back in the day

this book is a treasure assuming you can find a copy

there may be one at the library - the big one downtown

I could tell you a story (or two) about that building but won't

I wanna talk about bill valentine

bill valentine wrote a fishing column for the arizona republic and gazette

from 1962 - 1978

and this is a collection of those columns

he is witty and observant and man oh man does he like to fish

and he enjoys telling fish stories

of which it seems there are hundreds here

in the 630 pages of prose and packed w/ black and white fishing photos

from a bygone time...

plus - he was a pretty ding danged stylish dude...

valentine was also a skilled cartoonist/artist

following all the fish tales (full disclosure - some are rather similar)

are some maps he's drawn of the rocky point/cholla bay area he so loved

there are also several dozen nifty little illustrations for fishing derbies and the like

it sure seems a glorious time to be fishing the salt

apparently he had a love for mermaids as well

who doesn't?

love that he lists the species being 95 - 125 lb
she's a "merrymaid"

I guess that'd be a keeper

copyright info on this book merely lists

"Copyright C (circled) 1990 Jessie and Mike Valentine  All Rights Reserved"

the book appears to be self published by the family

"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

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

this one's quite fuzzy in my memory

mostly because it wasn't much of a hands-on lesson

more a demo I guess...

I think we may have corked up the rod as well

though we also had to wait on this to set as well

so this chapter may well have occured of the course of a couple visits to congress

and mike mighta shown me how to turn a grip

again I likely had little to do with this

I do remember he kept having me check it for hand feel

mike chucked up the rod pieces into the lathe 

showed me how to cut ferrule stations

whizhittt whizhitt

it was done

a far cry faster and simpler than fitting them by hand w/ sandpaper

the type of thing that could take most of the afternoon

then he crowned the ferrule tabs

again I don't much remember much of this

cleaned the ferrules inside and out and glued them to the rod

down time waiting for glue to set was likely spent jrinking and shooting the shit

after which mike dressed the male to fit the female

and likely glued on the tip top

the next step remains fairly vivid

mike showed me how he wrapped

he wrapped above the grip - black red black red black

put a sig wrap at fourteen inches - red black red

I asked for another at sixteen inches as that was the bottom end of the slot limit at lees ferry

and my fishing buddy always wanted to keep a couple fish the last day to take home

and because of his ineptitude catching fish it was left up to me to catch them

it's now occurred to me I've missed a thing or two

at some point mike must have explained sizing the pieces and cutting them to size

which we did - surely before setting the ferrules I think

I also think the ferrules were blued

I think mike may have wrapped the stripper guide

and made the guide spacing reference marks

which remain on the rod to this day if you look closely enough

so anyways, I took the rod pieces home to finish wrapping

"whatever you do don't put those pieces together and wiggle or pretend cast that"

okay sez I  - I won't

"the skinny" - chapter six - this is gonna take forever...

if you've been reading here for a while

you know that both mike and I like to jrink

I'd show up around eight thirty am and mike would hand me a beer

"yer four behind" he'd say

 Iusually spent the night in the ranch house on the couch

work a few hours sat morning and drive home

I think I finished planing all the butt strips

threw the tip strips onto the forms 

planed them to butt numbers

flipped the forms over and set for tips

and yer back for more

fuck my right arm was tired

fingertips on my left hand were marked by razor thin slices

taken by the edges of the bamboo

it was like handling glass only worse cuz you get cut

often

I'm not sure I finished planing those strips that trip or not

eventually they were done

if you have never seen a tip strip before it's glued up

you would not believe how fucking tiny that thing is

tiny as it is it carries the cross section of an equilateral triangle 

whippier than shit

it still kinda boggles my mind

could it be that we're ready to glue?

we are we're ready to glue!

