Furled Leaders for Bamboo Fly Rods from Cuttroat Leaders

I’ve been so excited about matching thread furled leaders with bamboo fly rods. They have an amazing feel, turn flies over extremely well, and are an incredible match with bamboo. Michael Morin at Cutthroat Leaders offers some really great furled leaders. After watching his video, it’s hard to not try them:

Making wood reel seats for bamboo fly rods

I make all my own reel seat inserts for my bamboo fly rods. You don’t need an expensive lathe, I just use an old craftsman lathe. But, if you’re going to put a mortise on your reel seat, I’ve found that you need a good router table. The precision of the mortise cut is very important or you’ll ruin the insert. I make my cut on a Rockler Router Table with a convex edging bit, sometimes called a finger nail bit (http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=5713). After final sanding, I put two coats of shellac, followed by 8 coats of a high quality tung oil finish, and then a couple of coats of wax. Here a little video of my building process..I hope you enjoy it:

Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo

We had a great time at the Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo in Boise last weekend. The Boise crowd was incredibly friendly and made Mary Ann and feel right at home. I had a booth at the show, and I had a lot of great conversations with “bamboo enthusiasts”. Mary Ann gave a few casting and fly fishing classes and I did an impromptu “Building Bamboo Fly Rods” class when the scheduled presenter was unable to attend.

I had the chance to try out furled leaders from Michael Morin at Cutthroat Leaders. Michael’s leaders are a fantastic addition to a bamboo fly rod. I found they roll out very smoothly and are great for delicate presentations on just about any action bamboo rod. I’ll be adding them to all my bamboo rods in the future. I encourage you to check out Michael’s WEB Page at www.cutthroatleader.com.

One very exciting outcome of the show is that I was requested to design and build a Switch Rod in bamboo. The client is interested in casting streamers and skating dry flies for large Idaho trout and wants to do so with a light switch rod. I’ll be designing this rod at 10 1/2 to 11 feet in length, and a 5/6 wt action. I’m currently researching several different tapers to identify the right action for this style of fishing…should be very exciting!

Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo.

We’re heading out to Boise, Idaho this Thursday for the Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo on January 13th and 14th. Check out the Show’s WEB site at: www.bvffexpo.com/ . I’ll have a booth there with several of my bamboo rods to cast and Mary Ann will be teaching casting classes. There is also a great program with some of the top fly fishing experts in the West. If you’re in the area, I encourage you to stop by the show and check things out.

Hand wrapping guides on bamboo fly rods

Here is a little video showing how I hand wrap guides on my bamboo fly rods. I don’t use a standard rod wrapper with a tensioner. Instead, I hand wrap using a fly tying bobbin to hold the thread. I use Pearsall’s Gossimer 6/0 Silk Thread on all my rods. Going slow and packing thread frequently is the key to getting great wraps. I spend about 30 to 40 minutes on each guide. So, I’ve sped up the video in the middle to shorten it up. Enjoy!

Rod Building – Gluing Strips with the Bellinger Binder.

I’m working on a new rod right now and thought I would shoot a short video showing how the bamboo strips are glued together. I use a binder from Bellingers to accomplish this. Check it out! Oh, and by the way, how about my nice wallpaper in my rod finishing room. This room in my house was used as a boy’s bedroom by the previous homeowners. I have never felt the need to take it down.

My early years of fishing. Twin Lakes, Washington

My mother just celebrated her 80th birthday this past weekend and the family got together at her home in Richland, Washington. I got the chance to go through some old pictures of me growing up and came across this one. That’s me on the left:
I remember this trip where my father took my brother and I (yes, we’re twins) out at a very early age to fish. On this trip, he had two fishing rods; one an old Shakespeare bait casting outfit loaded with leaded trolling line and a second, a 9′ 0″ Montague Bamboo Rod set up with an old floating level line. We trolled flatfish on each rod…yes, trolled with a bamboo fly rod. But, it didn’t seem to make a difference as we came home with a nice catch. Looks like a couple of pretty serious anglers! By the way, I still have these two rods. I don’t fish them any more, but they’re displayed in my living room. Lots of memories of my early fishing days!

Fishing Bamboo Fly Rods on the Owyhee River

Mary Ann and I got to spend a few days on the Owyhee River in Eastern Oregon last weekend fishing for big browns. The water levels were down to winter lows, which opened up just about the entire river for great fishing opportunities. We tried French Nymphing techniques our first afternoon and each managed to land a nice +20″ Brown in small pheasant tail nymphs. Here is Mary Ann’s nice fish (too bad it was on graphite):

Nice Brown!


The next two days we fished mostly dry flies with small nymph droppers, and were successful with several combinations. Small mahogany duns were hatching early mornings, with blue winged olives also hatching through the daylight hours. I was lucky enough to pick up this 25″ Brown on a #20 Blue Winged Olive dry fly one afternoon:

Big 25" Brown


Finally, here is a fun little video of a couple of fish:

Williamson River Brookie on a Bamboo Rod

Williamson River Brookie

Here’s another great fish I caught at Yamsi Ranch last weekend. I picked up this big Brookie on an olive sculpin pattern stripped on the bottom.

Fishing Bamboo on the Williamson River at Yamsi Ranch

I fished the Upper Williamson River at Yamsi Ranch in Southern Oregon this past weekend. John Hyde was a great host and we found lots of big Rainbows and Brookies. Hoopers with Pheasant Tail Nymph droppers were the most successful. How about this 24″ rainbow on a 7′ 6″ 5 wt Bamboo Rod!

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