I really like the line holders we have, the manufacturer did a great job with the design, keeping it simple, and functional and making them with high quality. With that being said, and with the possibility of designing and manufacturing our own line holders in the future, are there aspects of it that you like? What would you improve? How would you enhance it?

Open to suggestions if you have any...and no, can't pay royalties for any ideas suggested here, but will send you a free one if we do make a new model and hopefully making our own could help reduce the price too.

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I've tried a couple of different holders but every time I do I come back to the Tenkara line holder. How can it be improved? I don't know. It's simple and functional. Fits well on all the rod's handles I own. Sherry said it might be an improvement to make the groove a bit deeper, making it easier to spin the line on without missing and going over the edge, but other than that, it's a great product. Sorry I had no suggestions.

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Rick

テンカラ。小さなストリームのシンプルさ。
My Tenkara Rods:
13' Ayu, 12' Yamame, 11' with a conversion handle, and an Ito.

My Wife's Tenkara Rods:
12' Ebisu and 13.5' Amago, 12' Iwana with a conversion handle, and an Ito.

Daniel,

I have several suggestions for possible improvement:

1. Make the line holder a little larger in diameter. I find it a little small for winding on line. I try to wind the line without putting a twist on the line, but it takes many turns to wind the line on.

2. Maybe put a little plastic winding knob on the spool to help speed the cranking. I'm thinking of a little winding knob, such as on western reel spools. We could use the collapsed rod's butt section or a small dowel as an axle for the for cranking the line onto the spool.

3. Once the line is wound on the spool, sometimes it still comes loose, so I place some tape across the thickness of the spool to keep the line in place. There must be a way to use a plastic or velcro strip to snap in place to take the place of the tape. I've bought rubber bands to place around my western reel spools to place around the spool to keep the line from unwinding, but I'm forever losing the rubber bands.

4. I also agree with what Rick said (above) about making the groove a little deeper.

It's great to see how you're always striving to improve things and it's much appreciated! Anyway, these are some of my thoughts.

-Jack

How about making the spools so they can snap together like tippet spools. With the fishing pack system I am currently using, having the tenkara line spools hooked together would keep things better organized. Right now I am using my own system of some small carbon fiber kite rod pieces and a heavy duty rubber band to make a simple toggle to hold my spools together in pairs.

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I'd like to second Johnny's suggestion about having them snap together. Also, do these line holders fit over the Amago grip? If not, how about a second size?

Thanks for the input,
Jay

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Hi Daniel,

Instead of developing a brand new one, how about importing an existing one:

http://matsudaya.jp/?pid=3031114

I think there are people out there who already use this one and are pretty happy with it.

Karel

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How about offering different colors for the line holders. If I am running a 10' line and a 13' foot line it would be nice to have a way to differentiate the line lengths. I get confused easily. Maybe even up to different colors. Just my two cents.

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You know that Loop thingy that we talked about last summer was a good idea but a pain in the neck as the spools are not deep enough. They won't fasten on to the rod but it does have spools for four different lines.

narcodog, do you mean that multiple tippet manager from the Swedish Loop company? I never got to try it, thanks for the feedback.

Karel, I tried the Matsudaya and it's okay, but find it too thin, and narrow. It works okay and has similar features to our holders but could be better. I have tried close to a dozen line holders and always feel like it could be a bit better, which is why I'm looking at potentially manufacturing our own. And I'm trying to go from a wish list.

jayfisher, "Maybe put a little plastic winding knob on the spool to help speed the cranking."
I see a lot of people trying to turn the spool when they are winding the line around it. I'm not sure if you're doing this, but instead of turning the spool, you should hold the spool still and wind the line around it. It's way faster that way.

I agree I'd like to have a little wider, and the groove slightly deeper too. And, yes, I would like that they snap together. Or, that I can hold 2 lines in one spool as mentioned by Stan in this other thread which I had missed before posting this: http://tenkarausa.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=1182&sid=0138350f7e8fc884cacdc5135f5ff88a

Good idea Stan!

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打仁得流, テンカラ大使
About me and Tenkara USA

The line holders I have, some ordered direct from Tenkarausa, others ordered from other places but they are the same line holder marked as Tenkarausa. Are 70 mm in diameter ( actually measures 68 mm with my ruler)

But these line holders are available in Japan in 3 different diameters: 56x14, 70x14 and 90x17.

I believe the second dimension is the thickness of the spool. So the 90 mm spool would be a little thicker as well as larger in diameter.

Not sure but I am assuming that the diameter of the hole in the center remains the same , about 23mm, and also assuming that the second dimension is the thickness of the spool , my 70 mm spool measures about 14mm in thickness. Though as mentioned my spools really measure 68mm in diameter not 70 so a bit of rounding of the size in the specification appears to be standard practice.

70x 14
http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... l=ja&tl=en

90 x 17
http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... l=ja&tl=en

56 x 14
http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... l=ja&tl=en

Would a 90mm size be helpful ?
You'd gain about 63 mm ( 2.48 inch) in circumference and little bit in width of the spool channel.

Why was the 70 mm spool settled on as the size to import? Or has it been available before?
I have 5 spools and they have all been the 70 mm size, I never saw an option to order a different size. So , I am assuming that size is the only size that has been available.

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