make or break moment number one

wow - I've neglected to mention node staggering

easy

I go I - IV II - V III = VI

get it?  got it?  good

some will some won't and that's neither here nor there

I also didn't speak to mike's constant encouragement and necessary guidance

there kept me going as I was ready to quit

my right shoulder bicep forearm wrist and palm were trashed

I hated planing

fortunately things get easier and easier as you go along

now i think nothing of it and can plane a butt to numbers in a morning

tips take an afternoon

no physical wear and tear and (hopefully) no snags

glue day is simple and my goodness nothing else to do until tomorrow

may as well get jrunk so we do

wanna read about it?  

put the strips in order I II II IV V VI both strips

tape them into place

set the plane to red cunt hair depth and take off the apexes

mix glue - well that's what I go now

we use different glues mike and I so I don't remember if we mixed

smear w/ glue up down and back up the sections

jrink smoke

fold six pcs to hex shape both pcs

run through binder both directions

hang in cabinet

jrink smoke

the rest of the day was filled with waiting jrinking and smoking

I think that a chunk of hash appeared at some point

of course I sampled that

I'm asleep when mike gets up at two am as he does most every day

he strips the string and heat sets the glue

this glue is some kinda fancy expensive shit 

designed to glue the lining into aircraft windshields

I get up in the morning drink a couple cups of coffee and sand until my arms are ready to fall out

then I sand some more

holy crap this thing is finally starting to look like a fishing pole

I take it home w/ considerable pride to show my wife

things are coming together and I'm about half way done

"the skinny" - chapter five - fuck this is tough stuff

so the next saturday I'm up again

and those crooked burnt sticks are ready for planing

"I've got a machine but it's not likely that you will

maybe you should rough by hand"

I'll try and I did

half the day later with a light head and heavy arms

I say "we'll zip the rest"

so we zip them and we're done in far less time than it took me

to do that one - in the end it was well worthwhile

mike delivers a block of instruction for setting forms

my mind is kinda swimming now

we're marking forms (every five inches if ya din't know)

marking each mark w/ a spot of tape and a number

that looks like this

0 0.70

0.081

0.094

0.115

no wonder my head spins or was it swims

I used to teach decimals to kids and told them

"don't really worry about things past the hundredths round up or down and go with it

we don't really use the deeper decimals"

and we don't or didn't we are now

having them and reading a screwy gauge and adjusting to reach the desired decimal

*I know I've got a picture of this bassackwards gauge bear w/ me*

tis second nature now but a true pain in the ass 

the first time I tried it out on my own w/out guidance

as with anything else worth doing

everything is difficult before it becomes easy

this shit was very difficult

I started planing

ohmyfuggingoldengildedass it was difficult

my scrawny arms were accustomed to swinging golf clubs

not making curls

imagine the repetitiveness and mindlessness of the nodework

add toil and measuring multiply by an exponent and yer almost there

consider the fact that the plane is bucking skipping and bouncing in my hand

mike advising me "easy easy"

my aching ass it's easy

we got it done

I was whooped and jrunk wasted really

I stayed the night to continue planing the next day

I had to get this done

I wasn't looking forward to it

as time went on - I think this was back in like 2006?  - I spent a lotta hours up there

this was a coupla months ago

continued II

things proceed very slowly

escpecially when you don't know what yer doing

it's always fun when yer splitting a new culm

learning to do it with two left hands w/ ten little toes is tricky

eventually after a half dozen (culms) or so 

yer steering yer splits and getting consistency

without even thinking about it

that was a short and easy afternoon's work

feeling each other out

mike didn't know it at the time and he would find out eventually

I was a serious and dedicated student

I was not going to squander this opportunity

showed up around seven thirty the next saturday morning

for a long hard daze work

we heated and crushed nodes

all fucking day - this is incredibly tedious work

(as readers of my blog have read more than once)

say you've got three nodes per section

six strips per section means eighteen nodes to crush

times two for a two piece times three for a three

each node gets heated and crushed twice

you could fall asleep

(note - both mike and I have streamlined this process a bit 

mike uses the sweet nodemaster 500 or 5000 I don't remember

while I employ a timer to keep heating [relatively] consistent)

mike quickly showed me the key to enduring such drudgery

and handed me an icy cold bottle of budweiser from the keginator

still wearisome but made a bit more pleasant 

as the heating and crushing continue

must be crushing nodes

I don't know how we could have gotten anything else that day

all I've got to show for it is a dozen burnt crooked sticks

chances are pretty good I drove home w/ a pretty good buzz

really not a good call ever

it won't be the last time...

