It’s always fun when a new tool arrives in the workshop. After years of procrastinating, I finally ordered a new dust collection system from JET for the shop, and it came this week After some assembly, it’s now ready to suck like crazy.
I got the chance to get out with my friend, Tony, recently on the Metolius River. Tony had just picked out his second bamboo fly rod from me, a very nice medium action 7′ 9″ 4 wt Spring Creek Series Rod to compliment an 8′ 0″ 5 wt rod he got from me several years ago. I took out my medium-fast action 7′ 9″ 4 wt Freestone Series Rod and we hit the water for a few hours. Fortunately, we found some very cooperative risers in the afternoon and picked up several nice rainbows on BWOs, Green Drakes, and Golden Stonefly dries. Tony out-fished me for the day, including landing a very nice 17″ rainbow that took his drake. Here are a couple of photos of our day.
I just received a new shipment of 9mm and 10mm Agate Stripping Guides for my bamboo fly rods from Joe Arguello. I use only premium quality Agate Stripping Guides with black nickel finishes on my rods, and Joe’s guides are some of the best around. The Green/Olive/Brown guides are for rods with Olive wraps and the Banded Dark Amber guides match a lot of other wrap colors very well.
I built a bamboo rod for a dear friend, Molly Sememik, last year and she sent me a photo of her fishing it last week. Molly is a world-class fly casting instructor and she certainly demonstrates how to throw a nice loop with her new rod. I couldn’t help posting this photo here in my blog, as well as an older photo of her fishing her rod with me on the Metolius River last year. And thanks to Heather Hodson for the great casting photo of Molly. Enjoy.
I finally got back out recently on the Middle Deschutes River about 25 minutes from my house with a couple of good fishing friends. The river is fairly small in this area due to water being pulled off for irrigation…but that makes for some great fly fishing water. The salmon fly hatch from two weeks previous was over so I expected that fish would be holding close to the bottom…sounded like a good opportunity to try some Bamboo EuroNymphying. I took out my 9′ 0″ 3 wt Bamboo EuroNymphing rod for the day and wasn’t disappointed. The rainbows, browns, and whitefish were happy to take small nymphs, but the majority were less than 12″ long. But, I was lucky to pick up one very nice brown on a #20 two-bit hooker pattern. Here are a few photos of my day.
