New Reel

I bought a new fly fishing toy (tool) last weekend, a Sage 3100 reel.  This is a very lightweight reel, weighing about 2.75 oz.  I'm hoping that this reel will balance out well with the two Tiger Eye 6'6" 4pc 2wt rods I'm working on now (similar to the rod I built for Mike).  I've got a Sage Quiet Taper 2wt DT line on there now.  We'll see how these Tiger Eye 2wt rods like a 2wt line.  I wouldn't be surprised if they may work better with a 3wt line.  Anyways, this 3100 is a click-pawl type reel.  There's a little plastic clicker in there that provides a little resistance to the reel spool.  The clicker's tension is adjustable, but so far I like it on the lightest setting.  A small fish could pull and take out some line, but the spool won't overrun.  Of course, the clicker makes a fair bit of noise, but most fly anglers kind of like that sound.  I'm excited to give this new reel a workout over then next year -- fun times ahead.

Ice Fishing ... Kinda

Well, I started off on my quest to fish every month of 2010. My neighbor John and I headed up into the Jemez this past Friday. The weather forecast called for clear skies and temps near 50. Of course, things were a bit cooler up in the mountains, but it was still very nice up there. The first stream we stopped at was pretty well frozen over. There were a couple of spots where the ice had cleared. We saw a couple of fish hanging out down there, but we couldn't fish to them. They were hanging just under the ice at the head of the clearing. Hard to drift a fly down to them under a long stretch of ice. Still, it was a blast to get up in the mountains and hike around. I hiked through a couple of drifts were the snow was knee high. Our waders kept the snow off us and helped keep us warm. Crossing the frozen-over stream was fun, too. Every once in a while I'd hear the ice start to "pop", telling me to get across a little quicker. After a couple hours trying our luck on this small stream, we decided to head off to another spot.

The second stream was completely frozen, no chance of fishing there. We headed back down towards Jemez Springs where we'd find a bit more sun and warmer weather (less ice on the river). We stopped off at a popular picnic spot, well at least it's popular during the summers. The river was mostly ice free in this spot and there looked to be some good holes. There was a fair number of midges in the air -- too bad we couldn't see any fish rising to them. We fished there watching our nymphs for any subtle takes and had a great time; however, I managed to catch only one 7" rainbow.

So, for my last two fishing trips I've caught two fish total. I need to do more catching on these fishing trips! Oh well, it's as much about getting out and enjoying being outside as it is about catching fish. Still, I'm looking forward to some good dry fly action later this year.

One month down, 11 more to go ...

And I've got to get me a camera ... any suggestions?

Papa's Tiger Eye 4wt (Rod Build #3)

Almost every summer, all the guys in the family get together for a week of backpacking, camping, and fishing, or as we refer to it: "Extreme Mountaineering".  (side commentary: It does appear that our adventures have become less "extreme" with each passing year -- we must be getting softer, or at least older ... On second thought, we did have a pretty extreme hike this year -- nevermind ... )  Well, Dad has an old 7wt fly rod that he uses when we get together.  I know that 7wt means a lot to my Dad.  I'm sure he's got a lot of memories tied up with that rod. But the rod is probably older than I am, and I just didn't think that a 7wt was working too well for the streams and rivers were we have fished together recently.  So I decided I'd build a new fly rod for him.  I'm hopeful that we'll be able to create a lot of new memories with this new fly rod, just like his 7wt.

I thought a lot about what type of fly rod would probably work best for Dad's rod; length, weight, action, etc.  Michael and I talked it over too and decided a 4wt rod would work best for him, especially considering the small to medium sized rivers we fish when we get together for our summertime adventure.  I decided to build a 7'6" 4 pc 3/4 wt Tiger Eye.  Now the 3/4 wt designation means it's intended to use either a 3wt or 4wt fly line.  I expect the rod to be a fast action 3wt or a moderate action 4wt, which I think will be a great fit for Dad.

I really like the way the rod came out, from the feel and fit of the grip to the light and somewhat flexible Recoil guides.  I'm sure Dad will like it too ...

Here are the rod details:

--  7'6" 4 pc 3/4 wt Tiger Eye (tiger eye brown color)
--  Titanium colored window reel seat (aluminum) with burl rosewood insert
--  Full-Wells style grip made with Copano exotic cork with Burnt and rubberized cork ends
--  Forecast light titanium winding check
--  Fuji titanium SiC stripping and taming guides (size 10 and size 8)
--  REC Recoil snake guides (one size 2, seven size 1 guides)
--  H&H chrome large loop, thin wire tiptop
--  Gudebrod chestnut thread with Sulky light copper trim
--  Pheasant and jungle cock feather inlay

Here's Papa's new rod:

You know it's Papa's rod because it's got his name on it:

Just like Michael's rod, I kept with the subtle earthtones in the wraps -- no color preserver and chestnut wraps to match the blank.  I did a five-turn spiral thread inlay on the ferrules using the light copper thread. 

