Showing posts with label spey casting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spey casting. Show all posts

3.10.2013

Yuba-Ku 3-8,9-2013



As the Osprey kites.
Brodiaeas and Ceanothus along the way.
Teal and rabbit fur glide and rise.

My cast web, connected.
Maybe it's me who's really netted?
Moon in Pisces,
go figure.



meat and potaoes:

Yuba River, friday below Hwy 20 bridge, saturday UC property.
weather, friday sunny warm, saturday am partly cloudy pm sunny
Water temp 48 degrees, air temp 70 degrees
Flow 1300cfs
water visability, gin clear
Hours fished, 9:30am til 4:30pm
bug activity; friday sporadic Skawalas. saturday March brownand PMD hatch 10:30am-1pm Skawalas about pm
5wt single handed bamboo rod, 4/5wt bamboo spey rod, now broken from a big fish not landed.
245 scandi line 12 foot furled leader. dry fly furled leader 16 feet long 4lb tippet.
3 fish landed swinging March Brown wet fly, Teal and rabbit
4 fish landed on March Brown Para/dry fly/emerger size 12
3 fish landed on Skawala dry size 12

2.07.2013

Yuba-Super bowl flies 2-2-2013

Since my last post i've recieved at least a 100 emails regarding the flies I was using last weekend and what they look like. So i'll go ahead, by popular demand, and post pictures of the flies for everyone.
They're quite simple in design and in no way are of my own invention. Some are simple hybrids of typical traditional flies available at any good fly shop. The first fly is my variation I used for the Skawala stone-flys that were out and about when the sun was gleaming. I took Ralphs very productive EC Caddis, size 12, eleminated the hackle then simply added legs. If a fish would reject the fly I would then simply cut the legs off and wait until i saw the fish rise again and then sttart re fishing that area, and often the fish would readily take the fly on the first cast.

The other "dry" fly I used my dear friend Arata "Charlie" Kobata designed. He calls it The Little Brown Fly. This fly we're using as a BWO emerger. At size 18 and fished with lots of frogs fanny right on top its nice to have this 3 feet behind the Skawala when its casted farther than 20 feet from rivers edge.


The wet fly that was quite productive on saturday swung through the Foundation Hole up river, is a simple Royal Coachmen wet fly, except I changed the lead wing to a Teal feather that i think picked up on the few early Rhithrogena Morrisoni that I saw in the tailout.

2.04.2013

Yuba Renga 2-1,2-2013


White tail and talons,
above the river's way.
Soaring and gliding.

Trouting with friends,
some old, some new.
The Yuba's bounty, we catch.

Fluid flow,
full of wonder.
My speckled friend rises.

Sloshing and casting,
soggy socks, leaky waders.
Along river's edge.

Ring of the rise.
BWOs skitter the surface.
Little brown fly, the code.

My own private
super bowl.



meat and potaoes:

Yuba River, friday below Hwy 20 bridge, saturday UC property.
weather, friday sunny warm, saturday am partly cloudy pm sunny
Water temp 48 degrees, air temp 70 degrees
Flow 1450cfs
water visability, gin clear
Hours fished, 9:30am til 4:30pm
bug activity; friday abundent Skawalas. saturday BWO hatch 10:30am-1pm Skawalas about pm
5wt single handed bamboo rod, 6wt bamboo spey rod
scandi lines various poly leaders. dry fly furled leader 16 feet long 4lb tippet.
6 fish landed swinging royal coachman wet fly
3 fish landed on Baetis CDC dry fly/emerger
9 fish landed on Skawala dry


12.17.2012

Yuba-Ku 12-15-2012

Yuba-Ku 12-15,16-2012


Bear tracks from Rose bar.
Animal guide, I follow.
Riffles of plenty.

Mountains of Blue oak.
This wilderness, a mistress of illumination.
Maze of willows.

Rivers edge.

Walking streamside,
endless Pliocene cobbles.
My sore ankles.

Swallows dart, Baetis dance.
Morning risers, dawn briskly.
Venus ascending.

