Tag Archives: making bamboo fly rods

Fly Fishing the Owyhee River with Rick Robbins

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I had a great time this week spending 4 days fishing the Owyhee River in eastern Oregon with renowned bamboo rod maker Rick Robbins from Virginia.  We spent the 4 days sharing bamboo rod building stories and trying to figure out the hatches.  Mornings and early afternoons were pretty slow fishing but there was a decent PMD hatch starting at mid-day that went on until dark.  We were pretty successful with small PMD dries and emergers for the large Owyhee River browns, and we landed several nice fish in the 16″ to 21″ range.  Here are a few photos from our trip.

Rick and I on the Owyhee River

Rick casting small dries on a nice drop-off.

A nice Owyhee River Brown that took my #20 PMD Comparadun.

Fly Fishing the Gallatin River with Bob Jacklin

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While attending the Fly Fishers International Fair in Livingston, Montana last week I had the great privilege of spending the day on the Gallatin River fishing with Bob Jacklin.  Jim, a fantastically talented fly caster, also joined us…boy, those two guys can cast!  The three of us had a wonderful time on the water and everyone caught several nice rainbows up to 15″ on dry flies.  Bob gave us some of his personally tied spruce moth patterns that worked very great.  I fished one of my 8′  3″  FreeStone Series Bamboo Fly Rods during the day, which performed well and handled some tricky casts and mending in fast water conditions.  Here are a few photos of the day.

Bob, Jim, and I getting ready to hit the water.

Bob, making a nice cast.

A nice rainbow that I picked up.

A day on the Fall River Czech Nymphing

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I had a few hours to get out on the Fall River yesterday to tempt a few fish.  There wasn’t any noticeable surface activity but some caddis and small mayflies were out dotting the water.  I tried Czech Nymphing with a small #18 black Psycho Mayfly pattern and a #16 Green Caddis Pupa pattern fished along the grassy banks in the fast water and picked up about a dozen rainbows, browns, and brook trout in the 8″ to 11″ range. I happened to have with me my 7′  6″  5 wt FreeStone Series bamboo rod, which is not exactly the best rod for Czech Nymphing.  Normally I would be fishing with one of my longer rods, typically in the 8′  6″  to 9″ 0″  range.  But, since I was working very close to me along the banks, the smaller rod worked fine. Sometimes it’s not about size of the fish…it’s just about getting out on the stream and trying some new techniques.  Here are a couple of photos.

A deep slot along a grassy bank. I caught 6 fish in the small area.

An 11″ rainbow that took my caddis pupa.

A nice little native brown

More Bamboo on the Deschutes River

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Mary Ann and I got out again two days ago on the Deschutes River to see how the Salmon Flies were doing.  I chose my 7′  6″  5 wt Freestone Series bamboo rod for the day.  While there were lots of Salmon Flies and Golden Stoneflies on the bushes, and a few flying around, the fish seemed pretty disinterested in them during the sunny afternoon.  Instead, I again caught several nice rainbows on a #18 Tan Lafontaine Caddis drifted towards the bottom.  I may have been the only angler on the river during the day who was not throwing big ugly bugs.  But, once the sun went down, the fish turned on to a #8 Clarks Stonefly on the surface.  This pattern has proved to be the most effective adult stonefly for me lately.  Even when the giant Salmon Flies are out, the trout have always seemed to prefer the smaller Golden Stonefly imitation.  Here are a few photos of our day.

Golden Stonefly

Giant Salmonfly

#16 Tan Lafontaine Caddis

Clarks Stonefly

A nice rainbow putting a big bend in my 5 wt bamboo.

One that came to the net.

Drifting the Deschutes River

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Mary Ann and I braved the high water on the Deschutes River yesterday and drifted the Warm Springs to Trout Creek stretch of the river.  Yep, the water was fast and high (6500 cfs), but the color was decent and we found a few spots where we could get out and drift our nymphs.  It’s still too early for the legendary salmon fly hatch on the Deschutes but we found some willing rainbows interested in a tan LaFontaine Caddis drifted near the bottom with a Czech Nymphing style.  We didn’t get any huge fish, but it was still fun to get out and tempt the smaller ones.  Here are a couple photos of our day.

Mary Ann on the sticks!

A small immature stonefly that crawled up on our boat.

The hot fly of the day….a #16 tan LaFontaine Caddis.

A nice rainbow for the day.