I had a great group of area bamboo rod builders get together at my shop today, Randy Beard, Skip Hosfield, Claude Darden, and Jeff Smith. We had a great time casting bamboo fly rods, sharing techniques, and “Talking Bamboo”. We don’t get the chance to do this very often, so we’re all hoping to have more of these get-togethers in the future.
Bamboo Rod Builder Get-Together
What do rod builders do when they get together….cast each other’s rods!
I just finished a new rod for Shawn from Portland. He’s a great angler, and this is the third bamboo fly rod I’ve built for him. He already has a 3 wt and a 4 wt rod, and this time he chose a 7′ 6″ 5 wt Signature Series Rod. I really enjoyed building this for him, and this week I joined him on the Metolius River to present the new rod to him….and fish a few hours. Lots of bugs were hatching and we were able to find quite a few rising fish, but, matching their dinner choice was difficult. We managed to tempt a few fish to our flies and had an absolutely great afternoon on the river. Here is Shawn with his new rod.
Getting ready to fish our 5 wt bamboo rods.
Shawn concentrating on a rising trout.
I got the chance to spend a day on the Metolius River this week with Meryl Schenker (http://merylschenker.com/), a friend and an incredibly talented professional photographer from the Seattle area. I had asked Meryl to help me with some new photographs for my WEB site. We had a great time on the river, shot some great photos, and even caught some feisty rainbows. I have a goal to re-design my WEB site in the next couple of months, utilizing several of Meryl’s great photos. So stay tuned, hopefully I’ll be able to get that done. Here are a few photos from our day.
A quick selfie with Meryl and me.
Pondering where to fish!
A pretty little rainbow that took a #14 Tan Ant Pattern.
I like to pass on new and/or unique fly patterns that work for me, and I recently came across a new fly that has been working extremely well for me in our Central Oregon rivers. I learned of this fly from Francisco Garcia, a great angler whom Mary Ann recently guided on a couple of our rivers. So, I can’t take credit for developing this fly, but it sure works. I fish this fly with a dead drift towards the bottom, usually employing a Euro-nymphing style presentation. Do the fish take it for a midge…or a mayfly emerger….I’m not really sure. It’s a very easy fly to tie, if you’re into very small flies. I call this fly the Francisco Midge.
The Francisco Midge
Hook: #20 Scud Style
Thread: 8/0 Gray
Body: Several Strands of Olive Angle Hair
Wing: White Deer Hair.
#20 Francisco Midge
I’m a firm believer that it’s a good idea to “check out the bugs” in the river nearly every time you fish, especially if you’re doing a lot of nymph fishing. Mary Ann and I were on the Crooked River last week fishing a spot we fish often and started with a bug sampling. We have a small net that is about 15″ x 15″ that one of us holds in the water while the other turns over rocks upstream. We then transfer the bugs in the net to a white bowl that aids in viewing and identifying. For the particular spot we sampled, there were very nigh numbers of olive/tan scuds in sizes ranging from about #18 to #10, as well as black mayfly nymphs that were about #18 and #16 in size. We both used euro-nymphing techniques for our fishing for the day. Using #14 and #16 gold or tan scuds, #18 Psycho Mayfly nymphs, and #16 Black Beauties produced a lot of rainbows in the 6″ to 14″ range. So, knowing the bugs in the water and matching those bugs certainly helped us. Here are a few photos of the day.
Bug Sampling from the Crooked River
Scuds and mayfly nymphs.
Our fly choices for the day.
A nice 14″ rainbow that took a #16 black beauty nymph.