I got one of my bamboo fly rods in the hands of one of our good friends, John, from Colorado recently. John is relatively new to fly fishing, but he didn’t have any difficulty picking his first fish swinging a black wooly bugger on my 8′ 3″ 5 wt rod. Here is John in action:
Swinging a bugger on the Salmon River.
Fish On!
A happy angler.
I’ve been at the bench for a few days planing a new 8′ 0″ 3 piece, 4 wt rod. Lots of hours with a Stanley 9 1/2 in my hand, but finally finished. It always amazes me to see how small the tips get on these lighter rods. And, how much bamboo shavings get created from the planing operation. Next step, on to hollowing these sections prior to gluing.
Hand Planing Set-Up with my Bellingers Planing Form.
Finished Strips. The Tips on this rod are 0.028″.
I just got back from 3 days of fishing the Owyhee River in eastern Oregon with a fellow rod builder, Rick Robbins, from West Virginia. Lots of big browns. I chose a 8′ 3″ 5 wt bamboo rod for most of my fishing. We had great success on #22 Trico Spinners every morning, and matched them on Furled Leaders from Cutthroat Leaders in Boise, Idaho and 6X tippets. Tan and/or black ants on 5X Tippets worked well in the afternoons and evenings. Check it out.
Morning on the Owyhee River.
Trico Spinners.
#22 Trico Spinner Patterns.
A nice Brown Trout that fell to a #14 Tan Ant pattern one afternoon.
I spent a couple of hours exploring Valley Creek last week with a small 7′ 0″ 4 wt rod. Valley Creek holds a lot of smaller brook trout, cutthroats, stocked rainbows, whitefish, and salmon smolts. The brookies were happy to take a #14 Royal Wulff. Whitefish and rainbows went crazy for small nymphs, and I picked up several on #16 pheasant tail nymphs. Here are a few photos from my afternoon.
Valley Creek – Perfect for a small bamboo rod.
A nice brookie that took a Royal Wulff.
Hatchery Rainbow
Chris sent me this great photo of his first rainbow on his new bamboo rod I built him (below). This photo was from the Ruby Valley in Montana. He sure looks like a happy angler, although he might need a little work on his “posing for pictures”. Thanks for sharing Chris.
A Great Rainbow on a New Bamboo Fly Rod.
I just finished a great new rod for a good friend and fellow angler whom I’ve known for several years. Chris and I have been in conversation about his first bamboo fly rod for quite some time, and this rod is his retirement gift to himself. After casting several of my rods, he chose an 8′ 0″ 5/6 wt progressive action rod from my Signature Series of rods. It has a wonderfully smooth action to it, and it’s a good all-around rod for a variety of fishing conditions. He and I will hit one of our local trout streams tomorrow to test drive the rod. Here is a quick look at what he’ll get getting:
My 8′ 0″ 5/6 wt Signature Series Bamboo Fly Rod