Tag Archives: making bamboo fly rods

Hand Planing Bamboo for Switch Rods

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It’s been a very busy past several days for me in the rod shop.  I’ve started two 10′  6″  5 wt switch rods and have been planning the bamboo strips for the butt, mid, and tip sections of both rods.  It always amazes me how much bamboo shavings come off these thin strips from the planning operation…a mountain of shavings!  And, using a small block plan to do this isn’t exactly an ergonomically friendly process so I take breaks often.  I finished the planning this morning…here is what it looks like!

Hand Planing Bamboo

Hand Planing Bamboo

The Crooked River and the Tellico Nymph

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I was looking through my fly box recently and realized that I was out of (and hadn’t even fished) a Tellico Nymph in a very long time.  It used to be a favorite pattern of mine but for some reason I had gotten away from fishing it.  Most of us on the west coast haven’t heard of this fly as it was originated years ago in the Southeastern United States.  A well known fly back east, it does a great job at imitating a golden stonefly nymph.  And, you can be guaranteed that the fish in our local waters haven’t seen this fly before.  So, I tied up several a few up a nights ago and Mary Ann and I hit the Crooked River yesterday for a few hours of fishing.

We got the river about noon.  The recent snows were mostly gone and it was a nice overcast day with temperatures in the mid 40’s.  Small fish were already rising for BWOs on the surface.  Mary Ann picked up several fish on dries but I decided to stay with nymphs.  The Tellico Nymph didn’t disappointment me and I picked up a handful of decent fish drifting this fly towards the bottom through the deeper runs.  Since I’ve now “rediscovered” this great fly pattern, it will again be a standard in my fly box.  Here are a couple of shots from the day, as well as my fly recipe for the Tellico Nymph.

The Crooked River

The Crooked River

A nice fall rainbow that took a Tellico Nymph.

A nice fall rainbow that took a Tellico Nymph.

The Tellico Nymph

The Tellico Nymph

The Tellico Nymph

Hook:  #8 to #12 – 1X Long (Daiichi 1560)

Lead:  15 turns of .015 Lead Wire Underbody

Thread:  Brown

Tail:  Grizzly Hackle Fibers

Body:  Yellow Floss

Rib:  2 Strands of Peacock Hearl with Fine Copper Wire Counter Wrapped

Back:  Turkey Tail Fibers

Hackle:  English Grouse

A Great Fly Pattern Of Mine – The DD Nymph

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I thought I would pass on a terrific fly pattern that I’ve been using with great success on Oregon and Idaho waters.  I designed The DD Nymph about 5 years ago, and since then it has out-fished just about every other fly pattern in my fly box.  It’s a great little nymph to drift along the stream bottom or as a dropper to a larger dry fly, and has been especially effective when there don’t seem to be many bugs hatching.  I suspect that fish take this fly as a small cased caddis, but who knows.  Anyway, if you tie your own flies, you should whip out a few of these for your fly box.

The DD Nymph

Hook:  #14 1x long (I use Daiichi #1560)

Body:  about 10 strands of pheasant tail

Rib:  Fine copper wire

Thorax:  Dave Whitlock SLF dubbing (I like to use the dark stone nymph color)

Collar:  Either red or chartreuse thread

Bead:  3/32″ Copper

The DD Nymph

The DD Nymph

 

I Just Love Fishing Central Oregon!

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Now that Mary Ann and I have moved into our new house in Sisters, Oregon, we’re getting the chance to get out on the local waters to fly fish.  There are just way too many places to fish around here…it’s hard to pick sometimes.  We got out the last two days on the Crooked River near Prineville.  The Crooked is a wonderful tail water fishery that offers great rainbow fishing with countless small mayfly and caddis hatches throughout the entire year.  But, I tried throwing a #8 Golden Stonefly Nymph (one of my favorite patterns) in the evening when the mayfly surface activity quit.  I’ll bet I was the only angler on the river using big stonefly nymphs because the river isn’t known for much if any large stonefly populations.  But, I hit paydirt and successfully landed about ten larger rainbows between 12″ and 17″.  Sometimes you really don’t need to “match the hatch”.  Here is one of the beautiful fish that took my stonefly nymph, and the pattern that worked:

A Crooked River Rainbow

A Crooked River Rainbow

#8 Golden Stonefly Nymph

#8 Golden Stonefly Nymph

A New Bamboo Fly Rod Fanatic

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I met a great angler, Blake, from central California last week and got the chance to introduce him to bamboo fly rods.  We spent the day fly fishing on the Middle Deschutes River about 12 miles from my house.  I set him up with a 7′  6″  medium action 5 wt rod that he fell in love with.  We got into quite  few rainbows and browns, and while they weren’t large, we had a wonderful time.  Needless to say, I’ll be building Blake a new Bamboo Fly Rod of his own in the upcoming months.  Here is Blake in the middle of a cast stalking some fish with dry flies, along with a typical brown that we caught.

A New Bamboo Angler on the Middle Deschutes River

A New Bamboo Angler on the Middle Deschutes River

A Middle Deschutes River Brown.

A Middle Deschutes River Brown.