Monthly Archives: July 2015

Owyhee River Brown Trout

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I just got back from 3 days of fishing the Owyhee River in eastern Oregon with a fellow rod builder, Rick Robbins, from West Virginia.  Lots of big browns.  I chose a 8′  3″  5 wt bamboo rod for most of my fishing.  We had great success on  #22 Trico Spinners every morning, and matched them on Furled Leaders from Cutthroat Leaders in Boise, Idaho and 6X tippets.   Tan and/or black ants on 5X Tippets worked well in the afternoons and evenings.  Check it out.

Morning on the Owyhee River.

Morning on the Owyhee River.

Trico Spinners.

Trico Spinners.

#22 Trico Spinner Pattern.

#22 Trico Spinner Patterns.

A nice Brown that fell to a #14 Tan Ant pattern one afternoon.

A nice Brown Trout that fell to a #14 Tan Ant pattern one afternoon.

Small Bamboo Rods on Small Water.

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I spent a couple of hours exploring Valley Creek last week with a small 7′  0″  4 wt rod.  Valley Creek holds a lot of smaller brook trout, cutthroats, stocked rainbows, whitefish, and salmon smolts.  The brookies were happy to take a #14 Royal Wulff.  Whitefish and rainbows went crazy for small nymphs, and I picked up several on #16 pheasant tail nymphs.  Here are a few photos from my afternoon.

Valley Creek - Perfect for a small bamboo rod.

Valley Creek – Perfect for a small bamboo rod.

A nice brookie that took a Royal Wulff.

A nice brookie that took a Royal Wulff.

Hatchery Rainbow

Hatchery Rainbow

A New Bamboo Fly Rod Gets Finished

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Chris sent me this great photo of his first rainbow on his new bamboo rod I built him (below).  This photo was from the Ruby Valley in Montana.  He sure looks like a happy angler, although he might need a little work on his “posing for pictures”.  Thanks for sharing Chris.

A Great Rainbow on a New Bamboo Fly Rod.

A Great Rainbow on a New Bamboo Fly Rod.

I just finished a great new rod for a good friend and fellow angler whom I’ve known for several years.    Chris and I have been in conversation about his first bamboo fly rod for quite some time, and this rod is his retirement gift to himself.  After casting several of my rods, he chose an 8′  0″  5/6 wt progressive action rod from my Signature Series of rods.  It has a wonderfully smooth action to it, and it’s a good all-around rod for a variety of fishing conditions.  He and I will hit one of our local trout streams tomorrow to test drive the rod.  Here is a quick look at what he’ll get getting:

My 8' 0" 6 wt Signature Series Bamboo Fly Rod

My 8′ 0″ 5/6 wt Signature Series Bamboo Fly Rod

Swinging Buggers with a Bamboo Switch Rod on The Salmon River

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I got out my 10′  6″  5 wt Bamboo Switch Rod today and tried swinging some large wooley buggers through some of the heavy, deeper water downstream from town a ways.  We’ve had some unusually hot weather for the past several days so I was thinking some of the larger cutthroats might have moved into the faster moving, more oxygenated water.  I chose a weighted #4 Black Wooley Bugger with a gold cone-head.  This proved to be a good choice and I was able to pick up a few nice cutties.  Here is a sample of my day.

A #4 Black Wooley Bugger

A #4 Black Wooley Bugger

A nice 16" Cutthroat that couldn't resist my wooley bugger on the swing.

A nice 16″ Cutthroat that couldn’t resist my wooley bugger on the swing.