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.

Winter Fishing

Well some days it works and some it don't.  Today it didn't!  Only 2 o'clock and I am already home warm and feed writing this post.  What a short day on the water.  The poudre was so iced over there were hardly any open spots.  So I went down into town to catch some open water.  In town by the bike trail the bends in the river were open.  Second cast was a hit and landed fish.  But I found that getting to the fish was a challenge as the ice was on for the first 5 feet and had to break it through to get to the hooked fish.  After that somewhat suspicious start I couldn't' do anything right.  Every cast seemed to send a fly on or under some ice.  and ice just grabs fly's like nothing else.  Lost 3 in less than 10 minutes and now I know why fly fishers wait till spring or hit a tail water.

An unknow spot

Tonight I had a wonderful hike and about half hour of fishing.  Found one of those little creeks that is just big enough to have some 8 inchers.  The little stream in the fall was idealic in that it was almost over.  thirty days from now it will be a frozen dry prairie with wind making even the short hike a bit too much. 

What was interesting about this place is that nobody else was around.  Less than 40 minutes from my house I was almost totally alone.  Its not everyday that one gets to run out and find the quite area your looking for, and today it was just right.

Float Trip Grey Reef

So last weekend I did a last minute booking of a float trip in WY.  Overall was not a good idea.  It is a very expensive trip to pay for by oneself.  Also the reef I was told did not fish very well.  I was looking for big fish in the 20 inch range and only was getting some smaller rainbows.  The slow fishing was like a normal day on a river and not the spectacular day I was hoping for.  Maybe my expectations were just a little too high for the day.

On the upside I stayed in one of the weirdest hotels ever.  It was the Virginian in Medicine Bow, WY.  They had sleeping rooms on the second floor of the building.  The room was decorated in very old style and was quite unique.  All the rooms had a certain strange oldness to them.  Wallpaper and wooden furniture that was right out of the 40's.  There was shared bathrooms on each floor that were modern so it wasn't all old school.  The bar was super loud below me until just after midnight, as the locals all seemed to want to stay up and party.  It was a Friday night so I guess the third floor might have been a better bet.