Wow, it’s been way too long since my last blog post. After a couple of months of staying at home and hibernating in my workshop, I’ve been able to get out on some of our more isolated waters here in Central Oregon. Caught some big fish…caught some smaller fish…but it has been great to get back out with my bamboo rods. With no stories attached, here are a few pictures of my exploits over the past two weeks.
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.
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.
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:
I got to spend a week in Colorado with my great friend and fishing buddy, Bill, in June. Even though water levels had ramped up to 30 year highs on the Frying Pan River, we still were able to find some very nice Rainbows and Browns. With the high waters, there really wasn’t much opportunity to fish to rising fish…small nymphs were the ticket. I fished one of my 8′ 0″ 6 wt bamboo fly rods…and Bill fished graphite…ugh! Mysis Shrimp near the dam worked very well, and small #22 midge and BWO nymphs and emergers worked very well lower down on the river. Here are a few photos of our trip.