I actually did the feather inlay for Papa's rod before I did the one on Michael's.  I spent a good amount of time thinking of feather combinations to try.  I knew I didn't want anything extravagant.  I wanted something personal.  Well, I finally came up with the perfect bird: pheasant.  Some of my favorite memories growing up are from times Dad and I went hunting, and came back with nothing to show for it.  Well, there was that one time deer hunting when Dad emptied his shotgun (full magazine) to kill a jack rabbit.  At least we shot something that trip (we got rid of the rabbit before getting home -- we still haven't brought anything home from a hunting trip).  Anyways, I thought back to the times the two of us would go out pheasant hunting.  Most of the time, Dad was the hunter while I was the "dog".  I was okay with that too, except I never did like the idea of bird shot coming in my general direction as the pheasants were flushed out.  I also seem to recall most of the birds just running away from us on the ground rather than flying off and giving us a shot at them.  Nevertheless, I have good memories of "attempted pheasant hunts" so, a pheasant feather it was.  One pheasant feather on the rod with a single jungle cock nail on top.  Perhaps I'll make this my "signature" on my personal rods ...

You can see the inlay again in this picture along with the stripping and tamer guides and three snake guides. Without any trim on the guide wraps, the guides blend in nicely with the rod.

A final rod picture ...

I wish I would have taken a picture of the rod tube for Papa's rod, too. It's an brown-grey-bronze color powder coated aluminum tube with golden copper anodized end caps. It looks sharp.

I'm looking forward to fishing with you this summer Dad. Now get out there and practice your casting on the lake behind your house (as long as it's not frozen over).

Mike's Christmas Present (Rod Build #2)

I had talked with Michael several times during the summer about building a couple of 2wt fly rods.  I decided I'd better get busy and get one built for him as his Christmas present.  I finished the rod just before Christmas, but not in time for it to be under his and JaNae's tree.  At least he got it before New Year's.  Anyways, now that he's opened it, I can finally post pictures.  It was driving me crazy to be working on a rod building project and not be able to tell anyone about it! 

Here are the rod details:

--  6'6" 4 pc 2wt Tiger Eye (tiger eye brown color)

--  Struble dark nickel silver uplocking slide band reel seat with teak insert

--  Custom grip made from Burnt, Laguna, and Copano exotic cork

--  Dark nickel silver winding check

--  Black nanolite ring lock stripping guide (one size 8)

--  Black H&H single foot fly guides (one size 2, seven size 1 guides) and tiptop

--  Gudebrod chestnut thread with Sulky dark copper and light copper trim

--  Pheasant and jungle cock feather inlay

Here's the finished rod.  Michael should be able to find some fish to put a pretty serious bend in this rod up on the Logan and Blacksmith Fork.  It should be a lot of fun.

Here's a picture showing the reel seat.  I absolutely love the dark nickel finish -- still shiny but not bright.

I tried to keep the rod kind of stealthy; black guides and brown wraps to match the color of the rod.  The only real flashy trim is on the ferrules and butt section right in front of the grip.  Here's a shot of the ferrule wraps.  You can see how the chestnut brown thread wraps blend in nicely with the rod blank.  Only the trim flash on the ferrules lets you know where the rod comes apart.

 

Here's the feather inlay I put on the rod.  It's just in front of the grip and winding check.  The base feather is from a pheasant.  The top feather is a jungle cock nail.  I really like the way this turned out.  It's just enough to set the rod apart -- definitely a custom rod.

 

This was the first rod I've tried to write on.  Yeah, it's tougher than you might think, at least it was for me.  I wrote the rod details on one side and Michael's name on the other. 

One last picture of the rod ...

I included a custom rod tube with a built-in pocket liner as part of the gift.  Afterall, every new rod needs a new case, right?  And how else was I to mail the rod without risking breaking it into a million pieces?  Each rod section has its own pocket/sleeve inside the rod tube to keep it protected. 

I also sent a 2wt DT fly line so Michael would have a new line to try out his rod.  Now all he needs is some reasonably good weather before he can try his new rod.  Of course, a reel or spool to put the 2wt line on would help, too ...

Hope you like it Michael ... and tight lines ...

Fall Fishing

My friend John and I managed to get out fishing for an afternoon back in November.  While the fishing wasn't the greatest, we still had a good time.  If nothing else, it was really, really nice to get out of town and get up into the mountains for a while.  Whether or not I'm catching fish, the scenery sure is nice.  Here's what the stream looked like as we hiked down from the car.

Here's my one catch for the day - a very respectable brown trout.  He gave me a good little fight as I played him in to hand.

We came up on a nice little waterfall on the stream. 

Maybe I'll get out sometime during the winter and see what I can catch.  I'm not sure I can make it until springtime without some fishing time ...

(Thanks for taking the pictures John.  I still need to get a new camera to take with me ...)