Idaho Christmas

I got to spend the few days after Christmas with my family in Idaho and my brother gave me an awesome Christmas present!

Natvie Redband Rainbows on the Spokane

Hit the Spokane River and got into some nice fish. This Redband was a beauty. I only had my 4 wt with me so it was quite a fight. After a few minutes I got him to shore and I was able to get a few pictures and a great shot of him heading back home. Next purchase that needs to happen... a new landing net... with a long handle. 

 This guy was long and thick.

 I also got into quite a few small mouth. They are a good fight on light rods.

Big-boy Native Cutts

Headed out to Little North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene and it was great. It was a beautiful drive over one pass and then dropped down into the valley. On the way up I saw this moose taking a drink. After a little hike through the woods, a separeted big toe nail completely off my toe, and a few scratches, I hit the water and fished. I dropped into the water at a beautiful big hole where the river had split and was now rejoining with itself. I was fishing an elk hair caddis with a pheasant tail dropper. Two cast and this big mamma jamma surfaced for the dry. The water is here is crystal clear and the hole is probably 6 feet deep so I can see them coming up and just explode on the surface. After I released the first I got my flies back out on the water and two more casts later, another big guy came up and hit the dry. I said goodbye to my dropper at this point and snipped it off. No need. They kept coming the whole time I fished. All surfacing for the dry. Epic fishing. Sadly the big fish took a toll on my rod and the last picture shows the result. Sad day. Thank goodness I have two tips. I wasn't able to get pictures of all the fish but did get some video of some of the others. Hope you enjoy guys. When are you coming to fish with me? Solo trips are nowhere near as fun having a buddy with me.

 Moose taking a drink.

 First fish of the day. 

Second fish same hole.

 Third fish same hole. Fatties

 Another.

 Beautiful Colors.

I found out how much my a bamboo can handle.

Finished Rod

I built this rod as a go to that would hold up to anything that I put to it. It is a no frills basic design that will do the job and I would be sad if and when anything happens to it. It is a 7/8 wt 8'3" that is the fastest bamboo taper I could find. It should handle carp and even light salmon without a problem. If I ever get to build a rod for Nate, this is the rod I will build! It has Texas written all over it.

Looking like a rod... or a stick with 6 sides

 Last night I was able to plane the butt sections of this beastly 7 weight. Those pieces are huge! The Stanley 9 1/2 got a good workout as well as the model 60 and #18. It is funny how I gravitate to old tools at antique stores in the hopes of finding another great antique plane to add to the bamboo tools selection that I have. I have found that you can never have too many planes and blades: bamboo really dulls them quickly.

Here are the tip and butt sections in the string to look for glue lines before gluing. There are some VERY small gaps butt for a rod that will be used on Carp and other such creatures I think it will do just fine.

Bamboo is where it's at!

Getting closer to some form of a rod.

Most of the time I use a taper that is a proven pattern. In this case I broke the mold and used a taper that i liked, stretched it out to a longer rod, beefed up the tip and created a slight sell near the butt end. We will see how it all goes. One of the great things about rod making is experimenting and this is the biggest experiment I've done so far. Here are the numbers.

 After you get things rough tapered you get the strips laid into these special forms that are used for baking. They do 2 things. One, they help to further straighten the strips for easier final planing and two, they help distribute the heat more evenly into each individual strip to get better tempering.

 A nice end shot of the strips bound in and ready for baking.

 One of the key elements of a good finished rod is very precise measurements. To make sure all of the measurements are as close as possible, the forms are set and the depths written on the forms at each station to frequently check to be sure that things are spot on.

Hopefully this rod will be ready for Muskie and Pike with Daniel in July! It will definitely see Carp in August!