Here is another plug for the best online magazine out there. Not only is it about fishing but it revolves around photography. If you like either one then this is defiantly a page worthy of a bookmark if not the top bar quick link!
catchmagazine.net
Go, you wont be disappointed!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Lunchtime Escape
Today at lunch I decided to take my lunch and a book up the canyon. I went and walked up the Bonneville Shoreline trail and sat and had a very nice PB and Honey sandwich and apple. The Solitude was very nice. I then walked up to Bridal Veil Falls for a quick look and snapped this photo with my phone. I didn't see more than 5 other people and it was a nice way to spend a lunch break. I think I will be doing this again!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
A Mash Up... in more ways than one!
In this post I wanted to post a couple f pictures of Daniel and I fishing from a couple months ago and some from this last weekend with Nate but I only have pictures from a couple of months ago so I will give you the oral version of this weekend. Plus at the end will be a short video for all you naysayers about the fragility of a bamboo fly rod. Here is the Mash Up of information and a little mashing of a fly rod to boot.
A couple of months ago Daniel and I took an evening and went out to Thistle to fish. I hadnt been there since we took Nate at new years and so we thought we would give it a try. IT is a fairly small stream but has some nice size browns that are not always the smartest fish in the river. We had a good time fooling a few on a stretch that I had never fished before. Daniel had a couple of times so he know where to tell me to put the fly to get me into a few fish. Here are a couple of pictures.
Thanks for showing me a new piece of water Daniel!
This last weekend my est friend Nate Barker fly up from Dallas to do a little fishing (Thanks Kalli!). Friday we fished Hobble Creek and caught rainbows, browns, and then Wardsworth gave up a couple brookies. We had a great time except for the stinging nettle . Hobble and Wards are very small streams and I was impressed with Nate's improvement in casting on such a hard little stream.
The next day started out great. We took off and went up and over the right fork of Hobble Creek and into the Diamond Fork Drainage. We stopped at Sixth water and started down stream. The Creek looked good and there were lots of good pockets and back eddies the looked like they would hold a lot of sizable fish... Nope. We fished for about an hour with only one strike.
We decided to leave and go down to Thistle and see if the fishing was any better... Nope. We fished for another two hours and got one strike at the very end of our time there. It was a pretty disappointing day but Nate's casting did improve overall. We had a great time over the weekend and made some good memories. Thanks for coming up Nate!
This is the final section of this post. There are a lot of people out there that think that bamboo rods are weak and will not be as durable over the long term as graphite. Well watch the video, I bet most graphite rods could not hold up to this abuse.
Well, who wants to put in an order for a new Naneum Creek Bamboo rod?
A couple of months ago Daniel and I took an evening and went out to Thistle to fish. I hadnt been there since we took Nate at new years and so we thought we would give it a try. IT is a fairly small stream but has some nice size browns that are not always the smartest fish in the river. We had a good time fooling a few on a stretch that I had never fished before. Daniel had a couple of times so he know where to tell me to put the fly to get me into a few fish. Here are a couple of pictures.
Thanks for showing me a new piece of water Daniel!
This last weekend my est friend Nate Barker fly up from Dallas to do a little fishing (Thanks Kalli!). Friday we fished Hobble Creek and caught rainbows, browns, and then Wardsworth gave up a couple brookies. We had a great time except for the stinging nettle . Hobble and Wards are very small streams and I was impressed with Nate's improvement in casting on such a hard little stream.
The next day started out great. We took off and went up and over the right fork of Hobble Creek and into the Diamond Fork Drainage. We stopped at Sixth water and started down stream. The Creek looked good and there were lots of good pockets and back eddies the looked like they would hold a lot of sizable fish... Nope. We fished for about an hour with only one strike.
We decided to leave and go down to Thistle and see if the fishing was any better... Nope. We fished for another two hours and got one strike at the very end of our time there. It was a pretty disappointing day but Nate's casting did improve overall. We had a great time over the weekend and made some good memories. Thanks for coming up Nate!
This is the final section of this post. There are a lot of people out there that think that bamboo rods are weak and will not be as durable over the long term as graphite. Well watch the video, I bet most graphite rods could not hold up to this abuse.
Well, who wants to put in an order for a new Naneum Creek Bamboo rod?
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The next rod
Daniel and I have started our next rods. It will be my second and Daniels first. The First steps are to flame the cane if you want a certain color for your final rod and then split it into different strips to be used. Here are a few pictures of the process.
