Helpful Hints
Make Your Own O-Ring Strike Indicators
By Dougald Scott
Based on Steve Schweitzer's recipe from www.GlobalFlyFisher.com
Helpful Hints
Make Your Own O-Ring Strike Indicators
By Dougald Scott
Based on Steve Schweitzer's recipe from www.GlobalFlyFisher.com
O-Rings: Use for O-rings between 5/16" OD (~8mm) for smaller indicators and 3/8" (~10mm) for larger indicators. Any hardware or home improvement store will carry O-rings this small.
Yarn: I prefer Orvis' Marabou Hair or McFlylon as the all-around best material in which to craft an indicator. The denier is perfect, the density of the fibers is perfect and the fibers are irregularly crinkled, breaking up the uniformity in which straight hanks of poly or yarn may have.
Thread: 6/0 color to match indicator.
1. Choose a color of yarn that is easy for you to see on the water.
2. Cut the indicator yarn by into 9" hanks. Each hank should be about 1/4 the thickness you want the final strike indicator to be.
3. Fold the yarn hank in half twice.
4. Slide an O-ring over the jaws of a pair of hemostats.
5. Clip the hemostats to one end of the folded sections of yarn.
6. Slide the O-ring off the hemostats and to the middle of the folded sections of yarn.
7. Unclip the hemostats and fold the yarn over the O-ring and pull on the O-ring so that the yarn is bunched on one side of the O-ring. Re-clip the hemostats on the yarn above the O-ring to hold everything in place.
8. Wrap thread around yarn next to the O-ring; be generous with your wraps. Tie off as close to the O-ring as possible. Whip finish and apply a drop of tying cement if it makes you feel more secure about the wrap.
9. Firmly grab the ends of the yarn and pinch in a tight, compact fashion. Trim the yarn to remove the folded loop tops and to even things out.
10. Your strike indicator is ready to fish!
Attaching the Strike Indicator:
Form a loop with the butt section of the leader. Insert the loop through the O-ring on the indicator, bringing the loop over and around the top of the yarn. Pull the loop taught against the O-ring and throat of the indicator.