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.
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.
Mary Ann and I had to get out of the house for a few hours and managed to sneak out to the Metolius River yesterday evening for two hours. It was an incredibly peaceful evening away from the crowds down on the lower river. We both took out our 7′ 9″ 4 wt bamboo rods for the evening. A few BWOs starting showing up about 5:00 PM and then some PMDs about 30 minutes later. No fish seemed to want to come to the surface but we did well swinging PMD soft hackles…Thanks John Kreft for your great PMD Soft Hackle Pattern.
I just received a new shipment of 9mm and 10mm Agate Stripping Guides for my bamboo fly rods from Joe Arguello. I use only premium quality Agate Stripping Guides with black nickel finishes on my rods, and Joe’s guides are some of the best around. The Green/Olive/Brown guides are for rods with Olive wraps and the Banded Dark Amber guides match a lot of other wrap colors very well.
I finally got out to fly fish yesterday on the Middle Deschutes River here in Central Oregon. The river is pretty spectacular, with a brief hike down into the canyon to the river. It’s small water down there, with some great nymphing opportunities. I took out my 9′ 0″ 3 wt EuroNymphing Bamboo Fly Rod for the day and wasn’t disappointed. The Salmon Fly hatch was over about 2 weeks ago but the fish were happy to take Golden Stonefly Nymphs. For the day, I caught about 15 whitefish, along with 6 rainbows and 9 brown trout. Here are a few photos from my day.
