Whenever I break a fishing pole and can't fix it, I strip off the guides and
put them in a little pill bottle on my workbench. That has come in handy
several times over the years.

A couple months ago, the fourth guide from the tip on one of my Shimano
pistol grip rods broke off, and I found a match for the missing guide in my
pill bottle, so tonight I set about attaching it to the rod.

This will come as no surprise to the guys who have fished with me, but I
used dental floss to attach the guide. I find it to be an easy material to
use in making repairs -- easy to handle, large enough to see with my
ever-weakening eyes, strong and durable.

This time, I didn't have any regular floss, so I substituted one of those
little, white sample boxes of ribbon floss that dentists give with each
visit. I'm can report that it worked even better than the round stuff..... I
doubled the line and laid it alongside the rod with the loop toward the rod
tip, then made three wraps below the new guide to secure the floss in place.
I then positioned the guide and wrapped it tightly, feeding the ribbon
between finger and thumb so it went on flat and smooth. I wrapped the length
of the foot, then crossed above the post and made a couple of turns, then
below the post for a turn and then back up for the last turn or two. The
ribbon is so thin that the build-up was negligible. Then, when I fed the tag
end through my loop and pulled the loop back down under my wraps, the waxed
coating helped it to slide under very neatly, making a perfectly neat job.

I trimmed the loose end... the "pull tag" end of the loop... and then used a
black, permanent felt-tip marker on the white floss. I finished it up with a
couple of coats of the wife's clear fingernail lacquer, and now it's neat as
a whistle.... smooth... glossy.... secure.... I think I'll add one of those
little floss boxes to my tackle box. That way I can repair loose guides on
the water, and after a satisfying chaw of jerky, I'll be able to deal with
those nagging strands of gristle that end up caught between my back molars.
It should work a lot better than monofilament line, don't you think?
--
Joe Haubenreich
www.secretweaponlures.com
First real spinnerbait change in 50 years!
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