Tag Archives: bamboo rods

Fishing the Middle Provo River

Posted on by

Mary Ann and I were in Utah last week attending the Wasatch Fly Fishing Expo for a few days with our good friend, John, from Colorado. We extended our stay so we could fish the Middle Provo River in Heber City. Although it was in the low 40’s and raining, fishing was a blast with browns rising to midges and BWOs all day. It made for some great dry fishing. Our friend John was new to fly fishing so we put him on 9′ 0″ 5 wt Winston graphite rod. I fished my 8′ 0″ 5 wt bamboo and Mary Ann fished her 7′ 9″ 4 wt bamboo. Here are a couple of photos of our time on the Middle Provo.

Mary Ann fighting a nice brown with her bamboo fly rod, bamboo trout net, and bamboo wading staff.

A nice brown for Mary Ann that took a #20 BWO.
A nice little brown that I brought to the net.
John with his first brown from the Middle Provo River.

Traveling Bamboo Rod Show

Posted on by

Mary Ann and I were in Denver this past weekend for The Fly Fishing Show and we had the opportunity to spend some time with Jeff Hatton (also known as The Gnome) and his Traveling Bamboo Fly Rod Show. What a fantastic historical display of classic bamboo fly rods from the past. Here are a few photos:

Mary Ann and I checking out some great classic bamboo fly rods.
Having fun with Jeff Hatton
Lots and Lots of old classic rods.
Jeff explaining the details of an old rod.

Hand-Crafted Bamboo Trout Nets

Posted on by

I’m pleased to announce that I am now offering Hand-Crafted Bamboo Trout Nets for purchase.  My wife challenged me 2 years ago to build her a bamboo net from the same raw culms of bamboo I use for my bamboo fly rods.  It was quite a effort to figure out how to accomplish this with a piece of raw bamboo that is 12 ft. long and about 2 1/2″ in diameter….no straight surfaces or edges anywhere.  But, after several starts-and-stops with my design efforts, I finally figured things out and am now building and selling these great nets that are a fantastic compliment to your bamboo fly rod.  I build all my nets one-at-a-time on an order basis.  The nets have a hand rubbed oil finish, a clear rubber net, and a custom lanyard that I make myself.  I’m offering nets in two lengths, 27″ and 32″ long.  The prices for all nets are $400.  Here are a few photos:

Handles and hoop strips ready to glue up.

Inscription on nets.

Finished nets.

Fall Fishing on the Metolius River

Posted on by

I’ve been getting out on the beautiful Metolius River over the past couple of weeks before the closure at the end of October.  The Kokanee have come up from Lake Billy Chinook to spawn in the river and are very numerous in the shallower areas of the river.  While the Kokanee will occasionally take nymphs, we don’t target these fish and let them do their “spawning thing”.  Here is a quick video of the Kokanee doing their thing:

With all the fishy activity in the river, the rainbows also get active.  Earlier this week, I got out on the upper portion of the river with my good friend and local Sisters resident, John, for a few hours of afternoon fishing.

Dave and John on the Metolius River

The river is pretty small in these upper stretches, and the fish tend to be a little smaller than in the lower sections of the river.  But, I took out my 7′  0″  4 wt bamboo rod, which worked great to high-stick some nymphs through the shallow riffles.  The resident native rainbows were very happy to take my #10 October Caddis Pupa and my #20 Rainbow Warrior.  Here is a nice little fish from our day.

Rianbow from the Metolius River

A VERY OLD Leonard Bamboo Fly Rod

Posted on by

A fellow came over to my workshop a couple of months ago to show me “an old Leonard Fly Rod” he had to get my opinion of it.  Although I’m not a big collector of old bamboo rods, I always love to see what comes out of an old rod tube.  At first glance, here is what I saw on the rod sock:

This doesn’t look good!

Well, that didn’t get my hopes up….a Wright & McGill fiberglass spinning rod!!!  But, things changed when I pulled out a VERY OLD Leonard Bamboo Fly Rod that really got my blood pumping…what a gem!  This rod is from the Leonard Rod Shop when it was in Bangor, Maine from 1876 to 1878!  Overall, the rod is in reasonable condition given that it is 140 years old.  It is 10 1/2 ft. long, and has the most impressive morticed butt section, beautiful rattan grip, and spigot ferrules.  And, the reel seat hardware is in beautiful condition.  Unfortunately, all the guides had been replaced on the rod, both tip sections are about 1″ short, and there are two repairs that were done many years ago. Check it out:

Old Leonard Fly Rod

Beautiful Rattan Grip.

Morticed Butt Section.

Patent Date on the Ferrule.

Cool Spigot Ferrules and the H.L.L. Leonard, Maker, Bangor, Me. Stamp on the reel seat.

I’ve assembled the rod and “wiggled” it a little to see the action.  It has a very slow action, and at 10 1/2 ft. in length, it would be hard to fish with. I’m not sure yet what fly line would work best on this rod…I haven’t cast it yet.

Of note, an identical rod is pictured in Jeff Hatton’s book, Rod Crafting, on page 30. After conversing with couple of collector friends so  mine, I’ve discovered that these very old rods generally do not have a significant collector value but they have an important historical value.  The gentleman who brought this rod in doesn’t fly fish and was interested in selling the rod.  So, after little conversation about the value of the rod, it has now become mine.  My only problem….so do I keep it in it’s current condition or have a complete restoration done on the rod?  Hmmmmm…….