Fly Fishing Blog

A Rodmaker's Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Fly Fishing Blog) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:49:00 +0000

A number of years ago I read a book (that I highly recommend) entitled "A Mapmaker's Dream", subtitled "The Meditations of Fra Mauro, Cartographer to the Court of Venice". The book is about a cloistered monk who lives in an island monastery. He spends many years creating a map of the known world, based on interviews and reports from others who have visited exotic places. In the confines of his room he envisions what the places are like that the explorers, pilgrims, and travelers describe and he vicariously travels to them, constantly building a virtual world in his mind that he will never see in reality. It is a fascinating read.

As a rodmaker I have experiences similar to those of Fra Mauro. I build rods that people will use in locations throughout the world that I will never visit. As they describe the fishing situation to me, I vicariously travel to Patagonia for monster brown trout, to compete in bluewater tournaments in Florida, to Ireland and Alaska to fish for salmon, to Long Island Sound to fish for stripers and bluefish, and numerous other places. As I build each rod I realize that what is in my hands, what I am creating, will actually travel to those places and catch fish. Each choice that I make -- the rod blank, the reel seat, the grip, the guides, the guide spacing, the type of thread, the thread colors, the type of winding used to secure the guides, the artwork, the color preserver and epoxy, and even the glue used -- all these help me to envision where the rod will be fished and how it will be used to catch and release trophy fish. In a real sense, a part of me goes to that environment, fly fishing with the owner.

Although I have been fortunate to have fished for many species in my lifetime, my experiences do not compare to the sum of my clients' experiences worldwide. To me, rod building is much more than creating a custom fly rod for a client; it is the opportunity to use my experience, skill, and knowledge of both the technical aspects of the rod and the use to which it will be put, all the while seeing in my mind's eye the location, the battle, and the fun. I have loved fly rods and fly fishing all my adult life and as I get older and less able to travel to my clients' destinations, I am grateful that, like Fra Mauro, I can dream.

Graphite? Not if you value a gentle fishing experience.

noreply@blogger.com (Fly Fishing Blog) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:11:00 +0000

There is a large body of literature about fly fishing, some of which are about the pleasures of using fly rods. Almost all of them are written about bamboo rods. Why aren't there any books about the "soul" of graphite rods? I propose that graphite has lost the inherent qualities that make bamboo (or its cheaper alternative, fiberglass) a prized fishing companion and an heirloom too.

Graphite rods are made by the hundreds of thousands in factories; bamboo rods are made by skilled craftspersons one at a time. Fiberglass falls closer to bamboo than graphite in this regard. They are made in small batches in factories, or one at a time by skilled people. Graphite" blanks" -- the core of every fly rod to which components are added-- are actually made from carbon fiber, a very high tech material whose main characteristics are its ratio of strength to weight and its quickness to straighten once it has been bent, a.k.a. its modulus of elasticity. No other material can match these characteristics of graphite, and "therein lies the rub".

Both bamboo and fiberglass have a much lower modulus of elasticity, which translates into a slower recovery time from being bent. Fishing with either material is a very different experience than fishing with graphite. The rod feels more alive in the hand, almost as though it could fish on its own. The whole casting tempo is slowed down and becomes a gentle, graceful activity. Last year, a very experienced guide who had never used a bamboo rod expressed his feelings with "it almost casts itself" and "I never felt a trout shaking its head like that" and wanted to use my bamboo rod as much as I would let him.

Bamboo is a natural material -- it's actually a form of grass -- and, when made into a rod, has a warm beauty to it that is remarkable. It also requires a lot of care and is very expensive. Most quality bamboo rods sell in 2008 between $1,000 and $4,000 each. They are very resistant to breakage but can twist over time, especially if they are not stored properly. They used to be damaged by exposure to water and were varnished to protect them. I and some other bamboo rod makers have converted to protecting their rods with wax, since the newer glues used to join the blank sections are, unlike the older hide glues, are totally impervious to water.

