Tag Archives: making bamboo fly rods

Fishing my local creek in October

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I made it out to my favorite local small creek this past week with my good friend, Joe.  I fished my 6′  8″ 3 wt bamboo and Joe took out his 7′ 0″  4 wt bamboo that he built in my workshop.  This creek runs right below my house and gets almost no fishing pressure,  so we had the water to ourselves for the afternoon.  This is some of my favorite kind of fly fishing…getting out on very small local waters with light bamboo fly rods.  We found several willing native rainbows in the 6″ t 11″ range ready to take assorted nymphs and dry flies.

My favorite small rod with a classic Pflueger 1492 reel.

Joe fighting a nice little rainbow

A nice fish landed!!!

We each caught several of these colorful native rainbows.

Fishing, Fishing, Fishing!!!

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my Blog…been fishing a lot this summer.  Mary Ann and I spent 6 weeks fishing in Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado.  In Oregon we fished the Owyhee River, in Idaho we fished the Salmon River, Marsh Creek, and Bear Valley Creek, In Wyoming we fished the New Fork River, Savery Creek, North Platte River, and Encampment River.  In Colorado we fished the Frying Pan River, Yampa River, Service Creek, and the Poudre River.  And, we used a variety of bamboo rods along the whole trip.  Here are a few random photos from our “summer vacation”.

The Sawtooth Mountains near Stanley, Idaho.

The Salmon River

A beautiful Salmon River Cutthroat.

Marsh Creek, Idaho

A Marsh Creek Cutthroat

The New Fork River, Wyoming with our great guide, Ryan Hudson.

A beautiful New Fork Rainbow

Mary Ann fighting a Savery Creek Rainbow.

Cicadas were the bug-of-choice at Savery Creek

A Savery Creek Rainbow

A Frying Pan River rainbow that took a PMD Comparadun.

The Yampa River in Colorado

A beautiful brown that came to the surface for a dry.

A Yampa River Cutbow

Euronymphing on the Poudre River in Colorado

Service Creek, Colorado

A nice Service Creek Brookie

A new custom rod I just finished

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I just finished a new rod for a customer who was looking for a fast action rod that he could travel with.  We decided on a 7′  3″  3 piece 4 wt rod.  I don’t normally build fast action rods, but I modeled one of my other rods to meet his interests.  He chose an English walnut reel seat with engraved hardware, and Royal Hunt primary silk thread wraps on the guides.  We were both extremely happy with how it came out…a great fast action rod for small streams.  Here are a couple of photos.

A great fast action rod with English walnut reel seat and Royal Hunt wraps.

A beautiful 7′ 3″ 4 wt rod.

Starting a new Bamboo Trout Net

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I’m getting started on a new Bamboo Trout Net today to add to my inventory.  It will be available for the Christmas Holidays…would make a fantastic Christmas Present for that special angler!

The 5 long strips will make up the hoop section of the net.  They are 72″ x .75″ x .070″.  The shorter pieces will make up the handle of the net.  They are 13″ x .625″ x .200″.

The first step is to start gluing up the handle pieces.

Getting started on a new Bamboo Trout Net

Closer view of handle and hoop sections.

Gluing up sections.

Two handle sections. These will get glued up together.

Both handle sections have now been glued together and shaped.

The handle section for my new Bamboo Net.

Time to glue up the whole net!

Clamped and glued up!

Roughed out net ready for hand sanding.

Finished Net #1

Finished Net #2

Finished Net #3

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.