Summer updates - new rods, fishing and imperfection

Hello everyone! I hope your summer is off to a good start. So far so good over here! Last week I met up with Dave to go find some brook trout at one of our favorite spots in the Virginia highlands. We were so excited. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a day to fish together. And Dave hadn’t seen a brook trout since the last time we fished together last year. That’s not ok, but I didn’t judge, and he caught a 25-pound carp the day before. I still think those fish are gross but I bet that was fun. 

Anyway, we got to the getting place and it started to rain a little. No problem, it was supposed to rain a little and it looked like it was going to clear up. We hiked to the water and walked way down low, planning for a long day on the water. The water was low and moving slow. Not much holding water so we figured it’d take some stealth and care to find the fish. We rose a few right off the bat using little foam ants that he ties. 

In another hour it was pouring rain and I, the one who forgot his raincoat, was completely soaked. We caught a few more and the water started to rise and then we were catching more debris than anything. The previously crystal clear water had no visibility. By the time we decided to call it, the small creek was a river and the flow was probably 8 times stronger than when we got there and not fishable. 

We decided to head back early. It was a great experience, even if a little disappointing. By the way, I was using my new 6’2” 3wt and it was perfect for this. More on that rod below. 

This morning I was working on several rods - some for clients and a handful that are going to the Bighorn Angler in MT. I was inscribing them and applying the final coat of finish. Up to this point, I’ve made a few thousand rods. Every single one that I’ve inscribed I’ve struggled with my handwriting. 

Ever since I learned how to write I’ve struggled with being satisfied with what resulted. Each rod I write on it takes a few tries to get it to be ok enough. Nothing is ever perfect. That's life lesson right there. Perfection is an illusion. No fishing trip is going to go exactly the way it was envisioned. Nothing made by hand will be perfect. And that’s ok. It’s more than ok, it’s the way it’s supposed to be. There will be imperfections and we are better for it. Sterility does not have soul.

A few weeks ago, Kristin and I flew to Colorado for a few days to explore an area that’s new for us. Our intent was to get away for a little bit, fish and explore. It was amazing. I pre-scouted some areas I wanted to fish and when we got there, those areas were still experiencing effects of snow melt and weren’t fishable. 

We went to talk with some folks at the nearby USFS ranger station and look at maps. Later that day we found some fishable water and caught some wild and seemingly untouched Colorado River strain cutthroat trout. It was incredible. Not perfect, but incredible. I was satisfied. 

I got to fish a new rod, a 4 piece 6’2” 3wt in its intended habitat and quarry. This is a rod I made only 4 of several years ago. I changed a few things about it to help with some in-close ‘point and shoot’ pocket water fishing. Now it’ll be part of the permanent lineup. I’ll list one for sale shortly and will also start taking orders for them (the link will be in my webstore and I’ll update the other necessary areas of my website too.

Not long ago I started fiddling with a newish rod design. I wanted to continue with making the 70p, a 7’ 4wt 4 piece parabolic rod that has gained quite a devoted following. The original supplier of that blank is out of the picture so I decided to start from scratch to make something similar, but better. After a little groundwork to get this going, and some prototyping, I feel that I nailed it. I was going to call it something fancy like 70pv2 or 70pbutbetter but decided against that. Calling it what it is is good enough. It’s the 7’ 4wt. It’s 4 pieces. It’s yellow and it’s a real delight to fish. 

I’ve caught a bunch of wild trout on it, some bluegill and some bass on it. The one I’m keeping, and that won’t be for sale, ever, has a little piece of mahogany on the reel seat. It has some screw holes from its previous life as a piano. This piece of wood is from the same piece of dark mahogany that came from a piano that was made over 100 years ago. Some other pieces of that wood make up the reel seats on my other personal rods, that also will never be for sale. This is the same piece of wood that the back and sides of the guitar that Wayne made me last year came from. 

Full circle. I love it when wood tells a story over and over again. I recently built one of these 7’ 4wt’s and I’ll list it for sale shortly. I’m taking orders for this one too. With this rod, and the aforementioned 6’2” 3wt, my lineup is complete. I don’t have plans to add anything else, other than the LTD series I mentioned in a previous post. Those are going up for preorder shortly as well. As a reminder, I’ll be taking orders for 5 of the Gila Special (6’6” 2wt 4 piece) and 5 of the Jackpot which is a 7’7” 7wt 3 piece. 

Otherwise, things here are good. We’re planning a road trip to explore more of Colorado and swing down to Texas to see family and friends there. Old Stella is doing pretty well. She just turned 14 years old a few weeks ago and can’t hear any more and is slowing down a bit. We call her Old Stella because Kirstin came with her own Stella who is also an amazing dog of questionable lineage. The Stellas, being females that are confident with themselves, get at each other a little bit but for the most part they are good with each other. 

Then there’s Willie. He showed up in a friend's backyard over in the Wilksboro, NC area. No one knows where he came from. We think he’s at least part alien, or at least was influenced by aliens. He’s also an Australian Cattle Dog (same as Old Stella) and is the sweetest meat head ever. Emphasis on meat head. He hasn’t been fishing yet but maybe at some point we’ll get him out there.

Oh also, get this, my son Graeme turns 18 this week. He recently bought himself a 1985 Camaro z28 that was in a barn on the property where we live. It hadn’t run in a while but with some experiential learning and the help of some friends he’s got it driving on a daily basis. It’s pretty bad ass, just like him. 

Well, I guess that’s about it for now. Thanks, as always, for coming along! Feel free to holler with any questions about the new rods. They’re bad ass too.