Fiberglass rods are beginning to appear more frequently on streams than in the past few decades. They, like bamboo, have a soft action, very different than graphite. Fiberglass rods are slightly heavier and more durable than traditional graphite rods but break more easily than bamboo. Quality fiberglass rods -- not the chain store variety -- sell between $200 and $500 each in 2008. The latter, made by custom makers such as myself, have as much attention to detail and construction as the finest fly rods made. They are considerably cheaper than comparable graphite rods and much cheaper than bamboo. Like graphite, fiberglass rods cannot be damaged by water and are usable for decades using only common sense care. They are a wonderful rod to use on small-to-medium size streams if you want to cast gently and really feel the fish.

I rarely use my bamboo rods any more because I am afraid of damaging a very expensive rod (including the one that I made for myself) by doing something stupid and destroying a valuable heirloom. Although I use graphite on larger streams and salt water, when I fish the beautiful mountain streams near my home, my first choice is now fiberglass.

If you want to experience the kind of gentle fly fishing that existed before the development of technical tools that have lost their "soul", I highly recommend that you give fiberglass a try.

Are you casting or fishing?

noreply@blogger.com (Fly Fishing Blog) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:05:00 +0000

Are you casting or fishing?

Virtually every fly rod that is sold these days is described in an
advertisement, four-color catalog, or web site by its casting action. By
this I don't mean fast, medium, or slow, but how far you can cast with it
and/or the size of the line loop in the forward cast. I don't know about
you but I have caught only one fish when the line wasn't in the water: a
Florida largemouth bass jumped up and grabbed my deer hair bug as I was
trying to free it from a bush by jiggling it.

I enjoy casting as much as the next person and emphasize it at home when I
test my custom rods, but when I'm on the river it's a different story. I
want my fly to be on/in the water as much as possible, which means that I
cast as infrequently as I can. I try for one false cast and an
accurate delivery -- it doesn't always happen! -- then I try for the best
presentation possible: a drag free float for my dry fly, my nymph(s) flowing
freely at the right depth, or a life-like action to my streamer or wet fly.
That is the best way to catch trout, and by extension, other fish, fresh or
salt.

Why don't corporations and other builders mention these most productive
aspects in their ads and web sites? Because they are not glamorous. They
want you to imagine yourself throwing graceful curves in the air and having
your (one) skill noticed by others. If you buy a rod from me, you can be
assured that not only will it cast beautifully, but it will give you control
of the line and fly in the air AND on/in the water. I wouldn't make a rod
that didn't cast well, but I want my customers to primarily be excellent
fishers. Think about curve casts around obstacles, mends in a multi-current
river, high-stick drag free nymphing, making a streamer look like a wounded
bait fish trying to escape a predator, sensitivity to gentle strikes, saving
the tippet when the fly gets slammed, double hauling to reach way out there,
and having the right backbone to fight and to land a fish, large or small,
all the while having fun, and you're thinking about those things in fly
fishing that really count.

Every component in every rod that I build is geared toward that end. For
example, I once showed a potential customer, a woodworker, one of my older
bamboo rods. He was impressed by its condition, but said that he didn't
treat his rods with such care. He told me that a lot of his fishing was
done in high mountain lakes that often required long hikes or horse rides to
reach them, and that he had broken several rods on such trips. I told him
that if breaking a rod from rough treatment was a major concern of his, that
I would build him a four-piece rod from an older type of graphite, one that
could take more abuse than the newer super-high-modulus brittle materials,
yet still give him the sensitive action that he wanted for Alpine fishing. I
also suggested Recoil (tm) guides made from an alloy that can be bent over
time after time without damage or failure. To make a long story short, he
loved the rod I built for him and has fished it for several years under
rough conditions with no damage at all. His primary concern was not how he
looked while casting, but whether the rod would do the job for him and that
it would last. It did and it still does today.

