home made gear

Has anyone tried making there own gear i fancy having a go at floats and maybe drop offs anyone got ideas on where to start cheers kev

Just found a pic of my homemade drop offs, I'm impressed with them but for some reason the upload pic things changed and host button seems to be missing

Kev,
I make my own pencil floats, they are dead simple to make and cheap enough.



All you need are the following ;
7 or 8 inches of balsa dowel [ B&Q or similar ], 2x U shaped cable staples, 2x strong swivels and your chosen paint.

1. Paint the dowel with required colours. I use combinations of White, Orange, Red, Yellow and Black. I paint each dowel two colours so that I can reverse or swap them easily should the light conditions change. Don’t be tempted to rush it like I did, give the paint time to dry completely – it could take a few hours or even a day or so…[ I ended up with bright orange fingers! ]

2. Now for a fiddly bit, thread the swivels onto the cable staples before knocking them into each end of the dowel [ yes I did that too.. ].  Deep enough so that you know they are never coming out, I don’t trap the swivels against the dowel….. it’s just my preference. you should end up with something like this at each end..


3. You’re done, enjoy.

I've made a few mepp type spinners and some floats that are quite similar to Trevskis.

making your own gear is easy bud, a lot of the time it will be better quality than what you can buy. you can get some great tips by googling stuff or checking out you tube for the how toos, especially lure making.i do everything from traces to rods now! plus the kit you have will be different to everyone else on the bank.

coops440 wrote:making your own gear is easy bud, a lot of the time it will be better quality than what you can buy. you can get some great tips by googling stuff or checking out you tube for the how toos, especially lure making.i do everything from traces to rods now! plus the kit you have will be different to everyone else on the bank.

Yep, have to agree coops.....satisfying too catching on your own gear....In the early days I started making stuff after a shop bought trace let me down in the middle of playing a fish I'll never buy another....recently, I've changed from crimping to twisting.

could never get on with that twisting malarkey- crimps all the way for me, never had one fail yet too

coops440 wrote:Yep, have to agree coops.....satisfying too catching on your own gear....In the early days I started making stuff after a shop bought trace let me down in the middle of playing a fish    I'll never buy another....recently, I've changed from crimping to twisting.

So have I, prefer a twisted trace anyday

Always made my own traces, always used crimps never tried twisting.

Idlepiker wrote:Always made my own traces, always used crimps never tried twisting.

Me too, however I watched a youtube video on it [ of which there are loads ] and picked up that the twisty tag end needs to be heated with a lighter first. After that it was 'simples' and they are super strong!! I have ultimate faith in twisting now .....won't go back!