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3. your choice for new tension spool bobin ?

want to get a new one. what do u like?

Brian-

I've use the Rite bobbin on occasion (a buddy's got it and I'll snag it during tying/BS sessions) and its a a really nice unit and tensions well although I found the tube shorter than I liked. Why I stick with my assortment of Griffin bobbins. A quick tension adjustment by minute bending of the arms on a regular bobbin and they're good to go. Personal preference, I guess.

Tight lines, and keep tying 'cause Spring is almost here!

Roguerat

'Less is more...'

Ludwig Mies Vande Rohe

Sorry, no gots I think. Guess Im old school. I have regular old bobbins with the spring arms creating the tension. Real old school was just a length of thread in hand ya know. Then people got Fancy and fashioned the "bobbin" from old hunks of wire laying around. Then came the commercial versions, and they did get better and better, as well as more and more costly. Now what kinda newfangled thing is out there?! :)

Don't ya love it when old codgers answer a question they know nothing about by telling stories of the way things used to be? Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

Paul-

My first bobbin was a Sunrise product, made offshore somewhere (along with the other tools in my 'kit' purchased before I knew better, this was '91 or so...) and within a month or so the tube end had been honed to razor sharpness by thread. As I progressed I stepped up to Griffin ceramic bobbins and have stuck with them. I can't drop the $$ for something I don't really need. No offense to those who use others, again this is personal preference. I love my Renzetti vise when I could have one for less $$.

re: us old farts (I think I qualify, 63 yrs old and tying for the last 25+, but Matt will call ALL of us youngsters!) and stories, there's a moral in people's stories sometimes...experience, been there and done that, and when advice is given or stories told without bombast and know-it-all bashing it bodes well to give an ear, or in the case of this forum, an eyeball:)

BTW I just reread your article in AA about lead-core leaders, and I'm experimenting with some of these for my steelhead ventures. TX!!

Roguerat

'less is more...'

Ludwig Mies Vande Rohe

I do have a ceramic bobbin, a Materelli I think. Cheap stuff does have a way of biting you. Get the best you can afford. I once tried tying with old silk through a cheap bobbin, and after retired that one to monocord.

Cool to think one of my articles is being read years down the road. I must say though I loved fishing streamers behind leadcore. Don't get to do that much anymore.

I don't have any tension spool bobbins. I already have more tension in my life than I really want...

In the interest of full disclosure, I also don't have any ceramic bobbins. I just never got around to it. I have about 20 of those low end regular $5-10 dollar bobbins and I tend to keep spools of thread continuously loaded on most of them so I don't have to fadiddle around with re-threading them every time I want to change thread color or size.

Although I think it could be argued that longevity in this sport is often as likely to lead to calcification of thinking as to wisdom, I've been tying since 1964 and what I do has worked OK for me. Or at any rate, it is certainly an improvement over what I was doing when I started tying. I leaned from old man Herter's book and (as Paul mentioned..) tied with no bobbin at all and a lot of half hitches.

I have had some times of irritation with scored bobbin tubes cutting my thread. But most of this went away when I stopped using those metal wire bobbin threaders and switched to these things: http://www.gumbrand.com/gum-eez-thru-floss-threaders-840a.html Much softer and easier on the bobbin tube. And the price is right.

Now, I only use the metal wire bobbin threader for cleaning the vent tubes on my hearing aid ear molds. They're really great for that..

I think I may have twisted this into a C-Anon (Codgers Anonymous) thread. Sorry Powderfing! I guess we're mostly looking for 'less tension' in our lives, and a little comic relief. Hey folks, days are getting longer now... fast!

I remember tying with just silk thread and half-hitches. Then I graduated to using a weighted clothespin to hold the thread tight. As a kid I lusted after one of the red plastic bobbins that must have weighed half a pound. They would snap the thread if you dropped it, but the technological advance of a bobbin was enticement enough. :)

I started tying/w the " bend type bobbins, then I tried a Rite bobbin , the adjustable tension is very nice and simple no guessing , they come in various sizes,made in the USA I started/w one and now have 8, shorts and longer ones, I have found the bobbin that's very comfortable in hand