A FF 'Gear That Don't Work!' Top 10

[mcfinn]

A quip at the end of a recent gear post
(re: a sinker product) read:
"(the) soft weighted gummy/putty is prob'ly going the way
of the dodo, (destined to be) buried somewhere under
the glacier of other 'FF-stuff-that-don't-work' in my trunk."

This begs the question, "What other FF stuff do we just
toss 'in the trunk' - or wherever - once we've bought it
only to learn that it A.) it doesn't work, B.) we give up on
TRYING to make it work, or my favorite C.) it just sux?"
Don't mean to start a manufacturer/s beat down, per se, but if we
could post a short list of stuff that just straight-up didn't work for us (and why) might be kinda cool...

 

[gfen]

The blood knot tying tool, utter fail. In direct opposition to the nail knot tying tool, which is indispensible.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

gfen wrote:

The blood knot tying tool, utter fail. In direct opposition to the nail knot tying tool, which is indispensible.

You need a tool for this? You gotta be kidding.

 

[gfen]

No, I didn't, hence its categorization as utter fail. I need one for nail knots, though, thems hard work.

Why are we awake?

 

[jdaddy]

gfen wrote:
No, I didn't, hence its categorization as utter fail. I need one for nail knots, though, thems hard work.

Why are we awake?

Guess the time of day is messing with you as Eds video is of a toolless nail knot. He is saying you are goofy for needing it. And after reteaching it to myself I agree. The blood knot on the other hand evades me and I bought that tool at Evening Rise the other day. Fail I guess. If it rains tonight I guess I'll figure it out.

As far as equipment fails I don't know. I usually don't hold on to stuff that does not work for me. I am torn on Sharskin. Lots of loop failures and issues with easily iced guides, though positive aspects are pretty awesome. Practically every vest/chest pack has been a fail for me but likely a personal thing. Cabelas brand Wheatly dry fly box was a fail, latches kept coming open.

 

[gfen]

Bloodknot is surprisingly easy, you just gotta work at it a little bit. Nail knot I can do with a straw or something, but it makes me angry. The nail knot tool just works.

And I didn't actually watch his video. Because I secretly hate internet video.

 

[mcfinn]

Nice! Now we're talkin'! The above mentioned stuff includes solid examples of FF gear that (for whatever personal reason)
should be filed under "P" for Poop.
Sharkskin worth the ca$h? Meh... Nail knot tool? C'mon, really?
Internal alarms that keep a couple guys online mucho early? OK, whatever works...
Here's another WTF-tool: the dry fly 'blower' (which i've seen cross-marketed as a 'worm-blower' at Huge-Marts).

 

[wsender]

Nippers.

Sorry, don't care for them much. I have the Fishpond Aussie nippers and they're 'alright'. I carry an old pair of tying scissors on my vest and they're the best.

Dude, nail knot tool, really? I loathe unitaskers and that's the king. Nail knots aren't hard. You should be able to tie one with, phrm, a nail or nothing at all.

 

[gfen]

My nail knot tool comes with a nippers, so its doubly useless to you. ;-)

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Board,

While they are hardly totally useless I'd vote for a landing net. I have two beautiful hardwood nets, one an old style net with the cotton bag and the other is a a catch and release style net.

I just don't particularly care for the hassle of carrying them. If I de-barbed my fly properly I can often simply grab the fly and twist or shake the fish off the hook without really having to handle them.

Maybe if I caught more 20 inch fish I'd feel differently, but I rarely see the need for one?

I had to tie 8 nail knots in fairly short order recently to rig up several multi-tip lines. I started out using a nail knot tool but quickly switched over to tying uni-knots by hand because I was more used to doing them that way.

If you tie your own leaders I think the Dennison blood knot tool is indispensable when you are working with 15# test lines and higher, but for the lighter stuff not so much.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[Heritage-Angler]

gfen wrote:
No, I didn't, hence its categorization as utter fail. I need one for nail knots, though, thems hard work.

Why are we awake?

Yeah, the video is for a nail-less nail knot. Doesn't get much easier than that, and you get the same knot that you do with the tool. Hence - useless....

I was awake because I work third shift. Don't ever switch to third shift.

I used to hate tying blood knots, and once bought a tool called the True Blood Knot tool, or something like that. That thing is absolutely evil! If I EVER run across the inventor of that thing, I'll throw him in the crick. Followed by that evil little tool. :lol:

 

[gfen]

Heritage-Angler wrote:
I used to hate tying blood knots, and once bought a tool called the True Blood Knot tool, or something like that. That thing is absolutely evil! If I EVER run across the inventor of that thing, I'll throw him in the crick. Followed by that evil little tool. :lol:

That's the one. Its completely baffling, counter intuitive, and made me put it down and just learn how to use extra fingers.

 

[pcray1231]

I second the net. I hate carrying nets, far more hassle than its worth. The exception is if you are in a boat, but uh, thats about it. It just ends up snagging on all kinds of brush and stuff.

I used to use em, but the good ole leader straightener is getting kinda useless for me. I've completely switched to leaders primarily composed of chameleon, and just a nice pull does the trick, no need for the leather.

And, hmm, I guess thats all I got for now.

 

[wsender]

I never leave home without my net... I've done it once or twice and regretted it every time. It makes life so much easier and find the snagging issue to be minimal.

+1 on the leather straightener though. It's very rare that I use it. On occasion, in a pickle, when I use the extruded mono packaged stuff (Like Rio or Orvis Knotless Leaders) it comes in handy. Otherwise, with handtied leaders I just pull on the knots and that seems to work fine.

 

[mrchunk]

I find the pinch on foam about as useless as the deep soft putty. Bottom of the bag.

 

[TUNA]

Leader straightners suck, IMO. Always leaves black rubber marks on the line, I just run my fingers over the line and create some heat, job done.

Abel style pliers for regular everyday trouts fishing. Completely overkill, IMHO.

 

[BPS]

A drag on a trout reel. Most pre fab leader to line connections. Florocarbon unless u steelhead fish in gin.

 

[jjsjigs]

Tung-Fu putty. Worthless... unless you roll it out like a little silli-putty snake (know what I mean) and coil it onto your leader/tippet.

and sometimes that doesn't even work well.

any flybox that isn't waterproof... cuz I'm clumsy and drop them all the time.

 

[moon1284]

regarding drag on a trout reel, I have both spring and pawl and disk drag reels, the last couple of reels I purchased have been spring and pawl. One advantage of disk drag reels over click and pawl reels is that when fighting a large fish on the reel using light tippet (ie: upper delaware system using 6x or lighter tippet) the line plays out of the spool with less tension and smoother using a disk drag. Not to go off on a tangent, but centerpin reels have no drag and bearings somewhere inside of their guts to make the reel free spool very smooth, this in combination with a long moderate action rod allows a pinner to not only get drag free drifts, but also to protect very light tippet when fighting large fish. **I still hate centerpin fishing but the root of it is the fact they always catch more than I do** In conclusion, I don't think disk drags are needed for most trout fishing situations, but they definitley "work" and it can be advantagous to use them. Case in point, I would not want to fish 7x with a 6wt rod and an abel tr2 (spring and pawl), but I would not hesitate to fish 7x with the same rod and a lamson lp2 (disk).

 

[sandfly]

those little elongated split shot. too small a slot and you can't get them to crimp at all.