Kingwood for Reel Seats

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I recently discovered a great new wood for reel seats on my rods. Kingwood is a member of the Rosewood family. It’s one of the hardest of the rosewoods, and as such, can be a little challenging to work with. But, with very sharp tools, it turns well on my lathe. It has a little more of a purple color than most of the rosewoods along with many black streaks in it. Once it is finished with a nice oil finish, the purple turns into a deep red color, let’s call it a “Cabernet” color! Here is what it looks like once it is finished.

A beautiful Kingwood reel seat.

My Bamboo EuroNymphing Rod on the Lower Deschutes River

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I got out on the Lower Deschutes River yesterday for a day float with Mary Ann, and our good friends Alice and Mike, who are both guides from West Yellowstone, MT. Mary Ann, Alice, and Mike took out their two hand rods and chased steelhead for the day. But, I was more interested in looking for the larger rainbows in the Deschutes River with my 9′ 0″ 4 wt bamboo EuroNymphing rod. I had some great action with small #18 and #20 mayfly nymphs, with several fish in the 15″ to 19″ range landed. My 4 wt rod managed these larger fish very well, and I never felt I wasn’t in complete control. And the sensitivity of the rod made it easy to detect the light takes on these small flies. I even hooked a nice steelhead momentarily on one of my small nymphs, but after a few head shakes, it easily broke my 4X tippet…not sure how well my 4 wt rod would have handled that fish.! Here are a few photos of my day.

Fighting a nice fish.
First fish of the day.
Another nice one.
Colorful Deschutes River Redside.

Fishing Bamboo on the Middle Deschutes River

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I got out on the Middle Deschutes River about 30 minutes from my house yesterday with my good friend, Jonathan Walter, from Denver. What a beautiful day on the river. I set Jonathan up with one of my medium fast action 7′ 6″ 5 wt bamboo rods and I took out my 9′ 0″ 4 wt bamboo EuroNymphing rods. We had a great time tempting the feisty browns and rainbows…Jonathan did well swinging wet flies through the riffles and I picked up quite a few fish on a yellow sally nymph in the faster water. Here are a couple photos of our afternoon.

A beautiful sunny afternoon on the river for Jonathan and me.
Here is Jonathan swing wet flies through a beautiful riffle.
A nice little brown that took my nymph.
A colorful rainbow.

A great Montana Brown Trout

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Earlier this year I was privileged to present my good friend, Carol Morris, with one of my new 10′ 6″ 5 wt bamboo Trout Spey Rods. Since then, she has been working on her two handed casting, and it looks her efforts have paid off. She just returned from a 3 week trip to Montana where she fished the rod a lot for some of those big Montana Brown Trout. Check out her success below:

Here is Carol with her new bamboo Trout Spey rod.
Carol’s great catch.

Router Bit for Cutting Reel Seat Mortices

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Hi Everyone,

I often get the question of what router bit I use to cut the mortices on my wood reel seat inserts on my bamboo fly rods. I’ve found one that works pretty well from Rockler (www.rockler.com), a Convex Edge Rounding Bit…Item No. 22597. I also had another question about how I hold the reel seat insert to make the router cut. I’ve come with a simple solution….I’ve routered a 5/16″ slot in a piece of melamine, and then notched out the area where the insert is held. I put the insert on a 5/16″ threaded rod, which then fits down into the slot in the melamine. The edge of the melamine can then slide on the router table fence to make the cut.

Convex Edge Rounding Bit
Finished Reel Seats
Reel Seat holder for cutting mortices on a router table.