McCloud River, Emerald Cathedral 10-28-2012

Columns of light cascading,
Emerald green blue,
Dappled variants
Red bands splash.

Turning Dogwoods and Maple,
Willows
Oak
Fir
Cedar
Indian Rhubarb
Moss covered stone,
Tangled branches canopy, reaching.
We add filament and fly’s above, the diaries of our casts.

Sun climbs to zenith.
Canyon walls, a shaded envelop.
Fecund fresh,
this river cathedral.

Splashy rise,
of golden butter hues,
black and red freckles.
Your mighty tug.

Morning air crisp,
The mountains breathe, deep calm.
Even the Dippers are witness to the rivers truth.

Fire-ring tales,
dancing fish, lost fly’s,
Warming feet and soggy socks.
These old leaky waders.

Like minded friends,
Together trouting,
Like Aries and Triangulum,
except light years away.

Clouds parting.
Of volcanic legacy.
Under the Hunters moon.
Caddis flutter and entice.
This river of wonder.

October Shreders

These are going to shred! I'm getting ready for my annual hallowen trip to the Mac. This year i'm join friends of the GPFF club on the river and I really have focased on developing a true set of game changer flies for this river.
My go to caddis dry fly isn't neccesarily a dry but an emerger or spent caddis. I've had great success all over california with it. My R&D river of choice has been the A game Yuba River near Smartsville. hands down, these "Rainbow Trout" are as strong, witty and forceful as any Stealhead you'd meet and on top of it they all seem to have graduated with PHd's from an Ivy-league college.

Often sometimes I swear they seem to just want to humiliate you off the river. Fish seem to swirl flys just to see if there's line connected, often this is percieved by the fisherman as takes with no fish at the other end...
Anyways, these flys ive been tying for the Yuba have been specificaly targeted as Rhyacophila and Hydropsyche hatches. However for the McCloud I hybridized the patern to fit the Dicosmoecus syntax of Puppa and Emerger stages this fall on the "River Cathedral".

Yuba-Ku, Fall Caddis

Shits and giggles,
even the Osprey's paying dues.
Swing-en and drifting.

Twilights fading day.
Under the scorpius marker,
its Rainbows rise.

Soon,
Fish and I,
like Perigee.


The Steak and Eggs;

Yuba River, below island to Hammond Grove. lots of walking.
Hours fished: noon to 7pm
2 fish total: 1@18" 1@14"
Water temp 54 degrees, flow 1000cfs, air temp 80ish degrees.
Method: Dry fly, Spey cast swung wet flies.
Gear: 6wt 11 foot Bamboo spey rod 350 grain scandi line, 10 floating polyleader.
Sage 5wt 9 foot XP
Flies: Fall caddis emerger dry size 4 "Dr. Octo" and "Poison Spider", wet fly size 14
Observed insects, Caddis, Caddis and more Caddis. lots of Caddis.

Dr. Octo,    fall caddis emerger

Poison Spider,   caddis emerger wet fly

I'm Planning a trip to the McCloud River in a few weeks, and for "Shits and Giggles" I wanted to try some of my new Fall Caddis patterns. I had a good number of fish rise and hit the Dry but only hung onto one, and my wet fly only got one fish. A slow day until the very last two hours of the day. The four runs below the island, down river towards Hammond Grove was really pop'en with big fish until dark, especially by Rattlesnake Hill.

Scrap Wood?

What do you do with all that scrap wood someone asked me the other day. Well since exotic woods are becoming more and more expensive to buy as well as find i tend to save pieces that are big enough to make something out of. The past week i've been too busy to go fishing with my show in Denver of my sculpture and drawings. However being in my workshop and studio, being inspired by my friend Jim's landing net, i thought oh why not try and make yourself a nice landing net to go with your Bamboo rods? plus the experience in learning the craft will be a great excuse as well.
I settled in on a piece of Lace Wood for the handle, with Red birch and Wenge for the hoop. I took and old piece of ABS to make a quick steamer for the hoop strips and soaked them for two days in the heat.
i made a template for the handle and with the shaper quickly had the rough for that.
the next hurdle was the glueing form for the hoop. i came up with a shape and size i liked that would fit a Ghost netting from Brodin, that i bought from their on line store.
The next day i began forming the strips of Birch and Wenge around the form to pre dry them to the shape before gluing. after they were dry from setting in the sun, I took them off the form and started the glue up with Gorilla glue and lots of clamps.
While this was drying i sanded the handle with the horizontal sander to get the form in an almost finished state.
The following day i sanded the hoop to rid the dried glue and merged the handle then to the hoop on yet another form to help hold the clamps in place.
after this was dry i began the careful process of sanding the complete net frame into a finished form. next i need to router the thread groove around the outside of the hoop as well as drill the holes for the cord....