# You could spend $285 on a Fly Tester...



## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

...or you could find an old used hamster cage, buy a bottle of Aquafina for $1.67, buy a little electric water pump off Amazon for $7.99, and use a small dab of epoxy and make your own.















My total cost in this thing is under $10, but that's because the hamster cage was collecting dust in my in-law's basement and was offered to me for free. It works pretty well as-is, but I may swap out this bottle for one that is slightly smaller to help focus the flow coming out of the pump into the bottle. I noticed the larger flies I put in were not getting quite as much water flowing over them (or as fast) as I'd like. I think I can get away with a smaller tube (bottle) to help focus the flow a little better. Still, better than shelling out $285.


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## smath (Nov 20, 2013)

TheCream said:


> ...or you could find an old used hamster cage, buy a bottle of Aquafina for $1.67, buy a little electric water pump off Amazon for $7.99, and use a small dab of epoxy and make your own.
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> 
> ...


Cream, how do you hold the fly in the bottle? It's not clear in the video. Do you have to drain the tank to test a new fly?


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## MikeC (Jun 26, 2005)

Nice idea.


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## Flannel_Carp (Apr 7, 2014)

smath said:


> Cream, how do you hold the fly in the bottle? It's not clear in the video. Do you have to drain the tank to test a new fly?


Looks like there is a hole in the top of the neck of the bottle that the fly line is run through and probably tied off to something. The pump/bottle look to be attached by suction cups to the wall of the tank. Doesn't look like you'd have to drain the tank at all; just remove the pump/bottle and swap flies out and stick the pump/bottle back in the tank.


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## TheCream (Mar 19, 2009)

Flannel_Carp said:


> Looks like there is a hole in the top of the neck of the bottle that the fly line is run through and probably tied off to something. The pump/bottle look to be attached by suction cups to the wall of the tank. Doesn't look like you'd have to drain the tank at all; just remove the pump/bottle and swap flies out and stick the pump/bottle back in the tank.


I used my wood burner to melt a tiny hole in the neck of the bottle. I fed a chunk of tippet through that and tied on a snap. It's actually easy to reach inside the end of the bottle, grab the fly/snap, and attach a new fly. Then to pull it into the flow of water, I just pull on the other end of the tippet. The tippet feeding through that close to the flowing water from the pump puts it pretty much right in the current flow.


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## smath (Nov 20, 2013)

Thanks. Very smart.


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