This water,
from peaks and passes, draining,
through the placer vein.



meat and potaoes:

Yuba River, saturday UC property. sunday above Parks Bar/Timbuctoo
weather, saturday am partly cloudy, pm light showers. Sunday am/pm showers
Water temp 48 degrees, air temp 56 degrees
Flow 1300cfs
water visability, 2-3 feet, fishy green tint
Hours fished, 9:30am til 4:30pm
bug activity; random stone fly shucks seen, BWO hatch 11:30am-1pm
5wt single handed rod, 5wt graphite switch rod, 6wt bamboo spey rod
scandi lines various poly leaders.
19 fish landed swinging rubber leg stone nymph
7 fish landed on Baetis CDC dry fly/emerger



6.10.2012

Yuba-ku 6-8-2012



Your scales, dappled light.
Reflecting spectrum I wish to hold.
Mano-a-Mano.
















The Mac and Cheese;

Yuba River above Parks Bar Bridge
Hours fished: 9:30am to 8pm
9 fish total: 1@20" 1@18" 3@10" 3@8" 1@4"
Water temp 53 degrees, flow 1650, air temp 91 degrees
Method: Spey cast slack nymphing, and Spey cast swung wet flies.
Gear: 6wt 11 foot Bamboo spey rod 350 grain scandi line, 10 floating polyleader.
Flies: Isoperla stone "Tasty Bite", Caddis puppa "hydropsycho" and infrequens CDC emerger "spitznatz"
Observed insects, Yellow Sallies, sporadic PMD's and Spotted Sedges.


Hydropsycho










Spitznatz





Tasty Bite

4.02.2012

Yuba-Ku 3-30-2012



Sap moon spoolers,
willows wane.
Mourning cloaks dance.

Follow the swallows.
Hidden spreckeld fish become,
Rhithrogena morrisoni.










Steak and Eggs:
Water clarity was about 24 inchs in slack as well as fast water, however water was about 47 degrees. Phil and I fished below the Parks Bar bridge. I landed two fish, one a salmon smolt about 10 inches and one trout 20 inches both on a march brown soft hackle fly. The exciting part was trying out the prototype bamboo spey rod i just finished. The rod tracked very true and straight and the taper equation for the Grantham ETspey is a very nice 6 weight. I was using a beulah 350 elixir line with a 6lb 10 foot furled leader that turned over smooth. The large fish took the soft hackle right under the surface film with a dynamic splash and then ripped up the run with little time for me to think just strip line. There was a good hatch of March Browns along the seem between fast and slow water, I basically fished the run where swallows were feeding. The hatch started about 11:30am and died out about 2:30pm.

3.24.2012

First Prototype Reel Seat













This week i got to play around with the design of the reel seats for the bamboo spey rods as well as experimenting with ferrules.
using gun blue is really fun also but its a real chore to get them super clean so they wont resist the blueing agent.
I started off with just some scrap maple to turn into some prototypes. My target diameter for the finished insert needs to be 31/32 of and inch and then the mortise can be made.












The carriage for the insert took about ten minutes to make and then the setup with the shaper was pretty easy. In all it took about 1 hour to make the prototype including the Brass Hood, lock ring and base ring for the bottom handle.
all in all an easy and very user friendly design thanks to having a good working metal lathe.




2.11.2012

River of our Lady Mercy


Caddis flutter,
swung tight, Partridge and Copper.
Scales, bamboo and silk.

Color flash,
in the water and trees.
Snow moon also rises.

9.10.2011

Swing'en Bone Tree in the Truckee hut.


















Peering into pools,
purple depths, fish glide effortless.
Like feet over granite.


I spent a day at the Truckee since the Yuba is closed above the bridge.
The river really turned on at the special time, when the glare easies.
Osprey seem to look elsewhere, but i'm lurking about.
From S-turn to Johns Flat, I worked line.
An 18r on Switch Boo gave me the workout.
No big runs like the Yuba crew, but still the usual "rainbow antics" to play.
The Code... caddis + trout, like a Lotus blooming full of truth.