Flaming

I have posted pics before of flaming, so here is another. This picture is off what "lightly" flamed cane looks like. At first look you might think this turns out to be what is called "tiger" flamed, but its not. This cane will be filed and sanded. When this process is done the darker stripes will be gone. The heating process seems to take out some of the variation as well.

I started my spring and summer orders this past week. I will be spending about a month out on the Henry's Fork in Idaho. I really hope to spend some quality time inside Yellowstone Park. I have fished in the park numerous times, but never off the beaten path. I would like to do that this year. I will also be spending about 2 weeks with the family in Colorado right after that. So the point of this paragraph is that I will be out of the shop most of the summer. I will probably take a break once back for about a month and when August rolls around hit the shop. This doesn't push my orders back, because I have figured that into my estimations when orders are placed. I think most builders take a break periodically.

I am still working very hard on fiberglass ferrules. As I told a customer last week, "if it was easy, everyone would be doing it". I don't know really what the weight savings will be right now. I don't see a huge difference between that and the Hariki's I am using, but will wait to make that final determination once I can produce good looking fiberglass ferrules. What I am planning on right now is that I will use them on larger rods (5 wts and up) to start with. To get the fiberglass to conform to the diameters needed for 3 and 4 wts is extremely difficult!!! Again, the weight savings for those lighter lined rods is not that much. I believe the real benefit will be at the larger rods.

Right now my wait time is about a year. The next order that comes in will have a delivery date of Christmas this year.

Table

I thought this to be an interesting story and worth sharing. The story goes like this:

My wife's grandfather loved to fish. He especially liked going to Bennett Springs State Park. It's about the nicest version of what Missouri has to offer in the way of trout fishing. On his passing about 20 years ago the family wanted to do something for Bennett Springs to honor him. He loved to sit on the bank and watch, when he himself wasn't fishing.

Their first idea was to donate a nice bench in his favorite spot so that others could enjoy watching the experience as well. However, the people that ran the park felt like they didn't want benches in the park. So my wife's family asked them what it was that they would want, since they didn't like any of their suggestions. The answer they got was a nice table. This was for the fisherman to sign their daily tag on. The family thought that this was a very nice idea. They spent several thousand dollars on this table so that it could be enjoyed by everyone at Bennett Springs.

However, after about a year the table disappeared. The family looked around and asked about its location. They found the table in another building at the park. When they asked why it was moved it was said that the table was to big for the location. The table became home to pamphlets and brochures on trout fishing and the area. It was in a building that most people didn't visit in an off the beaten path location. Here it remained for the next few of years. Since most people didn't frequent the location we didn't either.

A few years back we went to the previous location to look for the table. The table was gone and we couldn't get an answer to where the location of it was. None of the park employees were sure what happened to it. My mother-in-law was pretty upset by this. Another item that didn't help her feelings was that shortly after they bought the table and it disappeared, the park started letting people purchase benches for the park to honor family members.

After a campaign to find the table, my mother-in-law finally found the park manager. He knew exactly where the table was and offered to let her have it back. Her first response was that she wanted the park to keep it and use it. He plainly said that it wasn't something the park would ever use. So her and my father-in-law picked up the table. In the pictures you will see three cut outs where oak boxes sat to hold safety pins, string and pens. These were in pretty bad shape. I plan to have those fixed to their original state. Since the table had only been used for one year in the main public and sparingly for paperwork, someone had not been very nice to the table. This really hurt my mother-in-laws feelings.

I now have the table and plan to incorporate it into my families love of fishing. I don't get tired of looking at the hand carved fishing scene.

Hollowing

This picture is of a mid section that belongs to a 8'4" 3 weight 3 piece rod. I have worked on this taper for awhile and I think this is it. When this rod is done it will be heading to Switzerland.

I will be hollowing for most of the day and then I will be glueing up tomorrow.

It looks like I am going to have an extra 8'4" 3 weight 2 piece rod available by Christmas if anyone out there is interested. It is dark flamed with a Koa reel seat.

The 8'6" prototype is complete

Some time ago I had several requests for a 8'6" 4 weight rod. I had always planned on building in this length, but had never gotten to it. However, I can't say that anymore.

This rod is comes in at 3.32 oz. and has a medium fast action. One can use either a 4 wt line on it or a 3 wt depending on what the weather/fishing conditions might be. It does have the new Hariki extra small ferrules on it and they are very nice.

This rod will start going out to customers next week for their approval.

The line I plan on using with this rod is a Terenzio Silk line. This was sent to me by a good friend that loves these lines on my rods. I have never used one of these types of lines before so I am very excited about getting out on the water with it. This line has a designation of 3.5 weight line. So it is suppose to be right between a 3 and 4 wt line. I hope to have a report about this combination later on.

