- Location
- Retired in Minneapolis
Years ago on my first West Coast big tree climbing trip Jerry Beranek showed me a nice fly fishing reel that he used for storing a throwline. Jerry told me that he has used it to fish gear up from the ground as well as setting lines in the tree or a nearby tree. He said that it is important to have enough line in the reel to get all of the way back to the ground.
A couple of years ago I found a nice Shakespeare auto-rewind reel at a flea market. There were two for about $13 each so I bought both of them. What a cool way to store the line! That is until the release trigger broke off from being banged around in my New Tribe line mug. Both of the reels are now broken
When I went to the fishing gear store I found that the current ones sell for around $35 and aren't any more durable. Too rich for me.
that meant that I was back to using a manual reel. Problem was I couldn't find the one I used to have which meant that I was going to have to spend some coin on a new one.
Then I was reading another thread about using throwlines in the tree. Many solutions for storage came up. That reminded me of a kit that Charley Wagner had made up. He used the case from a long retractable measuring tape. For Charley's needs it worked fine. I remembered that I had tossed an old tape case in the drawer with tapes, scales and squares. When I opened that drawer I had to fish around and move an old chalkline case...hey, wait!!! That is the perfect reel~!
Besides being free it was super tough! When I was at the big box hardware store I priced out the metal body chalklines. They were under $10 and the plastic bodies were cheaper.
there was a bit of blue chalk inside but it cleaned up nicely.
The reel holds about 160' of waxed cord. This is going to have to work until I get the Spectra kite line to replace it.
In order to attach the leash to the reel I had to drill a couple of holes in the end of the case. Then I tied a few knots to make a choking tether for the case. The choker is made from parachute cord. The choking knot is a scaffold hitch. The tether is sized so that it won't tighten onto my wrist but it won't fall off either. The tether is long enough to allow me to drop the case just below my hands so that I can use both to manipulate the throwline.
There is an eye tied in the end of the throwline using a figure eight on a bite. Then the 8 oz. Harrison Rocket is girth hitched. You'll see that there is a tiny bite on the end of the girth hitched loop. This makes for a nice tab to grab to release the girth hitch. Keep it small though, it would be a real pain if that tab got caught on a stub or bark flake.
When I get the kite line I'll let you know how much I can spool on.
A couple of years ago I found a nice Shakespeare auto-rewind reel at a flea market. There were two for about $13 each so I bought both of them. What a cool way to store the line! That is until the release trigger broke off from being banged around in my New Tribe line mug. Both of the reels are now broken
that meant that I was back to using a manual reel. Problem was I couldn't find the one I used to have which meant that I was going to have to spend some coin on a new one.
Then I was reading another thread about using throwlines in the tree. Many solutions for storage came up. That reminded me of a kit that Charley Wagner had made up. He used the case from a long retractable measuring tape. For Charley's needs it worked fine. I remembered that I had tossed an old tape case in the drawer with tapes, scales and squares. When I opened that drawer I had to fish around and move an old chalkline case...hey, wait!!! That is the perfect reel~!
Besides being free it was super tough! When I was at the big box hardware store I priced out the metal body chalklines. They were under $10 and the plastic bodies were cheaper.
there was a bit of blue chalk inside but it cleaned up nicely.
The reel holds about 160' of waxed cord. This is going to have to work until I get the Spectra kite line to replace it.
In order to attach the leash to the reel I had to drill a couple of holes in the end of the case. Then I tied a few knots to make a choking tether for the case. The choker is made from parachute cord. The choking knot is a scaffold hitch. The tether is sized so that it won't tighten onto my wrist but it won't fall off either. The tether is long enough to allow me to drop the case just below my hands so that I can use both to manipulate the throwline.
There is an eye tied in the end of the throwline using a figure eight on a bite. Then the 8 oz. Harrison Rocket is girth hitched. You'll see that there is a tiny bite on the end of the girth hitched loop. This makes for a nice tab to grab to release the girth hitch. Keep it small though, it would be a real pain if that tab got caught on a stub or bark flake.
When I get the kite line I'll let you know how much I can spool on.
