1st Rod Done

Recently finished my rod.  It took me almost a year and few mistakes.  The following pictures show my first rod.  It is a 7'10" 3 piece - 2 tip rod with a bag and an aluminum tube.  When I finsihed the last coat of varnish I knew that I couldn't just get any accessories to go along with it, but had to get the right one's for the job.  In the light of getting the right stuff for the job, I got a classic reel and new line (turned out to be a 6 wt. rod) to go along with the new rod.

Hardy Bougle MKVII 3 1/4" Reel

As any new rodmaker will attest this was a long journey to a completed project that could have fallen off the rails at any time.  The mistakes that I made include a long list, that just wont be important in a couple more years and a few more rods.

And since no rod is truly done until it catches a fish I had to go.  But not any fish would do for the rod, but a cutthroat from the alluvial fan in RMNP.

 Don't they look good together? Like the proper spacing of well used tools in the shop when everything has its place or the satisfaction from people who live together easily with little friction.  A fish, rod and reel are the perfect afternoon.

Archery Elk Season is Over

No elk for me this year.  I was kinda disappointed to not get a chance at a shot this year.  But considering that it was my first year of archery hunting maybe that is not such a bad thing.  I did find a bunch of cool stuff in the woods over the several trips that I took. 

Open High Mountain Meadow (Peaks are in the Never Summer Range at ~ 1200 ft)

Michigan Lakes and Snow Lake (Not Visible in the bowl to the left)

View the opposite direction from the Lakes

Moose that Scared Me

This moose got within 10 ft of where I was waiting to see if some elk would come to a water hole.  The moose just walked up to the trees I was in.  I left!  All my stuff was there Bow, Backpack, and clothes.  The moose just sniffed all the stuff and walked to where I took this picture.  As I was taking this picture the dozen or so elk decided to get their drink.  Since the moose was focused on me already I never had a chance of going undetected.

Can you see the owl?  This guy flew out of a tree so close that I swore he was going to hit me. 

Backside of the Nohku Crags a popular climbing spot

Weird Fungus was everywhere.

Elk in RMNP since I hadn't seen any that trip.  Just proving to myself they were there.

Beaver and Baby Beavers 

 Beavers on the Pond Video - Jump to 45 seconds to see them on the bank

Moose dropping in for Breakfast!

I just kept eating at the table this time.

 A second moose decided to walk by and see the first one.

Really tall Aspens in fall color.

1st Elk Trip

Saturday the 25th of August was opening day of archery season in Colorado so I just had to get out there.  Wisdom from other hunters indicated that saving vacation time for later in the season would be a good idea, but I just couldn't wait.  So i set out to camp in the medicine bow-Route national forest and to hike into the never summer wilderness area. to hunt.  I arrived earlier on Friday to witness a strange migration of people to the area.  The flat open spaces in the meadows gave rise to camper cities.  Often families with kids, ATVs, and all other motorized fun would spring up in hours.  I felt a bit weird about snapping pictures of other peoples outdoors entertainment transportation systems so sadly no pics of that.  My spot was as far up a rough 4x4 road that I dared go, and quite limited the motor homing crowd to a bit further away. 

My 1st Hunt Campsite

The view from my campsite facing south over a beaver pond filled valley.  I did try to cross this valley right across the middle.  While moose and animals seem to have no problem I was sure stuck in how to do it.  The dry ground just seems to disappear quite rapidly into mushy mud filled old beaver ponds.

Both morning that I went hunting were greated by I the same moose.  See if you can find the cow in the picture, this is about 50 yards from my tent.  I am always surprised at the size of these things.  This one was fairly non interested in me as I got up ate, changed clothes, and got all my hunting stuff together right in front of it. 

Moose Good Morning Committee

During the hunting time I was quite exhausted by trying to keep up with some elk.  I came upon them grazing a valley at around 6 am after a couple of mile hike.  they were headed up the densely wooded side of a mountain.  As a first time hunter I decided to follow them and 'Catch them at napping spot'.  Well these elk feed contentedly up the side of a mountain and I could not keep up.  When I finally did get one to notice me when they had slowed their assent, she took off like a rocket up the rest of the mountain. Still game I took about ten more steps and then slipped and fell.  I only rolled about three times my body length down the mountain but I had twisted my knee and got some nice scraps out of the deal.  So i decided to call it a day and take a break.

On Sunday I decided to hunt a different mountain then the first day.  Well I found Owl Mountain to be crisscorssed by ATV tracks and motercycle trails.  Twice I hiked from a labeled road to another side of a mountain to see what was there only to have ATVs go roaring around in meadows and on the edges of clearcuts on old logging roads.  Well needless to say that no elk were to be seen with the amount of motorized traffic on that mountain.  I was surprized by the stuff that I found while walking in the woods not on a trail or road.  An old wood log cabin and a rope bridge in disrepair.  You can really see the mud chinking on the wood cabin.  It is always weird to find evidence of people who came before us when there is no road nearby.  How did they get that stuff there in the first place?