Thursday night we will be cutting them to the right length and then straightening them so that they can be put through a planer for the initial beveling process.
Thursday night we will be cutting them to the right length and then straightening them so that they can be put through a planer for the initial beveling process.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Final Product
So after a lot of hard work and hours of thinking and re-thinking how I was going to finish this first rod I completed it with 2 days of drying time to get it to Washington in time to give it to my Grandpa during the family reunion. Here are some pictures...
This is a photo of the rod after I glued it all together and before I cut it to its final lengths. There is a butt section and two tip sections.
This is the glued rod just after cutting to length and after I put the first coat of varnish on. The wraps, guides, reel seat, cork and ferrules had not been mounted yet. All of those curls in the picture are slices of bamboo that are 0.001 inches thick.
Here is the finished rod ready to go into the tube and be taken to Washington.
I decided to make my first rod and give it to my Grandpa because he is the one who taught me to fish. I was about 4 years old and I know that I didn't realize the impact that he and fishing would have on me. I have since fished all over a lot of the western states and have seen beautiful places that I would not have seen had it not been for fishing that area. At one point in college Kris and I even lived a block off of one of the most famous rivers in North America, the Henry's Fork in Idaho. I have spent memorable times with friends and family and made memories that will last a lifetime and beyond.
There is no way that I could pay Pa back for the things that he taught me about fishing but this is the closest I could come. I don't get to see Pa get emotional very often and it was touching to see him do that when I gave it to him. I hope he enjoys fishing it as much as I enjoyed making it.
No matter what kind of rod you fish, how much you paid for it, where you fish or how many fish you catch, it will be the memories that you make that will be your fishing experiences and that is better than any fish in the world.
This is a photo of the rod after I glued it all together and before I cut it to its final lengths. There is a butt section and two tip sections.
This is the glued rod just after cutting to length and after I put the first coat of varnish on. The wraps, guides, reel seat, cork and ferrules had not been mounted yet. All of those curls in the picture are slices of bamboo that are 0.001 inches thick.
Here is the finished rod ready to go into the tube and be taken to Washington.
I decided to make my first rod and give it to my Grandpa because he is the one who taught me to fish. I was about 4 years old and I know that I didn't realize the impact that he and fishing would have on me. I have since fished all over a lot of the western states and have seen beautiful places that I would not have seen had it not been for fishing that area. At one point in college Kris and I even lived a block off of one of the most famous rivers in North America, the Henry's Fork in Idaho. I have spent memorable times with friends and family and made memories that will last a lifetime and beyond.
There is no way that I could pay Pa back for the things that he taught me about fishing but this is the closest I could come. I don't get to see Pa get emotional very often and it was touching to see him do that when I gave it to him. I hope he enjoys fishing it as much as I enjoyed making it.
No matter what kind of rod you fish, how much you paid for it, where you fish or how many fish you catch, it will be the memories that you make that will be your fishing experiences and that is better than any fish in the world.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Of Blood and Bamboo
The time has come for me to give an update on the Bamboo Fly Rod I am building for my Grandpa. I decided on a Jim Payne 97. It is a 7 foot 4 weight rod that is a classic taper. I have been trying to get all of my tools built for the last 2 years and I finally have everything together to finally finish the rod. I Finished the final planing on the butt section last night so no I just need to glue it up and then I can start to varnish, add the cork, the guides and and the reel seat. Then it is off to planing the two tip sections and finish those off. I am rapidly trying to complete the rod before the family reunion so that Pa and the rest of the fly fisherman can test cast it and tell me how bad of a job I did. With all of the hours I put into the tools I figure I am sitting at about 40 hours on tools. And another 30-40 on the rod itself. For those of you who dont know, once you plane the strips of bamboo down to the shape they need to be for gluing, they become razor sharp. I have sliced lots of different parts of my fingers off over the tie I have been doing the work. Unfortunately you really need to feel the material with your bare hands in order to really work the materials. I will post some pictures when I get everything glued up and then some more when I start to add all of the finishing touches. I have really enjoyed the process and I hope that by the end of the year I will have completed 2 more. One for Logan and one for another surprise member of the family!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Time for a new post Ben...
Hello, I'm Kristi.
Hijacked his blog to tell him,
Time for a new post.
Check out that haiku. But really Ben. Time for a new post. Love you!
Hijacked his blog to tell him,
Time for a new post.
Check out that haiku. But really Ben. Time for a new post. Love you!
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