Sorry this might be a bit long!
I have been regularly checking the Deeperblue forum for about a year now and thought that it was about time to contribute after learning so much from the regulars here. I have been spearing in Japan for the past four or five years and it has been fun. However, everything including gear selection to finding dive sites has been trial and error (but interesting).
I have been fishing with a gun with no floatline, buoy, or reel. I had used a stringer attached to my weight belt, but as the line is wire I figured that this would be pretty dangerous if it ever got tangled when diving. So after checking out this site I decided to make a floatline. There were a good couple of threads regarding DIY floatlines, and it looked easy enough. Or so it appeared!
I popped to the local craft and fishing shops, armed with my shopping list, to get the necessary equipment:
Mono
15 m of clear plastic tubing
Some split rings
Barrel swivels
Crimps and crimper
After getting home, I decided to try and start on the line, ‘should not take too long’. What a fool!
I first tried to push the mono through the tubing, as this seemed the easiest thing to do. However, the friction between the mono and the tubing meant that after about 3 m it would jam. Bugger!
Next, I tied a length of strong thread to the end of the mono and tied this to a lump of cotton.
I have a pump that I use for my inflatable kayak and one end of the pump blows while the other sucks. So I attached the end of the tubing to the end of the pump that sucks and things looked to be going well. The thread shot up the tubing with the first suck and the next. Hehehe, cracked it!!
No I hadn’t! I managed to get the bloody piece of thread and cotton 3/4 the way through the tubing and then it jammed up! Bugger, bugger. Kept at it for a bit with no luck. Tried pulling the thread back and then trying the pump again, but for some reason it would stick time and time again at roughly the same place. Could this be due to friction? Bummer, how can I reduce the friction?
I then had a brainwave!! I would try and reduce the friction by adding some washing up liquid to the tubing. By this time it was getting late, I was tired, and obviously well and truly P****D **F with this tubing caper!
I proceeded with the washing up liquid idea; again this seemed to do the trick. Yes, I had finally cracked it, I announced to the wife, son and father-in-law! (this was all taking place in the living room!). However, once again the thing jammed about 3/4 way through the tubing! Also some of the washing up liquid had managed to find its way into the pump.
Does anybody remember a Rolling Stones video that consisted of lots of bubbles and sailor’s suits? Well the living room was turning into a remake of that Stones video (minus the sailor’s suits). After a long list of expletives similar to Mutley (if you can remember Whacky Races), I decided to F*** this and go to bed. Could not take any more of the sniggering coming from the wife and father-in-law!
After leaving the ‘project’ for a week, to allow tubing etc. to dry decided to give it another try!! Glutton for punishment!
This time the father-in-law decided to give me a hand. What we decided was to go to the apartment block opposite the house and dangle the tubing from the balcony and feed the weighted thread attached to the mono down the tubing. This failed miserably, again I have no idea why, but we put it down to friction. As a last resort we decided to push the thread into the tubing and when it balled up, pour water down. I bet you are thinking this will fail!!
To our surprise it worked a treat! We had the thread threw in about 15 mins and then the mono. After that it was plain sailing to attach the swivels etc. and have a float line that works!!!
Moral of the story if at first you don’t succeed try, try and try again but forget using mono! I gave the floatline to my friend as a Christmas pressy, so for the next one I will be using dyneema! And there will be a next one!
I have been regularly checking the Deeperblue forum for about a year now and thought that it was about time to contribute after learning so much from the regulars here. I have been spearing in Japan for the past four or five years and it has been fun. However, everything including gear selection to finding dive sites has been trial and error (but interesting).
I have been fishing with a gun with no floatline, buoy, or reel. I had used a stringer attached to my weight belt, but as the line is wire I figured that this would be pretty dangerous if it ever got tangled when diving. So after checking out this site I decided to make a floatline. There were a good couple of threads regarding DIY floatlines, and it looked easy enough. Or so it appeared!
I popped to the local craft and fishing shops, armed with my shopping list, to get the necessary equipment:
Mono
15 m of clear plastic tubing
Some split rings
Barrel swivels
Crimps and crimper
After getting home, I decided to try and start on the line, ‘should not take too long’. What a fool!
I first tried to push the mono through the tubing, as this seemed the easiest thing to do. However, the friction between the mono and the tubing meant that after about 3 m it would jam. Bugger!
Next, I tied a length of strong thread to the end of the mono and tied this to a lump of cotton.
I have a pump that I use for my inflatable kayak and one end of the pump blows while the other sucks. So I attached the end of the tubing to the end of the pump that sucks and things looked to be going well. The thread shot up the tubing with the first suck and the next. Hehehe, cracked it!!
No I hadn’t! I managed to get the bloody piece of thread and cotton 3/4 the way through the tubing and then it jammed up! Bugger, bugger. Kept at it for a bit with no luck. Tried pulling the thread back and then trying the pump again, but for some reason it would stick time and time again at roughly the same place. Could this be due to friction? Bummer, how can I reduce the friction?
I then had a brainwave!! I would try and reduce the friction by adding some washing up liquid to the tubing. By this time it was getting late, I was tired, and obviously well and truly P****D **F with this tubing caper!
I proceeded with the washing up liquid idea; again this seemed to do the trick. Yes, I had finally cracked it, I announced to the wife, son and father-in-law! (this was all taking place in the living room!). However, once again the thing jammed about 3/4 way through the tubing! Also some of the washing up liquid had managed to find its way into the pump.
Does anybody remember a Rolling Stones video that consisted of lots of bubbles and sailor’s suits? Well the living room was turning into a remake of that Stones video (minus the sailor’s suits). After a long list of expletives similar to Mutley (if you can remember Whacky Races), I decided to F*** this and go to bed. Could not take any more of the sniggering coming from the wife and father-in-law!
After leaving the ‘project’ for a week, to allow tubing etc. to dry decided to give it another try!! Glutton for punishment!
This time the father-in-law decided to give me a hand. What we decided was to go to the apartment block opposite the house and dangle the tubing from the balcony and feed the weighted thread attached to the mono down the tubing. This failed miserably, again I have no idea why, but we put it down to friction. As a last resort we decided to push the thread into the tubing and when it balled up, pour water down. I bet you are thinking this will fail!!
To our surprise it worked a treat! We had the thread threw in about 15 mins and then the mono. After that it was plain sailing to attach the swivels etc. and have a float line that works!!!
Moral of the story if at first you don’t succeed try, try and try again but forget using mono! I gave the floatline to my friend as a Christmas pressy, so for the next one I will be using dyneema! And there will be a next one!