fishing in the cathedral

my fishing buddy likens it to fishing in a phone booth

I disagree

granted the cathedral grows in grandeur upstream to the dam

(damned impressive)

and grows ever grander downstream over countless rapids

the walk in fished as fine as I've seen it

look at that beautiful wild rainbow

lovely colors healthy and strong fish

typical of the fish we saw yesterday

josh didn't take long getting started

(a pattern to be repeated throughout the course of the day - he was en fuego)

sticking a nice fish early on a custom tied egg pattern of his own design

this is my favorite of the numerous underwater shots he took

he gets photo credit on both bentrod shots below and several here

my weapon of  choice for the day
and the first ever bamboo rod I made
chile colorado
7ft2in 5wt driggs river special

I've gotta a lotta pics just like this one

again - look at that fi

sh!

this rock right here is the throne 

perfectly scooped and smoothed and pitched 

for yer work

a perfect place to sit and rest too

why would you wanna fish here?

beats me

got bent

more to follow

or not...

"the skinny" - chapter eight - dipsticks at work

part one is winding up here

took the rod up to congress to be dipped

mike uses some fancy pants european varnish

epiphanies or something like that

I call it epiphanies anyways

crazy expensive stuff

I've come around to using it myowndamnself

just ordered over a gallon of the stuff

lotsa guys hook they retrieval device to a rotisserie motor

for a slow and consistent withdrawal of the rod from the varnish

mike had an old pflueger reel hooked up to do so

we dipped the rod

I cranked the reel s - l - o - w - l - y

eyes wide as this rod I'd crafted from crooked burnt sticks emerged

as a thing of absolute beauty

we hung it in the drying cabinet

I went home feeling pretty pleased w/ myself

another dip was in order

I wasn't in a hurry

speed kills remember?

except I had a trip coming up to the mighty san juan 

I wanted to fish my brand new bamboo

on the way up there anita and I stopped by congress and picked up the rod

encased in a rod sock and tube provided courtesy of senor shay

I'd have to come back later 

for the second dip

that was neither here nor there

we met steve on the san juan the next day

our buddy chris martinez drove over the mountain and met us with his drift boat

we had a nice float

shortly after we started I blooded that got am rod 

somewhere around the texas hole

I had done it

the journey was underway

"the skinny" - chapter seven - fuggin' ferrules and wrot wram wrapping - continued

so we're at home w/ the blank and wrapping

I'd wrapped three plastic rods w/ gudebrod "A" thread

once I got the hang of that it was pretty easy

if you've been reading a while you've seen plenty of pics of my wrapping stands

hand made out of alder

the rod rest notches are lined w/ adhesive backed foam

pieces are held in place by a rubber band stretched across the top of the rod 

and doubled back 

I don't use any thread tensioning device

I wrap w/ fly tying bobbin holder

which I allow to hang over the edge of the table and this works for me

I've made a couple little tensioner devices

but they never really worked as well for me

first rod I built I wrapped using a cardboard box

I still have it

I used a telephone book for tension

didn't like it

stumbled upon the bobbin

and have stuck w/ it ever since

when I told perry (local maker currently busting his ass fighting wildfire) about it

he said he was using one as well

makes thread management easier for me

wrapping w/ pearsall's gossamer is nothing like "A" thread

furtermore I used to mark off the beginning and end of each wrap w/ a slip of masking tape

ensuring they were all the same size

mike showed me how to start three wraps before you ramp up onto the guide

I've been doing it like that ever since

anyways it was a pain in the ass

I had to finish five wraps on the butt plus tipping each one

I have no idea how many times I had to do each one

before I found it acceptable

nor did I have nice tidy three turn tips either

oh well I'm learning and it looks okay

on to the tip

aye yi yi what a pain in the ass

the tip is very fine and delicate and it moves

nothing at all like wrapping the rigid butt

so I labor away and labor away at it until I think I've got it

I do have it - I'm done

except...shit...

all the guides are wrapped one flat over from where they should be

motherFUCK!

I bust out all the wraps and do it again

I think we had varnished the initial wraps on the butt up at mike's shop

and he sent me home w/ a vial of varnish

I'm pretty sure I varnished the remaining wraps at home 

four coats

anyways, now it really was looking like a fishing pole

I could even test cast it

and I'm sure I did

time to dip the rod

I'm stoked

time to go back to congress

chile verde

also test cast this morning - also SWEET!

chile verde

again specs posted earlier

from the vault

rare and unusual pictures of "chile colorado"

first cane rod I ever built...

driggs river special 7ft 2in 5wt

whoopsie!

yes that's a pencil mark under the varnish

dipshit

chicken fucking pot pie

I did this for anita

comfort food

damn it was tasty

the arsenal

the first string or starting five...

from top to bottom (right to left below)

7'2" 5wt - phy driggs river special (first bamboo rod I built)

7'6" 4wt - cattanach sir d - schliske  (first owned)

7'0" fe thomas 7032 (second build and remains current favorite)

6'8" 2wt - degere ice cream parlor hole special (latest finished rod)

6'0" 1 wt - degere flea

tribute

the original dump

a nice rainbow from the au sable

nature's cooler on the au sable

finally a suitably sloppy usual