[david.schotzko]

Has anyone ever cut back the Rio floating tips? I have the head and floating tip of the 5wt SSVP kit that I'd like to cut back to make a total of 28' (it's now 33' - 23' head+10' tip, 320gr total) for a 10'6" 5wt rod.

Should I:
1. cut the 5wt tip back from the fly end and have a much thicker tip
or
2. get hold of a heavier weight 10' tip and cut 5' from the back end, trying to match the diameter of the new butt end to the head (which would keep the tip diameter and front loop)?

Either way I'll weigh it to make sure the whole thing stays in the 270-300gr range, which fits the rod's window.

Is it going to bother me having a thicker tip end? Using this set up for both trout and smallmouth.

Never trimmed anything before, but I'm having fun tinkering with all this stuff...

 

[buff]

What result are you looking for?

Are you looking for a shorter head or a lighter head? Lighter? Use a #4 Scandi Short body with your #5 floating tip, giving you a 285 gr head. Shorter? If you are fishing for species that require a wee bit of stealth, don't chop the tip!

 

[sixheads]

David,

Go for it, you will probably learn a lot.

1. Get a copy of Al Buhr's "How to Design Fly Lines".

2.A gr. scale

3. A micrometer or thickness guage.

If down the road you get interested in line welding check out Peter Charles Line Welding videos at Hooked4LifeFlyFishing.ca

Have Fun,
sixheads

 

[david.schotzko]

Buff - a bit of both, but mostly I'm looking for shorter. Fishing for trout and smallmouth. So you'd keep the tip?

 

[Stumpy]

Sixheads took some of the words out of my mouth...

Get Al Buhr's booklet! Also calipers or micrometer. Also a $20 scale if you're targeting a specific weight, but you can approximate weight from diameter x length using a table in Al's book.

Take your chunk out of the middle; that way, you still have appropriate butt diameter and a tapered tip for delicate presentations.

Line chopping is fun, and rarely fatal!

 

[buff]

Buff - a bit of both, but mostly I'm looking for shorter. Fishing for trout and smallmouth. So you'd keep the tip?

So shorter is the goal... I think it would be better to keep the tip whole with its fine taper for the most delicate delivery possible. The SSVT bodies have welded loops fore and aft, so if you want to keep them, chop a chunk out of the middle of the Scandi body and weld the two pieces together as mentioned above. The only problem I see is cash...I have all of the bits mentioned...welding kit, grain scale, Al Buhr's book...but it wasn't free. I am a wee bit puzzled however...the Scandi bodies are only 23' long. And if you are fishing one as a dry line with a floating tip, you would be using a leader or polyleader about 1.2X-1.5X the rod length...why the pressing need to chop the head at all? Not saying that line designing and building isn't a lot of fun, but what would be the reason for the 18' Scandi body? Cheers, Buff.

 

[david.schotzko]

So shorter is the goal... I think it would be better to keep the tip whole with its fine taper for the most delicate delivery possible. The SSVT bodies have welded loops fore and aft, so if you want to keep them, chop a chunk out of the middle of the Scandi body and weld the two pieces together as mentioned above. The only problem I see is cash...I have all of the bits mentioned...welding kit, grain scale, Al Buhr's book...but it wasn't free. I am a wee bit puzzled however...the Scandi bodies are only 23' long. And if you are fishing one as a dry line with a floating tip, you would be using a leader or polyleader about 1.2X-1.5X the rod length...why the pressing need to chop the head at all? Not saying that line designing and building isn't a lot of fun, but what would be the reason for the 18' Scandi body? Cheers, Buff.

With the Scandi body + tip as is puts me at 33' total, then a leader (or polyleader) off that adds another 12' or so. I was aiming for something a bit less than 3x the rod length for the head+tip length.

Or are you suggesting just running the polyleader off the scandi body, skipping the tip? I admit that I've never tried running the body alone to the leader, but I guess I'd assumed 23' was probably a little too short and the transition to the leader a little too abrupt. Like using a skagit head without a tip... Or maybe that would that work too...

 

[david.schotzko]

Really the head I'm looking for is basically the Beulah Elixir Switch - 300gr @ 27 feet. I could just buy one of those, but that would take all the fun out of it

 

[buff]

No.

With the Scandi body + tip as is puts me at 33' total, then a leader (or polyleader) off that adds another 12' or so. I was aiming for something a bit less than 3x the rod length for the head+tip length.

Or are you suggesting just running the polyleader off the scandi body, skipping the tip? I admit that I've never tried running the body alone to the leader, but I guess I'd assumed 23' was probably a little too short and the transition to the leader a little too abrupt. Like using a skagit head without a tip... Or maybe that would that work too...

I wasn't suggesting that you run the body with a polyleader and no tip. So if you are after a 27' head, you would have to chop 6' out of your Scandi body...somewhere around 65 to 70 grains. So your 27' remaining would be around 250 to 255 grains. Would that be too light for your rod? If I was going to do this, I would choose a relatively level part of the Scandi body to cut out and then start by removing short pieces rather than an entire 6' section and try it out as you go. There is the interesting problem of going past the sweet spot...it would be represented by one too many short pieces laying on your workbench...give it a try. Little harm done...