"the skinny" - chapter four - feelers

once I got it my mind to do this

I started putting out feelers on-line

rodmakers chat on thursday evenings put me in touch w/ guys like...

ron kusse john channer and others

who readily offered advice and tips

they were a truly invaluable resource

I put forth my idea

learn to build bamboo rods 

so I could stay busy during retirement

I got an invite from an az rodmaker to visit his shoppe

I drove an hour and fifteen minutes northwest to congress, az

where I was greeted by a countless number of giant white (deaf) great danes

a handful or two chow chows yapping to beat the band

a hippie looking guy w/ long gray ponytail and full gray beard

wandered out of the shoppe shook my hand and said

"I'm mike shay - let's build you a bamboo rod"

we toured the shoppe

mike selected a culm and we flamed and split that sumbitch

and my education was underway...

"the skinny" - chapter three - flashforward continued...

fished that schliske four weight pretty much exclusively over the course of two years

it became an extension of my arm my mind and even my heart

casting was effortless thoughtless

visual landing the fly and go

the rod simply did whatever I asked it to do

and to feel it come alive after sticking a hot fish

my word there was nothing like it

the thing had a life of its own

I started to try to figure out how I could get a bamboo five weight

and a three weight

that would be enough

I could not afford or justify either

could I build one?

not immediately of course 

I'd have to learn how to do it

ideally have someone show me how to do it right

shorten the learning curve

how can we make this happen?

set a reasonable timeline

how about learn to do it before I retire

so I have something to keep idle hands working

I envisioned myself an old fart puttering around in a garage shoppe

I just didn't see it happening so quickly

some time around then

a bamboo rod maker packed up his shop in southern california

and headed to a small ranch near wickenburg

where he set up in an outbuilding and took care of the numerous pets and stock

and continued practicing his craft

I knew nothing at the time of this profound development

old news of sorts

this place is cute

it's also tiny

they make nice pies...

pepperoni and jalapeno pepperoni and mushroom (I like mushrooms) pepperoni

right next door is the sierra vista motel

w/ four rooms it is arizona's smallest

I've stayed there about half a dozen times and the rooms are very nice

as are the grounds

the price is right too

highly recommended

my favorite shot from the night in question...

it looked like that to everyone involved

that's why we filled that motel

workin' hard playin' hard

ted nugent song right?

more like hardly workin' playin' harder

yeah I can get behind that

I have been known to work - at least a little bit

"I really hate to work but I'll deny it if you ask"

-russ tolman

test casting poore girl rod #1

always make play a part of yer day

for all practical purposes she's done

mandatory agate shot

for you bruddah!

weird shit goes down in congress...

lovely pieces of turned claro walnut and claro blanks

lovely bottle of bourbon too

perusing the archives

I've got lotsa possibilities for posting

old shots from the old daze

back when ye olde rod shoppe that wrock 

wasn't but a glint on daddy's dick

interesting stuff 

to me at least and one day soon you'll see some here

today I've settled on this...

a preliminary design sketch for the afa logo

back in the day yo

fortunately I secured a professional(?) to finish the job

agate

unfortunately I'll be needing some of these soon

mail order bride

She's got skin like Peking duck
Glazed in honey
She glows like the sun
Seen through amber
She wears bright nickel jewelry
Wrapped in colorful silk

She's thin and nubile and seven feet tall
And my touch can make her
Wiggle and flex and even fall to pieces

She never says no to a streamside ramble,
and her honey-do list is one word long
"Fish"
She casts out lines ending in tiny barbs
And her taste in men, impeccable

lines by fernando gomez

pic courtesy of the bench of mike shay