Makeshift rod guide repair

A couple months ago, the fourth guide from the tip on one of my Shimano pistol grip rods broke off, and I found a match for the missing guide in my pill bottle, so tonight I set about attaching it to the rod.

This will come as no surprise to the guys who have fished with me, but I used dental floss to attach the guide. I find it to be an easy material to use in making repairs -- easy to handle, large enough to see with my ever-weakening eyes, strong and durable.

This time, I didn't have any regular floss, so I substituted one of those little, white sample boxes of ribbon floss that dentists give with each visit. I'm can report that it worked even better than the round stuff..... I doubled the line and laid it alongside the rod with the loop toward the rod tip, then made three wraps below the new guide to secure the floss in place. I then positioned the guide and wrapped it tightly, feeding the ribbon between finger and thumb so it went on flat and smooth. I wrapped the length of the foot, then crossed above the post and made a couple of turns, then below the post for a turn and then back up for the last turn or two. The ribbon is so thin that the build-up was negligible. Then, when I fed the tag end through my loop and pulled the loop back down under my wraps, the waxed coating helped it to slide under very neatly, making a perfectly neat job.

I trimmed the loose end... the "pull tag" end of the loop... and then used a black, permanent felt-tip marker on the white floss. I finished it up with a couple of coats of the wife's clear fingernail lacquer, and now it's neat as a whistle.... smooth... glossy.... secure.... I think I'll add one of those little floss boxes to my tackle box. That way I can repair loose guides on the water, and after a satisfying chaw of jerky, I'll be able to deal with those nagging strands of gristle that end up caught between my back molars. It should work a lot better than monofilament line, don't you think?