The abandoned rope bridge

While I did not get anywhere near an elk, My best being about 100 yards, this was a very valuable weekend of hunting experience.   The major thing that I learned was to not hunt where people can use motorized toys.  They will use them and they scare elk off.  This means that every step into a wilderness area provides much improved hunting odds.  I also learned that a nice comfy air mattress is a great way to sleep even when it is 30 degrees outside.  

Hunting Preparations

So in the last few months I have set the goal to become a hunter.  This was a somewhat new idea and cause some personal challenges.  I have always wanted to be a reliant outdoors man like the men of old west novels.  OK I read to much Louis L'Amour when I was a teenager and that changed my thoughts on what it means to be a person engaged fully in life.  One thing that stands out in life is the disconnect between where our food comes from and how it is manufactured.

As a process engineer I have a small understanding of the amount of death and the inhumane manner in which America process much of its meat products.  While generally I am comfortable with industrial agriculture, it provides the most food in the safest possible manner to the most people it comes with a societal and individual cost.  The societal costs are pretty big ideas of national obesity, institutionalized cruelty, lack of basic nutritional knowledge, and reduction of variety of foods available.  Each individual is somewhat at the mercy of the system in which they live.  That means that all of our meat comes from one nearby factory and that you have no control over the place and process in which animals are raised and cared for.  These are of concern to many as seen by the rise of organic food grocery and farmers markets.  somehow these elements just kinda turned me off since there is no guarantee from the stores that they aren't just marking the price up on food that is the same as it has been.  My actionable ability to control a food source and gain some new skills was to go hunting. 

As an individual and the motivator for going hunting is the lack of outdoors man skills that were common a couple of hundred years ago.  I have been thinking about this stuff for months and the list of things an average hunter deals with in the course of a normal hunting season is quite long.  The things that I have been thinking about are listed below;

• Hunt method (Firearm or Bow) I went with the Bow.
• Where? Public land or pay to hunt on private.
• When? Seasons and time off from work.
• What Species? - Deer or Elk in Colorado are the most readily viable.
• How to do stuff?  This topic is a whole post in itself.
• Equipment?  The list of custom equipment that many hunters use is quite long and somewhat daughnting to an outsider.
• Safety - Had to have my Colorado hunters safety done.

The above list of topics is by no means exhaustive of topics that a new hunter is dealing with, but it is a start.  I have worked quite a bit in the last few months to just figure out what is essential and what is nice to know.  I am ready to go on my first hunting weekend this coming weekend of August 25th for elk hunting.  I am nervous and excited about the anticipation and the opportunity.

Wind River Valley Wyoming

Recent work involvement takes me to the interesting town of Thermopolis Wyoming.  Thermopolis is the town ~20 miles north of Boysen reservoir alongside the wind river valley.  Approaching the end of the reservoir from the south the typical Wyoming scrub was downright boring.  Then a couple of turns take you into a canyon that is quite spectacular.  The Boysen Damn on the north side of this large reservoir is the first thing one sees entering the Wind River Canyon.  Power lines from the damn hydroelectric generation station are evident as one approaches the canyon from the south.

The canyon is only a few miles long but contains outcroppings of rock from Paleozoic, Precambrian, and Cambrian rock formations. These formations are super old and some of the oldest ever.  It is such an interesting looking canyon that that the river has cut.  It really feels like you can watch the canyon crumbling in front of myself.  This causes such a sense of discontinuity as the rocks are so old the formations have stood for eons.

All this interesting geology makes for Thermopolis being a central area for geology nuts.  There are also dinosaur bones in the area so Wyoming has built and hosts a Dinosaur museum of specimens found in the area.  I hope that I can make a fun trip to Thermopolis in the future to see the active dinosaur digs and museum that is there currently.

Red Feather Lakes

Headed up to Parvin and Dowdy lakes today. Spent the morning casting streamers in Parvin unsuccessfully. After I switched to a bug and dropper I got into a couple of nice rainbows. While moving spots to the back side of Parvin I got caught in a fence and broke my line clipper re-tractor and lost my actual clippers. After this went to lunch and got some more clippers at the general store. Lunch at the Sportsman's Cafe in Red Feather has proved to be a solid stop for anytime I am in the area. Good food and not a word to be said about wearing waders in the restaurant.

Rainbow in the Net at Parvin.

Native Irises growing around the lake.

In the afternoon I got lotsa stockers and decided to keep a few for the first time at Dowdy. Was lots of fun and the lighting storm chased me off at around 3.

Climbing around Horsetooth Lake

A few weeks ago went climbing with Jeff, Collin, and Linde.  It was Jeff and Collins first climbing outside expereince around fort collins.  I think everything went nicelly and we all had a good time. 

We started climbing at nine in the morning and had the rock to ourselves until about ten thirty.  After that three other groups showed up and were typically pushy for space.

Collin on Belay and me starting up, Jeff is watching in the styling white helmet.

Collin pulling the crack like a champ.

