShoppe]

I tried hunting down MHC's posts but couldn't find it using the search function. Could you please link me?  I love reading about people tackling problems with what they have on hand.  Working with top of the line power tools is wonderful, but.......I want to know the guy who can do a similar job with hand tools or home built equipment. 

Case in point, this bad boy pictured down here.  Probably the ugliest, wonkiest 2x72 belt grinder ever made.  My buddy and I made this, while completely sloshed.  Getting it to track is impossible without the use of vice grips.  I work with steel, so I've got mostly metal working tools, but if it'll cut 1075 high carbon steel, it'll cut pine.  I use this to do the major shaping on my blanks, then use a super cheap harbor freight 1x30 for the final smoothing.  I love using hand saws, and I even drill the through channel with a hand drill, but hand sanding beats the crap out of my wrists.

Sir, what is a homemade Calcutta?  Like the bait company? 

Also, rod building is where I want to get to, but the initial outlay for the blanks and epoxies is cost prohibitive.  I will get there, down the line.  I want to make a a full setup of super retro surf gear.  Anyone can catch fish with the latest and greatest.  The guy in the surf with the big Penn 70whatever series spinner, on an old fiberglass stick is the guy I want to fish with.  No super braid, no graphite, nothing made after 1989.  I want to be known as the guy who catches fish with thrift store gear.

[thorhammer]

Ok dude you're in the right place...I built most of my collection out of pawn shops, yard sales, flea market refurbishment. I've been meaning to do a thread on rebuilding a flea market rod for the cheapest possible, including the turning gear, so I'll get on that.

Calcutta is the prized grade of bamboo cane, used for fly rods to tuna rods 60 years ago or earlier before fibreglas.

[thorhammer]

One of my plugs, and some of the rods I use for them: Mitchell 488's and 486, on honey gold Lamiglas and Fenwick glas staffs that I rewrapped. Minimum 30 years old and likely 40 in some cases.

[FlipFlopRepairShoppe]

Please do the thread on the cheapest way to do the rods!!!  I need this information.  Before I bought that Sea Striker, I hunted around for surf rod blanks because I know I can find the spine on a rod blank and tie on rod guides.  I posted the pictures in this post because I forgot to include them in the above post.

I have nothing but respect for fly fisherman, and ever more respect for people who make their own flies and fly tackle.  That level of hand dexterity is beyond me.


Here is my homebuilt and low-tech equipment. The belt grinder is made out of scrap square tube, an old 110/220 fan motor, new grinder wheels, and some cheap 2x72 belts that I was given. I have several electric drills, but I find that I get straighter channels when I do it by hand with my trusty hand drill.  I'll eventually do some lures completely by hand, just so that I know that I could build them without power.  Heck, I'm even going to make my own paint and sealer, later on.  I love that kind of stuff.

[FlipFlopRepairShoppe]

Those. Are. Gorgeous.   

I'm going to build rigs like that, down the line.  I love the old gear.  The new stuff does nothing for me.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking it.  I was catching sailfish with Shimano Baitrunners on a family friend's 25' foot Contender back in the early 90s.  At the time it was the best equipment tailor made for light offshore charter fishing.  Today, I'd rather fish from shore with 50 year old equipment, because it doesn't require a $100k investment.

[thorhammer]

That belt sander is awesome.

[FlipFlopRepairShoppe]

Notice the super high tech tracking accomplished by a harbor freight big vise clamp zip tied to the frame, and the other vise grip on the top wheel.  It will spit belts at you if you don't have them in place. 

I was making it for a friend, he sourced the wheels and came up with the plans and motor.  I went back to trade school last year to learn to weld (cool process, terrible work field) so I stick welded it together for him.  He moved to take an awesome job in Birmingham, and when we exchanged goodbye gifts, he gave me the grinder.  It's a workhorse. 

[FlipFlopRepairShoppe]

I didn't get a chance to head out to the workshop until about 10:30pm.  Had to run errands all day in the lovely feeder bands from Cindy.

So, I learned a valuable lesson tonight.  I am done through-drilling, for now.  I shaped up three small topwater swimmer baits, and.......blew through the sides of all of them.  I'm just going to inlet and epoxy from here on out.  It will cost alittle more, but it's worth it because I can make cooler shapes.

I made my first attempt at a Yozuri popper, a regular shad style swimmer, and a modified fat boy Yozuri-style.  I'm going to do the final shaping and rig and paint them tomorrow.  In the picture below the regular Yozuri style popper looks straight but it has alot of neat dimensionality in person.

[sdlehr]

Calcutta is the prized grade of bamboo cane, used for fly rods to tuna rods 60 years ago or earlier before fibreglas.

Funny this should come up today. Steve (Oc1) and I have been trading messages about bamboo, and I've done some recent research. Steve lives in HI and builds his own bamboo rods from bamboo he grows himself. I'll let him expand if he wishes.

If you talk to bamboo growers, they don't know what Calcutta cane is. Call it "Male bamboo", or by its scientific name, Dendrocalamus strictus and you'll get somewhere. It seems that only fishermen refer to bamboo rods as "cane". This particular bamboo plant is native to India and Asia, but has also become naturalized in Cuba and several Pacific Islands. It prefers dry weather but tolerates monsoons. In India it grows with solid culms (the culm is the trunk). In Florida, where I am, it grows with hollow culms, presumably due to the difference in humidity but that hasn't been explained to my satisfaction. In building a split-bamboo rod only the outside of the culm is used anyway, and the culms I've seen split for rod-making (on videos) have been hollow. "Calcutta cane" is a "clumping" bamboo, not a "running" bamboo. The former are useful in landscaping. The latter are like weeds and will pop up runners three yards down the road; not what most people want in their yards, considering if left alone they can easily grow 30-40 feet tall or more in a few years - they grow extremely rapidly.

I never understood what it took to build a split-bamboo rod until I started this research a few weeks ago. There's a cool YouTube video of Hoagie Carmichael (who bought the Garrison flyrod shop years ago) building split-bamboo fly rods. The precision required is amazing. The rod shop has since been donated to a museum somewhere in the Poconos.

Sid

[FlipFlopRepairShoppe]

Thank you, Sdlehr!  I love learning about older and nearly forgotten practices. I'm also in florida, up in the Panhandle.  There's alot of clumping bamboo around here. I'm going to take a look at split bamboo rods, because I think it's amazing that you can catch tuna with gear made out of cane.  In our super-modern age nearly everything in our lives is machine made or mass produced.  Bringing back the old handmade ways is as vital (to me at least) today, as it was to the men and women who relied on the processes in order to survive.  We must not let these old arts die.  We have newer (some say better) processes for doing all kinds of things today, but forgetting how we got to the point where we are now is a short-sighted approach that can only hurt us.  

The average man in a closet sized workshop can make a stunning variety of things.  I wish more of my generation would put down the video game controller and pick up a hand tool.