Well, it’s deep in the heart of winter and that usually means one thing to most fly anglers, bench time. The winter months usually signify a time of reflection for most fly anglers. Memories of the big fish or the one that got away fill your head. A lot of time is spent reading fly fishing magazines, looking at all of the new gear for the year, fantasizing about mid-winter fly fishing trips in an exotic locale in the tropics, and investigating new fly patterns to tie for the upcoming year. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks at my desk tying some flies. The first dozen or two of flies always seem to take a while to complete, though usually it’s enough to knock the old cobwebs off. I didn’t lose a lot of flies last year, which is nice since I won’t have to spend half the winter refilling my fly boxes. Instead, I’ll be able to spend much of my time trying new patterns to use for the upcoming year. Last year my focus was on tying a lot of clouser minnows, zonkers, bunny flies, and other large streamers. This year, my main focus is on carp flies. I have been tying a lot of larger nymphs so far. I’ll probably add some more crawfish patterns and other variations like the clouser swimming nymph, carp candy, etc. to my fly box before winding down on the tying season. The most interesting pattern I have sent this year is a clam pattern. I am intrigued and will tie a bunch up to try on some carp, buffalo, and redhorse. Happy tying!
January 31, 2008
Bench Time
Well, it’s deep in the heart of winter and that usually means one thing to most fly anglers, bench time. The winter months usually signify a time of reflection for most fly anglers. Memories of the big fish or the one that got away fill your head. A lot of time is spent reading fly fishing magazines, looking at all of the new gear for the year, fantasizing about mid-winter fly fishing trips in an exotic locale in the tropics, and investigating new fly patterns to tie for the upcoming year. I’ve spent the past couple of weeks at my desk tying some flies. The first dozen or two of flies always seem to take a while to complete, though usually it’s enough to knock the old cobwebs off. I didn’t lose a lot of flies last year, which is nice since I won’t have to spend half the winter refilling my fly boxes. Instead, I’ll be able to spend much of my time trying new patterns to use for the upcoming year. Last year my focus was on tying a lot of clouser minnows, zonkers, bunny flies, and other large streamers. This year, my main focus is on carp flies. I have been tying a lot of larger nymphs so far. I’ll probably add some more crawfish patterns and other variations like the clouser swimming nymph, carp candy, etc. to my fly box before winding down on the tying season. The most interesting pattern I have sent this year is a clam pattern. I am intrigued and will tie a bunch up to try on some carp, buffalo, and redhorse. Happy tying!
January 24, 2008
Cherry
Well my new Scott ARC 10’ 8 weight rod arrived last week. This rod is cherry. It has a great feel in your hand. It has a western grip, which is not common on typical 8 weight rods, (usually on lighter weight rods), but I feel that it will allow you to have better line control with your rod, as I often notice you get a better feel of the rod in your hands with a western grip than a double wells. The taper on this rod is nothing short of astounding; it is progressive with a medium fast action. This rod should have plenty of backbone to punch bombers deep into a strong headwind, yet be nimble enough to place a size 10 beadhead nymph along that current seam 15 yards in front of you. The balance of my new reel (Lamson Velocity Hard Alox 3.5) on this rod is perfect. The empty weight of the rod and reel combine for a measly 10.15 ounces, just a hair over half a pound. That is incredible. This new combo is a sweet setup that will be able to handle big fish under trying conditions. The only drawback is the fact that it’s January right now, and I need to wait a few months before being able to fish the rod. In the meantime, hopefully I can fight off the cabin fever with some fly tying. Tight Lines!January 3, 2008
Let's Try This Again
Here's the deal:
I got my 8 weight Redington RS4 fly rod yesterday. Pretty sweet looking rod. I grabbed the rod sections out of the cloth sack and noticed that the top two sections are for a 7 weight rod and the bottom two pieces are for an 8 weight rod. Great :(. I attached the new Lamson Velocity Hard Alox reel to the rod just to see what the balance was like. The reel was cherry. The rod; well let's just say that this rod is STIFF. I mean like broomstick stiff. I'm sure this rod has some power, but the action was way stiffer than I though it was going to be, and that's with the 7 weight pieces on top . This rod is way too stiff for what I want to use it for.
Here's what I did:
I wrapped the rod back up, packed it in the box, and dropped it off at UPS to return. I did what I should have done from the beginning, and placed the order for the Scott ARC 10' 8 weight (4-piece) rod. Hopefully it should be here next week. :) Tight Lines!
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