Roaring River Greenbacks

What a fun day out on the river with Linde.  We hiked past the steep initial mile to get to the more gradual dropping section of the river.  The river flooded in July of 1982, almost 30 years ago as the result of an older damn failure.  The flood released a lot of water that damaged the drainage quite severally.  Floods, while regular and part of the natural process scourer the bottoms of the creek clear of boulders and sand.  This removal of debris usually results in a straightening of the river bed.  This straitening is not a good thing for trout habitat, as they require slower waters and varied depth to survive.

Since 1982 there have been quite a few different groups that have worked to reclaim the river as a quality spot to catch some native greenback cutthroats.

The bottom throat has quite a orange-red tint to the gill slits and probably the most shocking color on a fish that I have ever caught. With a quick day of two fish it was quite a successful day.

Quality Spring Fishing

Going fishing this weekend was really fun.  Got quite a few rainbows and browns at the lower down section of the Poudre.  The group of fish showed a distance size distribution, small ones just born and the last years stockers or year old fish.  This size was distinction was quite fun to see on such a fun spot as the picnic rock.

 The amazing part is that last year the river was still frozen around this time.  Any fishing last spring was done in town and was much less successful.  It reminds me that the low snow pack will result in a mild runoff this year.  A mild runoff is a two edged sword.  On one side there is more quality fishing right away in summer, but the other side is that is seems that less food will be available for the fish.  This less food means that next years fishing will be just slightly less than it was this year.

Rod Forms

So after a long few days of getting things sorted I found some errors in my rod forms.  The minimum depth measurements are all wonky.  They reduce at an inconsistent rate across the forms making it impossible to make smaller rod tips without multiple resetting of the stations.  Contacted the guys that made the forms and will have my meeting with them tomorrow. 

In the meantime I decided to start a second rod.  A three piece 5-wt. to give the multiple ferrule thing a try.

Building my Binder and Oven

So to build a rod there are two pieces of equipment in addition to all the other stuff; the binder and oven.  The binder is required to bind the six hexagonal rod pieces together for heat treating and finally for gluing.  The oven is required to heat treat and to set the glue as well.

So for the binder I decided to build a garrison binder based on the article by Chris Bogart called "Unlocking the Mysteries of the Garrison Binder" <http://www.canerod.com/rodmakers/tips/binder.html>.  This article and some over engineering allowed me to put one together in a couple of weeks.  I didn't quite keep the price as low as free, but close enough. 

Me doing some test runs on the binder with a dowel rod.











The heart of the binder is the rod cradel.  There binding drive cord provides strong clamping pressure and the thin thread off the spool is wound around the rod section tightly providing the staying clamp force.

Getting things all straightened out was a little more difficult than I was hopping.  Had to keep moving the pulley locations around to get the right angles.  But all stuff you just don't know till you try.  I am still missing the last part I am looking for a thread tension-er to provide a smoother transitions onto the rod instead of the jerky application that my hand feeding was providing.



The oven was a pain in the butt solutions.  Many experts build formal heating ovens with insulation and heating elements powered by electricity.  since I didn't want to spend that level of time or money I went with the heat gun oven using some cut conduit tubing.  One end has the hot air in and the other end is the hot air out.  Unfortunately the problem with this is inconsistent temperature profile for the length of the oven so the rod has variable heating time.  Initial bare metal testing indicated a 50 F difference in temperature from the entrance to the outlet.  So I got some insulation tape and wrapped the inlet side once and the outlet half twice.  This format of insulation resulted in a much tighter temperature difference of only 20 F form entrance to exit.  Unfortunately it also raised the temperature of the whole oven considerable beyond my thermometer range and needs!  Some dilution of the entrance air with a little block was enough to provide some stability and lower the temperature to the 300-350 F range that I am looking for.

The heat gun all balanced up on the inlet end

The inside of the oven has to have some support for the rods so they don't lay on the bare metal.  Used one of our last metal hangers to get this done.

 

Anyway I am ready to bind and treat my first set of strips before final planning and really am going to be hard pressed to wait until that last part comes in next week.

Delivery of Tonkin Cane!!!!

In a recent personal desire for advancement, understanding and desire to take on more challenges, I decided to make some split cane fly rods.  Still very early in the process of getting started.  I love the feeling of a new endeavor.  The promise of hope and fulfillment before experience causes a slight tempering of enthusiasm. 

I have spent the last several weeks reading and assembling the basic tools required to take on some rodbuilding.   Last weekends highlight was to attend The Fly Fishing show.  there heard and looked at tsome fine cane rods and decided to take the plunge and start building my own rods. 

First thing was to call Andy at the The Bamboo Broker to order some of the required Tonkin cane.  Delivered to my work this morning I can't wait to get it home to take a look. Getting it home and into my workshop/basement.  It's the two gray tubes on the gray floor.

After opening the tubes have a lot of 12' bamboo culms rolling around.

 

Each culm is 2-3" in diameter and a bit heavier than I expected.  No wonder they build all kinds of stuff out of bamboo in china.  Also the stiffness of the culms was surprising, as the rods that are made from this stuff are surprisingly flexible.

The culms are properly stored under my 'new' workbench.