Tag Archives: buildling bamboo rods

Fishing Hat Creek, CA

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I met up with my fishing buddies from California last week and spent 4 days fishing Hat Creek near Redding.  I’ve been fishing with these guys for over 30 years so it’s always great to get together with them on our “Guys Fishing Trip” once a year.  The creek was in great shape.  It proved to be pretty challenging fishing during the day but much better each evening.  Lots of Salmonflies, Golden Stoneflies, Yellow Sallies, and Caddis were out.  For all my fishing, I used my 9′  0″  4 wt Euronymphing rod.  It did great during the day throwing all sorts of nymphs, and then switching over to a dry line during the evenings for the hatch.  Here are a few photos of my trip.

Hat Creek, CA

Salmon Fly

Salmon Fly

Hat Creek Rainbow that took a Yellow Sally.

This guy took a golden stonefly.

 

 

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.

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.

Hand-Crafted Bamboo Trout Nets

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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.