Comments on: Horse-hair Fly Line

By: EclecticGuy

EclecticGuy — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 12:59:35 +0000

I do plan to make one for myself too! That is my next rainy day project, but I wanted to get Dr. Ishigaki’s done so I could mail it to him asap.

I have a small (4″ diameter, 1″ tall) plastic container with 2 circular sponges cut to fit that I put my horsehair lines and gut tippets in about 1 hr or so prior to “fishing”. This gets them wet and supple before I arrive on stream. I made the mistake of dry casting a furled horsehair line ONCE.

I do have some hair snoods ready to assemble in to a line. I keep a supply of pre-furled snoods of 9, 6 and 3 hairs on hand ready to go (previously for my loop rod fishing but now I can use them with my tenkara fishing too).

By: CM_Stewart

CM_Stewart — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:33:06 +0000

You can’t to a realistic test cast with a dry line. As you know, the horsehair absorbs some water, and the rods are definitely sensitive enough for you to notice the difference between a dry and wet line (for horsehair and thread, that is, not for mono or fluorocarbon).

By: CM_Stewart

CM_Stewart — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:24:05 +0000

I may have misunderstood. I thought you were going to do one for yourself in addition to the one you are sending to Dr. Ishigaki, using the same formula. I’d offer to send you mine to fish with as a test for weight, but after seeing your short demo at the CFFCM, I think you could finish your own in less time than it takes me to get to the post office .

By: EclecticGuy

EclecticGuy — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:11:51 +0000

That is what Dr. Ishigaki wanted! I think he is planning to use it with one of his bamboo rods. I might do a test cast with the line before sending it to him. I finished it off last night.

By: CM_Stewart

CM_Stewart — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:05:19 +0000

I will be very curious to hear how you like a line for which 2/3 of the line is 9 hairs, tapering down to 6. One I made for myself is 1 snood of 9 hairs, 3 snoods of 6 hairs and 1 snood of 4 hairs, (total length 9 1/2 feet, to which I added 1 foot of 3x and then 2 1/2 feet of 5 or 6x tippet). I feel it is much heavier than necessary. I think my next attempt may be a level 4 hair line rather than the 6 down to 3 I had mentioned to you. Still haven’t collected quills, yet, so I’ll knot this one.

By: EclecticGuy

EclecticGuy — Fri, 29 May 2009 21:25:17 +0000

I added the photos I am using in the article I wrote on this topic. You can see them here: http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/p461686325

By: EclecticGuy

EclecticGuy — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:52:52 +0000

Thanks Daniel. The article is much better, including some pretty good photographs. I finished it last night. I'll update this post to include the photos and link to the PDF when the article is published in PowerFibers in July. I just finished making a 4 meter line for Dr. Ishigaki too. It tapers from 9 hairs to 6 hairs. 2/3 of the line is 9 hair. This is what he requested when I offered to make him a line. I'll post photos when it is done. I need to make one for myself too!

By: Daniel W. Galhardo

Daniel W. Galhardo — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:48:56 +0000

Fantastic post. It was on my list of must-reads since we met in NY. You interpret the instructions and describe it with so much detail that I may even feel like trying my hand at it.
Thanks Michael

By: EclecticGuy

EclecticGuy — Fri, 22 May 2009 01:47:03 +0000

Hi again. Since your original comment I’ve spent some time researching tenkara and I am very excited to learn more! As for the hair, I think the source you linked to should be very high quality since it is used for viola and violin bows. I have been purchasing from a source in China that advertises on eBay. It is very consistent quality and when ordered in quantity, very affordable with shipping. It comes in 34″ length too, which is great.

I am very interested in lines for tenkara as well. I have the capability to furl 10-20′ lines from horse hair, silk, and synthetics like fluro, mono and nylon thread. I really want to try this method out to understand what line characteristics are best. I’ve added a thread or 2 of kevlar to some of my synthetic lines and that significantly increases the strength without increasing weight or suppleness. We should talk and perhaps I can make some lines for you to try out.

By: CM_Stewart

CM_Stewart — Thu, 21 May 2009 19:24:01 +0000

I furl the snoods, twisting them by hand, using a simplified treatysse jig, and I do knot the snoods together. For the first few lines I made, I used a water knot and whipped the ends with Pearsall’s flytying silk. I found the whipping to be extremely time-consuming and entirely cosmetic, so I now put a light coat of Dave’s Fleximent on each knot and cut the ends close to the knot. Not at all traditional, but my interest in horsehair lines is entirely practical rather than for historical re-enactment. Also, I’ve never used horsehair for tippets, I like Orvis Super Strong too much.

I’s been a while since I bought the hair, but I think I may have gotten it here:
http://horsehair.ca/index.html?target=dept_20.html&lang=en-ca

More importantly, if yours works well for you, where do you buy yours? I’m about ready for another hank.

I know that early Japanese tenkara lines were made of horsehair. I haven’t seen any references to silk lines. There is lots of information on tenkara, but unfortunately most of it is in Japanese. In fact, up until last month, you couldn’t even buy a tenkara rod in the US – nobody imported them. I absolutely love the simplicity of tenkara fishing. Unfortunately, making horsehair lines doesn’t quite qualify as simplicity, so I usually use fluorocarbon. Google “tenkara fishing” and you’ll find a number of forum comments, and some Japanese websites.