I want to speak briefly about taper platforms. On my rods I have basically three platforms that I make rods off of. The newest will be the 8'5" and 8'6" platform. My most popular rods are on the 8'4" platform and then there is the 8' platform. Obviously since these have different lengths things have to be changed with in the numbers to achieve the feel I like. Also, the platforms have different inside tapers that are achieved through different hollowing. As one can imagine since the longer rods have 6" more material than the shorter rods. Larger pockets are placed in different locations within the rod in order to have a crisp rod that doesn't break down under the casting.

Customer Pic

Last year I was experimenting with tapers for 1 wt and 2 wt rods. I came up with a good 2 wt, but the lines are so light that if you fart the line gets blown around. It was very difficult to cast with any distance and if there was any wind forget it. I made some interesting rods when this experiment was going on, but have since moved on. One of those rods was a 8'1" 2/3 weight. I really enjoyed a 3 wt line on it because I am a C+ caster. I hope that I am not being to generous to myself. Bamboo rods are wonderful fishing instruments. Unlike their graphite counterparts you can usually use a multitude of lines on a particular rod and get a range of good actions. This particular rod would cast a 2 wt line with speed and precision through any kind of wind. This also helps us casters who struggle with fishing and casting at the same time!

Then along comes a group of fisherman that are professional casters. The kind of people you don't want to stand close to when you are casting. They love medium flexing rods so they can feel the rod well into their hands. They love medium action rods because they know how to cast too. It reminds me of story, yes story time. Some years ago I played golf. On one particular Monday I was suppose to play golf with a friend and a couple of his friends. One of his friends was Tom Watson. I was very excited to get to play with the world famous golfer. However, as fate would have it Tom won a big tournament that weekend and didn't get back to town by Monday. One of the other people I played with that day was Stan Thirsk. Stan discovered Tom and was his early coach. We played 9 holes together that day. I played the best golf I had ever played for about 4 holes. The other 5 holes not so much. I was so proud of myself. If I remember correctly I believe I almost hit Stan with a ball when I was hitting out of a sand bunker. Then to smooth it over I jokingly said I did it on purpose to make sure he was paying attention. The old reliable joke didn't go over so well. However, back to the morale of the story. At the end of our golf outing I asked Stan what were a few things that I could do to improve my golf game. He said this, "It's not what you are doing wrong, its what you are not doing right" and then he proceeded to say about 5 things I was doing wrong, none of which I really remember. I feel this way sometimes about my casting, especially out west when the wind is blowing. A great cast is not bought, but earned! It takes time and dedication to teach your muscles what to do and when to do it. This group of great casters has a leader and his name is John Juracek. John is a great caster and very knowledgable about fishing. I am fortunate enough to see John every year and have him give me pointers on my casting. I am pretty sure they have been the same suggestions each year, but do to my lack of dedication to the matter the basics must be mastered before you can move on. Like you must learn addition before you can move onto multiplication.

The rod mentioned above was a special rod. It was built for myself as a 2/3 weight. I brought this rod out to the group to cast as an after thought really. I wasn't that proud of it. When the group asked for a 4 wt line the rod came alive. I was amazed and embarrassed at the same time. Its somewhat like the old phrase about beauty, its hard to describe but you know it when you see it. You could tell just by watching the rod that it was casting great. It is a great casting rod that has a medium flex. I never really thought I was a fan of that slow of a rod, but I am now. At times I still get a little embarrassed when I think that I was off by 2 line weights on that rod, but I quickly tell myself how lucky that I am to have found it.


I sold that rod to a first time buyer to the bamboo world Dan Daufel. Dan and his brother are certified fly fishing junkies with Dan being a former employee of Simms. I have attached a photo of his brother with the rod. I hope they catch a lot more fish on that rod.

As soon as I got home from the Henry's Fork I started another 8' 1" 2/3/4 weight for myself.

1st Rod going to Japan

Here is a picture of the first rod that I am sending to Japan. I will be traveling there next year to exhibit with Shuichi Akimaru. It's a 8'4" 3 weight rod. This is by far my most popular taper. Its darkly flamed and will be one of the last rods that I do like this.

New Rod

Here is a couple of pics of a rod that I sent out this week. Its an 8' 3/4 weight. I have made several of these recently in a beautiful natural blonde color. I am currently making myself one since I sold mine at the Henry's Fork rod gathering this summer. This rod has a 13 cork grip. I go back and forth about whether I prefer a 12 ring or 13 ring grip. This month its 13 rings! I am trying a new process on my rods in order for the blueing to last longer. I hope to get some good reports from customers about this process and how its holding up. My goal is that the blueing will look brand new 10 years from now no matter how much you fish the rod.