does any one else snell midges? with aging eyes and less steady fingers, threading midge size hooks on the river is a near impossibility especially on 7X tippets.
snelling midges?
does any one else snell midges? with aging eyes and less steady fingers, threading midge size hooks on the river is a near impossibility especially on 7X tippets.
C&F offers threaders. Makes pretty quick work of tying on tiny midges. Not that expensive either.
I'll pre-tie tippet in the winter. It's much easier to thread a hook in a warm house than out in the snow. I usually fish two flies, so I'll rig them both to a tippet ring (only use them in the cold) and wrap the tippet around a piece of cardboard. I'll make about three such rigs -- if I go through that many, it's time to quit anyway.
Bob
Another vote for C&F threaders. C&F also makes some matching "threader" fly boxes, and they can hold pre-threaded flies. Really convenient as you can thread multiple flies on a single threader.Originally Posted by dpenrod
Only problem is I don't use the C&F boxes, so I need a place to stash the threaders. I want them to be convenient, but protected as the tips are easy to bend out of shape. I'm always looking for places in my fly boxes to stash them, but only a few have a decent spot. I made a little foam "holster" but they don't stay in very well. This shouldn't be hard, but I haven't created an ideal solution.
Anyone have a DIY C&F threader holster?
I probably should buy one of these and attach it to a fly box, but I'd love to have a threader hanging on my vest where I could always get to it.
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Last edited by Bruce Norikane; 08-13-2016 at 03:21 PM.
thanks for all of your input. in my case, the real problem is threading tiny flies while on the river and in less than ideal conditions such as cold, lack of light, trembling fingers, etc. As in the case of Redietz, I'm relegated to snelling before arriving on the rivers.
I pre-tie tandem nymph rigs and dry / dropper rigs at home. Then I just need to thread and knot once to have a pair of flies attached (vs. two fly threadings and three knots if tied from scatch). It makes a difference on stream, especially in cold weather or low light. I use the small size (1.5" x 5") Tackle Buddy (http://carlsonmachineandtool.com/pro...pinner-holder/) to store my pre-tied rigs.
You can find the Tackle Buddy in the regular fishing section of many stores. It is intended for holding spin fishing snells and should work fine for a single snelled fly.
Try a C&F threader in a store with your midges. They work very well for exactly what you're describing.
The C&F threaders help either on river or at home. For me, pre threading flies at home with the C&F is much faster and easier than pre-snelling. With the matching C&F box, the pre-threaded midges are also very convenient to store. No winding and unwinding snelled flies. Also much more compact.
The threaders also work on river. I can get the threader through a tiny hook eye much easier than trying to get a limp 6x or 7x tippet.
I have no affiliation with C&F.
A threader still isn't much help when it comes to tying knots with cold fingers.
Bob
Do you use loop to loop to attach the snells?
Ahh, that solves two problems, tippet through hook eye and tying a knot in cold weather.
I guess I'm a wimp. When it's too cold for me to tie knots, I don't fish anymore. I can tie knots with gloves on, but I don't fish much when it's below 32 F. Not much patience with line frozen in the rod guides.
Even in good weather, I do have trouble with 6x tippet through some patterns with anything over the eye. For those patterns, the threaders are great.
Also for evening hatches, the pre threading the threaders works very well. I can tie on new flies until it's too dark to fish.
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