Another example is the rod that I built for a guide who fished for inshore
saltwater species in San Diego Bay. He wanted a rod that could get a
sinking line "out there" and pull it up from the bottom at the end of the
cast, and that would give his clients satisfaction whether the fish were
large or small. I selected a nine foot seven weight blank that is available
only to custom builders, one that had good backbone and a sensitive tip, and
paired it with a titanium reel seat with a teak insert and a fighting butt.
The guides had titanium feet with Nanolite (tm) ceramic inserts that were
corrosion proof and had very little friction, would never wear out, and
enabled long casts. He could snake his Clouser fly through the eel grass and
feel the lightest take, but if the fish was a Pacific barracuda, a large
calico bass, or even a bonefish, the power was there to set the hook and
land the it.

Our local Trout Unlimited chapter is in the process of creating a Rio Grande
Cutthroat restoration fund to extend the range of these wild native New
Mexico trout and make catching them more available to everyone. I will be
donating a rod to the chapter for catching these wonderful fish. It will be
a seven foot three weight fiberglass rod that will have that wonderful soft
action that has been lost even in the most sensitive graphite and will make
catching these small fish a lot of fun. The rod will have a traditional
style of rod handle -- a downlocking nickel silver reel seat and a cigar-
shaped grip -- and chrome snake guides, wrapped and accented with silk
thread that has the colors of these beautiful fish. In this situation,
casting is not the most important element, since most casts are short and
don't have to be extremely accurate. The whole theme of the rod will be a
celebration of our state fish and have a wonderful action and sensitive feel
to give the maximum enjoyment while fishing for them in our mountain
streams.

You will not find unique, quality rods like these in fly fishing shops or
sporting goods stores. Modern factory production has made standardization
the norm these days. They have narrowed the market and lost the individual
characteristics that were the hallmark of all fly rods not too long ago.
Individually made fly rods have a "soul" that connects the fisher, the fish,
and the environment into an organic whole that is and always will be more
than the sum of the parts.

Beginner Fly Rod

noreply@blogger.com (Fly Fishing Blog) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:45:00 +0000

It is without question a daunting task to choose a fly rod suitable for a beginner from the many that are offered by the manufacturers and builders. Reasonable quality fly rods are a minor investment; high quality rods are expensive regardless of the standard of measure. Fortunately, there is a practical solution.

A fly rod is used for three separate functions while fishing: delivering the fly so that when it reaches the fish it is in the right place, controlling the action of the fly as it approaches the fish, and fighting the fish after it takes the fly. The first task is called casting, the second mending or stripping, and the third, well, fighting. The right rod for a beginner will make all of these three easy.

The core of every fly rod is the blank, the pole or “stick” of carbon fiber (“graphite”) or bamboo to which the reel seat, grip, and guides are attached. The most expensive graphite blanks are made from the latest generation of carbon fiber technology with a very high stiffness to weight ratio, expressed as “modulus of elasticity” or simply “modulus”. Bamboo blanks have a much lower modulus, are generally not suitable for beginners because of their cost. Let’s examine what stiffness and weight mean for a beginner.

Extremely light weight is of little concern to the beginner, since the weight of trout rods is just a few ounces even with a lower modulus (heavier) blank. Very high modulus blanks may be very light because of the thinness of their walls, but they are also relatively fragile. I don’t recommend them even to my experienced customer-fishers unless they understand that the latest generation blanks must be treated more carefully and are more likely to break under real world conditions than older styles. Contrary to what one might think, fish rarely break rods if the match of equipment to species is even close. Rods are most often broken by being knocked against a hard surface, fracturing the carbon fiber material, although the actual total break may not occur until the rod is stressed at a later time. I have never seen a carbon fiber blank break unless the material has been fractured first, for example by being rapped by flying split shot during an errant cast or falling to the pavement when leaning against a vehicle. (With the care put into the creation of all modern carbon fiber blanks, manufacturing defects are very rare.) It is a simple fact that a thick wall is stronger than a thin one, whether in a fly rod blank or guarding China. The carbon graphite technology of just a few years ago is more suitable for a beginner’s rod than the latest material, and it’s cheaper.

