Tag Archives: bamboo rod building

Savery Creek, Wyoming

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It’s been a busy summer so I haven’t posted for a while.  Mary Ann and I recently took a 3 week trip to Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho for some fantastic fly fishing.  I’ll share some photos from Savery Creek, Wyoming in this post.  Savery Creek is a very large working cattle ranch in central Southern Wyoming.  They have 18 miles of private trout water on their ranch.  And, they put strong limitations on the numbers of guests staying at the lodge so the water doesn’t get overfished.  First, Savery Creek is a very small tail water, populated with big rainbows, a few browns, and a few tiger trout.  Most of our fish were between 14″ and 20″.  All their fishing is guided, and our guides, Bryce and Matt, did a fantastic job.  We fished 4 days on the ranch, and never put on a subsurface fly….everything was dry fly fishing, mostly with cicadas, hoppers, ants, and some smaller mayflies and caddis.  Mary Ann and I both fished 5 wt bamboo fly rods. Fishing was great, the lodge was great, and the meals were great.  All in all, we had a fantastic time and are hoping to get back there next year.  Here are a few photos:

Getting to the Lodge…crossing Savery Creek.

Savery Creek, Wyoming

Inside the Lodge at Savery Creek.

Searching for a fish.

A typical Savery Creek Rainbow.

A beautiful Rainbow.

A nice Savery Creek Trophy.

 

 

The Middle Deschutes River Browns

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I got out on the middle Deschutes River recently with my good friend and bamboo rod builder, Olivia Elia to try out a couple of bamboo rods.  I chose my 9′  0″  3 wt Euronymphing Bamboo Rod and Olivia took out her 7′  9″  4 wt bamboo rod.  Well, the student outfished the teacher.  Here is one of the very nice browns that Olivia found in this stretch of the river.

A beautiful Brown that took a #8 stonefly nymph.

Great Brown Trout Colors

A nice release…

A couple of rods finished this week….

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I put the finishing touches on two bamboo fly rods this past week.  Both are the same taper…an 8′  0″  5 wt medium progressive action rod from my Spring Creek series of rods.  One rod will be going to the Seattle area to a regular customer who wanted to add a 5 wt. rod to his collection.  The second rod will be mine…I get to build a rod for me once-in-a-while!!!  Here they are:

A nice 8′ 0″ 5 wt rod.

Article about Olivia Elia

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Our good friend and bamboo fly rod builder, Olivia Elia, was just profiled in the latest Journal of The Italian Bamboo Rodmakers Association.  IBRA is one of the most prestigeous bamboo rod organizations in the world, and they just published a wonderful article on Olivia’s journey that took her to becoming a gifted bamboo rod maker.  I’m proud to have contributed to her journey and to have her in my workshop as she builds her custom bamboo fly rods.  Her article appears in the April edition of IBRA, and can be found at:  Documento senza titolo (rodmakers.eu).  Let’s all celebrate Olivia’s accomplishments by raising a glass.

Celebrating Olivia’s Article in IBRA

 

Recovering from the holidays!

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I’ve had a very busy holiday season with several rods and nets heading out the door, as well as participating in multiple virtual rod building/fly fishing events.  So, I haven’t posted for a few months.  But, I’m back in the normal swing of things in the workshop now.  I normally try to keep a handful of completed rods and nets in my inventory for those folks who call me up looking for something but can’t wait for a few months for me to get a new custom rod/net built for them.  The holiday rush put a noticeable dent in my inventory so today I started on a new rod and a net…it’s always a fun time to get started and “split some bamboo”.  Newly split strips for a 7′  9″  4 wt. Spring Creek Series rod and a new 27″ bamboo trout net are now on my workbench…starting to make progress.

Bamboo strips for a new rod and a net net.