Rigging: Building A Simple Fly Line Changing Station

S.P. Tomlinson TFF 11.9.2023

A few years ago, I became frustrated with changing lines on my reels. You know the drill, strip the line off into your living room floor, and keep the dogs / cats away from it, while you get a pencil and empty spool.

Have your spouse skewer that spool onto the pencil, and reel that spaghetti mess off the floor. Then reverse the whole procedure, this time adding “drag” to the new line spool so as to prevent a bird’s nest. Oh, and BTW, having to fit the reels to a rod butt section to make life a LITTLE easier!

Being a toolmaker, woodworker, and rod builder, while always looking for the easy way out, I thought “I can improve on this disaster”. Of course, I thought of how this is done in a flyshop on that fancy, powered and expensive gizmo. Not wanting to spend hundreds of bucks, I came up with this simple rig that can be built in a few hours.

BILL OF MATERIALS:

About 4’ of 1×4 (pine / spruce is fine)
Two “blocks” of 2×4 about 2.5” long each
Some thin wood, i.e. 1/4 “ plywood about 1.5” x 10” long
Reel seat assembly, available on line, at FTU, etc.
Piece of Dowel rod (about 1/4″ diameter), about 6” long
Masking tape
Epoxy (5 or 30 minute formula)
Wood glue ( I like Titebond)
A couple of screws
3” -3 1/2″ Carriage or hex head Bolt, Wing nut (1/4 – 20 is fine, make sure it will have enough length for wood, spool, spring etc.)
Light Compression Spring
Plastic washers
An old mouse pad

MILLING:

Cut the 1x 4 for a base. Mine is about 27” long

Using the leftover 1×4 cut two pieces to match the 2×4 Blocks, about 2.5 inches long, match grain to 2X4’s

Glue each piece of 1×4 to the blocks. This will increase the thickness to 2 ¼ “ Clamp & let them cure.

PREPARE THE REEL SEAT

Wind your dowel with masking tape (as you would in building a rod) to create an outside diameter to match the ID (inside diameter) of the reel seat.
Cut dowel to length, leaving about ¾” on each end beyond the length of the to-be-completed reel seat. (These are going to be glued in to the blocks on each end, later).
Assemble reel seat / dowel with epoxy. Let it cure.

ASSEMBLY:

Mark the center 2 ¼ thick face of each block and “down” 1/2 the diameter of your reel seat (make sure they are exactly the same) to accept a mating hole for the projecting dowel.
Drill holes in each equal in depth to the length of the projecting dowel (trim dowel to leave about ¾” on each end)
Glue the rearward block to the base. Clamp. Let cure.
Glue in reel seat dowel to rear block, glue Front Block to Dowel AND base. Wood glue works fine here. Make sure all is tight to reel seat and aligned. Clamp. Cure.
From the remaing 1×4, cut an upright for your spool. Mine is about 8 ½” long by stock 4”. Shape for nice taper. Round the top.
Drill centered bolt hole 1 ½” from top. Epoxy bolt into hole.
Screws & Glue upright to base.
Round off all sharp ends I used a router, you can use a rasp / sand paper, a hand plane, your dog’s teeth; no splinters is our objective!
Cut the old mouse pad for a no slip base. Glue to bottom of the base with wood glue.
Now you’ve got a use your head. Cut that thin ¼ wood and drill to accept the bolt, on center. At the other end, I glued a thin block on to drive the flat on the outside of the spool. As all spools are not the same you’ve got get creative here. A small dowel nub can also work. Look at what spools you have and invent your “driver” to mate up accordingly.
I fashioned a knob from an old flag pole finial. You can figure something out for a crank handle.