<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Gerald Beranek:
What the Kid is calling slickline isn't close in description to what I use, which is also called slickline. Outer sheath bunching up? There's no outer sheath on my slick line. Charly Pottorff gave it to me. 600 ft. 1/8" hard/tight/braided poly. Very stiff line. Kinky whenever it's bunched, stuffed or coiled too tightly. But it straightens out after stretching and using it a bit. And for the most part, after it is stretched, it's virtually tangle free.
About 70' is all I can launch the line by hand. One morning, out of frustration, I cut the slick line 6' behind the sack and then knoted it to 12# mono spooled on a spin reel. Proped the reel on a stand, opened the bail, and launch the weight. My throws immediatly extended to near 90'. Stands to reason to: the sack is pulling less than one tenth the weight. Once over the limb the sack falls to the ground like no line was on it at all. It works pretty well.
There are details pertaining; if you miss the desired limb! don't count on pulling the sack back through with the fishing line: Once it is over a desired limb, and on the ground, you'll have to knot the throwline and pull (reel) it through. This added step in the procedure actually goes quick. Then pull in the climbline.
30 years ago there was no throwline available by design. The only throw line we could come by was the dregs the utility company discarded. Pilot line for pulling in conductor. It was 1/4 to 3/8 twisted poly. Quite a bit heavier than what were use to today. The maximum best throws were only about 60', and averaged much less. And the line didn't just "slide" through the limbs. Quite to the contrary.
Our throw weights were anything and everything. Lead fishing weights, Craftsman drive sockets, wrenches. But probably the most popular weights back then were the guy line insulators. They were readily available. Hard baked ceramic. About thirty ounces. Which balanced out the 1/4" lines nicely. To launch and carry the 3/8" line our weight of choice was the guy rod ends themselves. Near three pounds of galvanized steel resembling a clinched fist. Real killers.
In later years the throwball came on the scene. The ability to bounch a ball through the crotchs of a tree opened new dimensions to the throwline. And some new frustrations. Near the same time a foreman of mine come up with a sack his wife sewed together out of his old denium pants. He filled it with pennies. Took about $1.50 to launch those heavy lines. His sack received a nod of approval, but unfortunatly was not readily available to all of us. After splitting apart a few times and spilling the cash (pennies from Heaven) his wife got tired of sewing it up, and his idea fell by the wayside. And so we stuck with our insulators and guy rod ends.
Yeah, those where the good old days...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
