Yuba-Ku 4-7-2012

Slow slow, slow.
Rippled surface constantly fed.
Hello! sudden rush.

Cruising and kiting,
trout not rising, frozen deep.
Above, Ospreys talons.

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.

Yuba-Ku 3-25-2012

Sap moon veiled,
like fish along the edges.
Surprised.
River my cappuccino.





















because everyone wants meat and potatoes:

Started at hammond grove at 8amish hiked and fished up river as far as top of long island.
Dry fly fishing and Bobercating.
River is cappuccino 18" visibility in the soft spots.
6 fish landed dry fly with master kobata's minimal stone fly dry
2 on copper johns
All fish caught less than 10feet from shore.
Water level and flow seemed good.
Fish were all hot and feisty.

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.

Prototype Swing Boo

With the advent of rain and lots of money work in my workshop theres been no reason to go fishing since i went to the Merced a few weeks ago.
So i work and dream of swinging for hot fish on the river in weeks to come. During the time when I'm waiting for all that glue to dry i've been sneaking time in on a new prototype bamboo rod i'm working on.
I took a quick drive to my mentors workshop before he moves to his new shop.
Long story short, he offered a few great suggestions, like where to get the best flor grade cork and thought overall it was coming along well but it also needed more finish.
The cork i got from mudwole was spec'd as select A grade but when i began to turn the grip down to my design it was basically shit.
Well its just a prototype rod i keep reminding myself.
Its very humbling to have such an experienced rod builder give me his attention.
So off i go back to my work shop to spin more Spar and then into the drying cabinet it goes this afternoon for another few days.
Once its in the drying cabinet, i can start working on the prototype reel seat for the next evolution of the short 11 foot spey rod.
below are some catch up photos of part of the grip and the gun blueing of the ferrules.

Lady of Mercy redux: 3-5-2012

Letting go ego,
rising Salmonoids, behold.
Venus, Jupiter align.

Mighty fish,
Your spots, random starry sky.
Like dappled mirrors.

Leapers, day after Leap Day. Yuba 3-1-2012

Waxing gibbous,
leaping bows on Baetis swing.
My bamboo yahoo!