I mentioned the stiffness to weight ratio earlier, and we’ve already discussed weight, so let’s talk about stiffness. In general, the stiffer a rod is the more difficult it is to cast. The reason is that a stiff blank, once bent, straightens very quickly, requiring more precise timing than is required with a softer blank. With all blanks, the straightening action is controlled by the design of the taper from tip to butt. In a fast action rod – the kind most often promoted in the glossy advertisements -- the primary bending occurs closer to the tip under load than it does with a medium or slow action. Incidentally, these “action” terms can be confusing, since they don’t describe the speed of the straightening but the bend profile. It is important to understand that you can have a fast action rod that can straighten relatively slowly! It all depends on the material that the blank is made from.

The right fly rod for a beginner is one that is made from second or third generation graphite with a medium to medium-fast action. This type of rod is relatively inexpensive, durable, and forgiving. It will not require precise timing during the cast, it permits gentle and controlled mending, and will protect the fragile tippet – the end of the leader – during the fight with the fish. It can stand up to rougher treatment than a newest-generation carbon fiber, whether it’s used by a beginner or a veteran who handles it with other than kid gloves. In fact, many of my customer-fishers, once they use a “beginner’s rod” that I build for them, never use anything else.

Casting a Fly Rod

noreply@blogger.com (Fly Fishing Blog) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:39:00 +0000

There have been many articles written about casting a fly rod, and I find most of them confusing and, for the beginner, intimidating. Casting a fly rod is as easy as throwing a ball or a dart once the basic casting principle is understood.

A fly rod is above all flexible. It is designed to bend easily with a minimum amount of force applied to it, both from your hand and from the weight attached to it. Excluding additional objects added to it, the weight that causes the rod to bend comes almost exclusively from the fly line. (Because a leader and fly are almost weightless, they won’t be considered as factors here.) Weight is weight; there is no difference between a fly line and a light lure if you put them on a scale. The primary difference between the two is that the weight is concentrated over a few inches of a lure, but over many feet of fly line. The difference in casting depends entirely on understanding this factor.

When you cast a lure, it is begins traveling forward as soon as you apply pressure with your hand, bending the rod. The lure starts directly behind the tip when you begin the cast and travels in the direction that the tip is pointing when you release the tension. Because there are just a few inches of line extending from the tip to the lure, any line not being pulled forward at the beginning of the cast is quickly straightened as the rod tip moves forward. Not so with a fly line.

If you are going to fly cast successfully, you must have the entire fly line traveling forward as soon as you apply pressure to the rod. You cannot achieve this if there is any slack in the line; much of the potential power of your cast will be lost eliminating slack. The most important ingredient in a successful fly cast is having the entire line parallel to the ground (or water) and starting to move forward as soon as you begin to apply pressure to the rod with your hand. If the line is straight behind you, any effort that you put into the cast begins to affect the line immediately. Fly casting becomes a relaxing activity, as it should be, and the desired casting results are easily achieved.

The key to having the line parallel to the ground (or water) before the forward cast is to create a good back cast. (It’s actually the same as the forward cast, only in the opposite direction.) You begin moving the end of line once any slack has been removed and the line is straight, and you cast it behind you by applying pressure to the rod. It’s desirable to begin with the rod low and direct the line slightly upward so that when you stop the back cast the line ends up just short of parallel. Throw it up and back, stop the tip where you want the line to go, and wait for the line to unroll, letting gravity pull it downward as you change direction to begin the forward cast.. The moment that it is straight behind you begin the forward cast. Put as much bend as you want into the rod then, as with a ball or dart, stop the cast when the tip is pointing in the direction that you want the line to go. The line will continue to travel forward, gaining momentum as the rod unbends and, when the energy has been expended, the line (and leader and whatever else is attached) will be delivered to the target. It’s really that simple!

You may have read or heard about the 10 o’clock to 2 o’clock casting arc, accelerating to a stop, “the inverted j”, tailing loops, and other confusing information about casting. You don’t need to pay attention to any of it if you pay attention to the above principle of casting. Assemble your rod and reel, lay the rod down on the grass, pull about 20 feet line from the tip, pick up the rod, and begin casting, straightening the line on both the back cast and forward cast. A few minutes practice and you’ll “get it”.

