Memorial Day weekend 2012

Not much of a story here. I just wanted to post a handful of pictures from a quick run out to the mountains last weekend. I only had Friday off so I knew that if I didn’t go fish it would be at least another 8 days before I would get the chance again. With the weather slated to hit 90 degrees over the holiday weekend I decided that I shouldn’t wait. I packed my bag and hit the road in the morning.

First trip with the new 1wt.

I recently got my hands on an older Scott fiberglass 1wt rod from another board member on www.fiberglassflyrodders.com. It was built by Marty DeSapio and at just 6′ long and 3 pieces, it makes a really nice pack rod for small mountain streams and native fish.

Nice looking pool.

This was my first trip to this particular stream. I had avoided it in the past because of access issues. After a little nosing around I found a couple places that I could access small portions of the creek. There were many more miles upstream that I didn’t explore but I will in the future.

A little tricky finding access but it was worth it.

I tied on a peacock body deer hair caddis and started to explore the small pools that you would expect to hold fish. It didn’t take long to get into small natives.

Even these little guys feel good on a 1wt.

I originally chose to fish this stream because I had heard that it held wild rainbows. That may be true but I never saw any. I ran into a couple of kids riding their bikes when I was leaving and they seemed interested in why I would waste my time fishing for brookies if I wasn’t keeping them. I explained my stance and asked about the aforementioned wild rainbows. The 11 year olds explained to me that “they’re in there,” and “if you really want to catch them, you need to ball up slices of American cheese.”  They seemed to frown upon my box of Royal Wulffs. I got a chuckle out of the whole conversation as I packed up my waders. Wild rainbows or not, I will never complain about catching a few healthy brook trout like these.

Very nice native.

A quick picture and its back into the pool.

Safely released.

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend.

F.H. Paddock build – wrap up

Well…it’s done. I finished up the final application of Flex Coat Lite yesterday evening. I did not thin this final coat with anything. I have to say, the Lite build is my favorite finish that I’ve used so far. I’m even considering using it on a (gasp) bamboo blank that I’ve been sitting on.

I figured out about three guides in how to properly chase the air out from under my wraps. I’ll be paying close attention to that on my next build.

 

I’m pretty happy overall with the way it turned out. Now I just have to go fish it. Hopefully by next week I’ll have a decent report on how it casts and more importantly, how it protects tippets with a trout on the other end.

F.H. Paddock build update

I’ve been plodding along with this build of an F.H. Paddock “Lemon Drop” blank. Between work, acquiring components, resposibilities at home, etc., I’m finally starting to see some results.

Progress.

For this 7’6″ 3/4wt I wanted a translucent effect on the guide wraps. I elected to use YLI 50 in #078 Antique Gold for the primary wraps and for a few subtle accents I settled on YLI 100 silk in #254 Light Taupe Brown for tipping. This was my first experience wrapping tipping. I managed to make it look presentable but it took several attempts to get the 4-5 wraps to my satisfaction.

Another reason I decided on brown tipping for accents is that I had previously selected a down locking reel seat from REC components with a Curly Koa spacer.

Curly Koa with polished aluminum down locking reel seat from REC.

I ended up using Snake Brand universal guides on this build and I firmly believe that they are superior to any other snake guide that I’ve used or seen. They are ready to use right out of the box and the feet are radiused so that they sit more securely on the blank. It makes quite a difference. If you are at all on the fence about choosing snake guides for your build, give Mike a call at Snake Brand. He takes genuine interest in his products and his customers. Check them out at http://www.snakeguides.com/

Mildrum SRMC stripping guide.

For finishing the wraps I bypassed my can of Spar Varnish and decided on Flex Coat Lite thinned with denatured alcohol. I warmed the Flex coat and mixed thoroughly before adding an equal amount of the alcohol. Application with a toothpick made the first coat of epoxy go on smoothly which brings me up to present. I’m currently allowing the Flex Coat to set up over 24 hours before I apply another coat of the un-thinned Lite formula. With any luck I’ll be fishing the rod by this time next week.