It’s been a while since my last post. Mary Ann and I hit the McKenzie River this past Sunday for some trout fishing. Water levels were pretty high, but there were still fish to be found. I fished a 7′ 6″ , 5 wt bamboo rod, thread furled leaders by Cutthroat Leaders, and big stonefly nymphs. Here is a sample:
Tag Archives: Mary Ann Dozer
Photos from the FFF Expo
Last week was the FFF NW Fly Tyers and Fly Fishing Expo. I had a booth there with my rods. Lots of Bamboo friends stopped by to chat. It was great to see Daryll Whitehead and Jeff Smith:
Daryll Whitehead and Jeff Smith - two great Oregon rod builders.
Al Buhr gave a casting demonstration with a BAMBOO rod…in only the way that Al could:
Al Buhr giving a casting demonstration
Al also joined Todd Somsel, Mack Brown, and Mary Ann (all Master-Level certified casting instructors) on the casting pond to discuss the positive aspects of bamboo rods: 
Fishing Bamboo Fly Rods on the McKenzie River
Mary Ann and I hit the McKenzie River a few days ago. It was really great to get the drift boat out on the river again. We had a wonderful sunny day…not always the best for trout fishing. We didn’t see a single adult bug all day so we drifted nymphs under indicators. I took out a 7 1/2′ 5 wt rod that worked well in the drift boat. We didn’t have a tremendous amount of action, but we did wake up a few fish. Here is a taste of our day:
Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo
We had a great time at the Western Idaho Fly Fishing Expo in Boise last weekend. The Boise crowd was incredibly friendly and made Mary Ann and feel right at home. I had a booth at the show, and I had a lot of great conversations with “bamboo enthusiasts”. Mary Ann gave a few casting and fly fishing classes and I did an impromptu “Building Bamboo Fly Rods” class when the scheduled presenter was unable to attend.
I had the chance to try out furled leaders from Michael Morin at Cutthroat Leaders. Michael’s leaders are a fantastic addition to a bamboo fly rod. I found they roll out very smoothly and are great for delicate presentations on just about any action bamboo rod. I’ll be adding them to all my bamboo rods in the future. I encourage you to check out Michael’s WEB Page at www.cutthroatleader.com.
One very exciting outcome of the show is that I was requested to design and build a Switch Rod in bamboo. The client is interested in casting streamers and skating dry flies for large Idaho trout and wants to do so with a light switch rod. I’ll be designing this rod at 10 1/2 to 11 feet in length, and a 5/6 wt action. I’m currently researching several different tapers to identify the right action for this style of fishing…should be very exciting!
Fishing Bamboo Fly Rods on the Owyhee River
Mary Ann and I got to spend a few days on the Owyhee River in Eastern Oregon last weekend fishing for big browns. The water levels were down to winter lows, which opened up just about the entire river for great fishing opportunities. We tried French Nymphing techniques our first afternoon and each managed to land a nice +20″ Brown in small pheasant tail nymphs. Here is Mary Ann’s nice fish (too bad it was on graphite):
Nice Brown!
The next two days we fished mostly dry flies with small nymph droppers, and were successful with several combinations. Small mahogany duns were hatching early mornings, with blue winged olives also hatching through the daylight hours. I was lucky enough to pick up this 25″ Brown on a #20 Blue Winged Olive dry fly one afternoon:
Big 25" Brown
Finally, here is a fun little video of a couple of fish: