The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Evening Gents,
do any of you use wooden line winders?
I have a number of these and was toying with the idea of putting them back to work.
Pole rigs is the obvious staring point.The next maybe pre tied hooks to save precious time on the bank with my short sessions.
Also considered full float rigs for when out trotting.
I also have a neat old dominoes wooden box which I may combined with a couple of the winders to make my own version of those victorian winders.
Just some thoughts.....

Regards-Nige.

I find line winders invaluable during the winter for storing ready tied rigs when grayling fishing. It saves trying to tackle up from scratch on those dull winter days. I must admit that my wooden line winders stay in the display cabinet. I use plastic on the bank (shame I hear you say!) but they are lighter and don't suffer in the rain.

All my pole rigs are on wooden line winders. I use tiny quills as pole foats and keep spare ones in the shot storage compartment in the middle. I keep the winders individually in ziplock plastic bags, a wooden box would be neater but I don't have enough room in my bag. You need to store them in something though to stop the hooks catching or the floats being damaged. I put the loop on first, wind on the rig then use an elastic band on the hook pulled over one of the legs of the winder to keep everything tight and tidy.

When pole fishing I always have a couple in my bag. With different style floats. But it is almost as much work as changing a float and hook, so I usually just do that.

I love line winders - but only as display items these days. Here are some of mine.

They were once a practical necessity - harking from the days when the end tackle and main line were of vastly different materials and thicknesses, e.g. plaited silk or linen lines to which a finer, semi transparent cast would be attached, bearing a still finer hooklink. The resulting progressively finer tackle aided not only presentation, but - just as importantly - minimised tackle loss.



Modern monofilament lines however, lend themselves very easily to being fished 'straight through', or with just a finer hooklink connected loop to loop.

The remaining exceptions are pole rigs to be connected to elastic - where a rig winder still therefore serves a wholly practical purpose. To a lesser extent there is also a practical application when using modern braided main lines.

Having said all that, we all know that traditional fishing is not just about pure practicality. There is obviously a very great appeal in emulating 'the old ways'. Angling, thank goodness, is still a domain for the romantic as much as it is for the pragmatist.

During the COVID lock-down, I kept myself occupied by making some winders following the instructions in Paul Duffield’s book “Make Your Own Traditional Fishing Tackle.” They look quite good, even if I do say so myself.
After looking at “Winders, Keepers” I managed eventually to get three “olde” winders with the shot and caps section from that well known auction site, before the prices went up to ridiculous levels.
I use two of the winders for holding my set ups of “Homer” and “Naiad” type floats for fishing, the other is just to look at and admire the workmanship of the maker.