Swing-Ku, South Fork Eel, March 2017

Gett'n itchy to go. 

just feel'n like day trip'n, until the main event.

California dreaming.

Along the river trail,

the secret spot we all know well.

fern and moss, encourage hopes.

A perry poke and swing.

Around rivers bend.

Todays perfect tail out found.

Black and blue, swung into  shade

3 on 3 off.

Bend that bamboo!

Yuba-Ku 7-24-2016 Yuba on fire!

Sparrow, swung pulses.
Big flash, rainbow kype-jawed.
Oh, what a monster!

Yesterday I fished the Yuba River with no expectations, just really going to field test this new ‪‎bamboo‬ quad ‪‎spey rod that I've been making over the past few months‬, to this date I revised the mid and tip section three times. Each time making the rod faster and faster. It really likes a 435 scandi head with a floating poly leader, effortless casts to about 90 feet. Well I guess with the results I think I'll go ahead and take off the masking tape wraps and put some silk on her! I just can't settle in on the color.... I sort of like the idea of Black against the auburn cane,sort of how my buddy Dave does of his switch rods, but then again I like the dark olive translucent wraps I've been doing on the single handed 6wt Quadrates. What do you think?

A new small brewery opened down the street from my workshop here in Oakland so my buddy Jacob who is a rod maker had a few of their IPA's while talking tapers.... a very good time!

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

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.

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

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

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

Prototype 6 wt Yuba Swing Boo

Since i've been catching some really nice fish on the Yuba river lately i though i should have a photographer take some nice photos of the 6 wt spey rod and the tube before i gets to banged up from fishing.
last week i caught several nice rainbows one 18 and a 19 incher on the swing with variants of north country soft hackles. At the end of the day i landed a super, riffle charging 22 inch spring run chrome that really made the bamboo yahoo!
The Spey rod I wrapped in Olive Gossamar silk and tipped in black Gossamar silk. The guides are all Snake and H&H that i gun blued. I made the ferrules all of Brass on my lathe then those were gun blued as well. The bamboo was impregnated and after the guide wrapping with 4 coats of satin spar.
The rod case i built as a prototype for the rod is fabricated out of a product called PlyBoo from Smith and Fong. Its a 1/4 inch plywood, i then built the hex tube and the leather straps i crafted to hold the tubes top. the small acorn top i made on the lathe to match the ferrule toppers as well gun blued brass and maple.
Here are some pictures.

Swing Boo with the 22 inch chrome on the other end.

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.

Bamboo Switch Rod No.2 & 3

A few weeks i got the first peek at switch rod blank No.2 which had been in the impregnator tank for two and half weeks.
Once drained i cleaned the blank off and hung it in the drying cabinet for a week at 22% humidity and 85 degrees temp.
The bamboo is literally translucent in the light and seems very delicate. Upon cleaning the pressure tank i installed new filtered Spar and Switch Rod blank No.3, sealed the top fitting and pressurized the tank. This blank I had in the drying cabinet for a week with descant and light heat. It's really dry and should impregnate very well.

Blank No.3, I used a skim/scrape plane to reform to the specs i found on Hexrod.com archive for a 10' spey rod.



Heres the formula and description of what i used as a guide for my reform, free form, Switch Rod interpretation.

Grantham Ron 120/63 ETSpey 10 Ft 6 Wt

Rod Name Grantham Ron 120/63 ETSpey
Length (inches) 120
Length (feet) 10
Line Weight 6
Number of pieces 3
Number of tips 1
Construction Spey
Comments 120-.465 125-480 130-.495 135-.510 140-.525 144-.537 ET is Electrical Tape This rod has three sections and was made specifically for floating lines and skating deer hair flies for west coast steelhead. The rod is a bit too soft for heavy sinking lines and large flies. It was also designed to be hollow-built with spliced ferrules. I use a Rio Mid-Spey 6/7 line and can routinely Spey-cast 80-90 feet with it. The joints have a 25:1 slope tapering to .060". The spliced ferrule overlaps are: butt to mid: 7.86"; mid to tip: 4.57". The finished rod should be exactly 10 feet long. The joints are held together with transparent tape
Deduction for varnish 0
Allowance for form setting 0
Ferrule 1 0/64 Location 0
Ferrule 2 0/64 Location 0
Station Dimension Form Setting
0 0.111 0.056
5 0.122 0.061
10 0.138 0.069
15 0.162 0.081
20 0.182 0.091
25 0.198 0.099
30 0.213 0.107
35 0.228 0.114
40 0.241 0.121
45 0.255 0.128
50 0.268 0.134
55 0.281 0.141
60 0.295 0.148
65 0.309 0.155
70 0.322 0.161
75 0.336 0.168
80 0.350 0.175
85 0.363 0.182
90 0.378 0.189
95 0.391 0.196
100 0.406 0.203
105 0.420 0.210
110 0.435 0.218
115 0.450 0.225