Set Up a Fly Rod for Trout

noreply@blogger.com (Fly Fishing Blog) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 21:37:00 +0000

You have your fly fishing outfit and you’re ready to set it up. Great! Before you begin make sure that you have the following…

Fly rod
Fly reel
Fly line
Backing (20 lb. Dacron)
Braided loop or 2’ .021 monofilament
1’ ¼” dowel (or a new pencil)
Small, sharp scissors (or nail clippers)
Flex-CH waterproof super glue (Zap-A-Gap)
2” length of hollow tubing (metal or plastic) – if using .021 monofilament

Place the fly reel on the rod and make sure that it fits the reel seat properly. There should be enough of the reel seat foot covered to properly secure the reel to the rod. If not, stop here. You need to exchange the rod or reel for one that fits. There is nothing worse than losing your reel when fishing due to incompatibility.
Remove the reel and make sure that it is set up for right- or left-hand wind. Most trout fisherman prefer left-hand wind. If you need to change the reel over, do so now according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Prepare to put the backing onto the reel. Unwind about two feet of backing from the spool, wind the backing around the reel arbor, and attach it to itself using an arbor knot: (http://www.killroys.com/knots/backing.htm) Make sure that you pull the finished knot very tight against the arbor and that both knots are jammed against each other.
If you have a helper, ask her/him to hold the backing spool with the dowel through it and apply slight pressure to to the sides of the spool; if you’re by yourself you will need to hold the dowel between your knees while sitting down, applying pressure so it won’t fall and against the spool sides also. Make sure that the backing comes off the top of the spool and goes to the top of the arbor (with the reel foot down). Begin reeling (your hand travels toward you) until the spool is filled to within 5/8” of the top. (This may be too much and you will have to adjust later, but it is better than having too little backing on the spool and creating additional knots.) Cut the backing, leaving about two feet outside the reel.
Carefully open the plastic spool containing the fly line and carefully remove the chenille or other ties from around the line, then replace the line on the spool and close it, making sure that the line isn’t pinched between the two halves. Identify the end of the line to attach to the backing (usually labeled with a small sticker) and pull out about two feet of line slowly. Attach the backing to the line using an Albright knot (http://www.killroys.com/knots/albright.htm)
Using the same helper/self technique as before, making sure the fly line feeds off the top of the spool to the top of the reel. Wind the fly line onto the reel using very little pressure; you don’t want the line coils on the spool digging into each other. Continue winding until the line is about ¼” from the outer edge of the reel spool.
If you have fly line remaining on the spool, that is okay, but you still have some work to do; if the 5/8” space estimate was right, go to the next step. If not, unwind the fly line, piling it loosely on the floor or wind it back onto the spool by turning the spool – do not wrap it by hand! – until you reach the arbor knot. Cut the fly line right at the knot and remove backing to reduce the diameter of that already wound onto the reel by about ¼” (or as much as you guess you had overfilled). Retie the arbor knot and wind the fly line back onto the reel. If you still have more backing to remove when you’re done, repeat this step. (I know this is arduous, but it’s sometimes trial-and-error to get it just right.)
The last step is to put a loop at the end of your fly line so that you can change leaders easily as fishing conditions dictate. There are two choices here: a braided loop or a monofilament loop. I prefer the former because it’s easier to install and is lighter. With a braided loop, make sure that there is a ½” of flexible tubing over the loop end, then thread the line into the opening and “inchworm” the line down until it reaches the loop. Holding the loop firmly (putting a short nail through the loop helps) slowly slide the tubing to just over the end of the loop material. (If you go beyond the end, remove the loop and start over.) Put a small drop of Flex-CH glue on each end of the tubing. Capillary action will cause it to flow under the tubing, locking everything in place. If you want to use a monofilament loop, you must use a nail knot (http://www.killroys.com/knots/nail.htm) to attach a 1’ length to the end of the line. I recommend only four turns instead of five and you must make absolutely sure that the monofilament digs into the fly line coating. I recommend using a thin coating Flex-CH glue over the knot after you’ve trimmed the end of the monofilament closely. Finally, you must put a perfection loop (http://www.killroys.com/knots/perfecti.htm) in the end of the monofilament, leaving about 6” total.