Heya guys,
I spent the weekend fishing with my brother and testing out one of my newer bamboo rods. We headed out around noon Saturday to avoid the worst of a nice April snow storm and finally made it to our hotel about 7 hours later. We checked in, ate, changed into some warm clothes and hit the water for some night fishing. We got on the water just as the canyon started getting dark. Once at our spot we rigged up my 8'2" 6 weight "Freestoner" rod for only her 3rd outing. This is a taper that I developed for some of the bigger rivers and still waters I fish where big fish are a possibility. It's a pretty fast rod that'll handle two nymphs an indicator and some serious split shot, as well as some serious trout. We only set up the one rod and and just fished 'tag team' style, switching off after each fish.
I started things off just after dark. Here's the Freestoner and my Hardy Angel with the first fish of the trip. About a 6lb bow, not a bad way to start the night.
My brother quickly raised the bar with this big buck.
We fished til about Midnight and managed 4 fish between us, all over 5lbs. Then we headed back to the room for a few well deserved beers and a couple hours of shut-eye.
Goofy face, big fish: This girl was 28" long and 17" in girth, right around 12lbs!
After a good night of fishing, the next day was no let down.
We caught a few more spectacular trout before taking a break for dinner. We drove into town to grab a pizza to take back to the hotel and the guy forgot to ring it up. After waiting 15 minutes for the pizza we about forgot too and almost walked out with a free pie. But we realized the mistake before we made it to the door and went back to the counter to pay for the pizza. The good karma must have paid off that night:
First fish of the night: some of the most amazing colors I've ever seen on a trout!
And here's the pay off!
27" Long
20 inches in girth!!!
That's 15 pounds of sloppy fat rainbow!
Not a bad fish for a 6wt bamboo rod!
After that fish we couldn't bring our selves to fish any more and had to call it a night. Just as well it was 2am any way.
Another day and another big fish. Here's the 3rd fish of the trip over 10lbs!
Look at that pretty face!
This guy's got some shoulders! 22" long by 15 in girth!
Check out those chompers!
In all we landed 17 trout over 5 pounds. If that's not a testament to the bamboo fly rod I don't know what is!
Mark
I spent the weekend fishing with my brother and testing out one of my newer bamboo rods. We headed out around noon Saturday to avoid the worst of a nice April snow storm and finally made it to our hotel about 7 hours later. We checked in, ate, changed into some warm clothes and hit the water for some night fishing. We got on the water just as the canyon started getting dark. Once at our spot we rigged up my 8'2" 6 weight "Freestoner" rod for only her 3rd outing. This is a taper that I developed for some of the bigger rivers and still waters I fish where big fish are a possibility. It's a pretty fast rod that'll handle two nymphs an indicator and some serious split shot, as well as some serious trout. We only set up the one rod and and just fished 'tag team' style, switching off after each fish.
I started things off just after dark. Here's the Freestoner and my Hardy Angel with the first fish of the trip. About a 6lb bow, not a bad way to start the night.
My brother quickly raised the bar with this big buck.
We fished til about Midnight and managed 4 fish between us, all over 5lbs. Then we headed back to the room for a few well deserved beers and a couple hours of shut-eye.
Goofy face, big fish: This girl was 28" long and 17" in girth, right around 12lbs!
After a good night of fishing, the next day was no let down.
We caught a few more spectacular trout before taking a break for dinner. We drove into town to grab a pizza to take back to the hotel and the guy forgot to ring it up. After waiting 15 minutes for the pizza we about forgot too and almost walked out with a free pie. But we realized the mistake before we made it to the door and went back to the counter to pay for the pizza. The good karma must have paid off that night:
First fish of the night: some of the most amazing colors I've ever seen on a trout!
And here's the pay off!
27" Long
20 inches in girth!!!
That's 15 pounds of sloppy fat rainbow!
Not a bad fish for a 6wt bamboo rod!
After that fish we couldn't bring our selves to fish any more and had to call it a night. Just as well it was 2am any way.
Another day and another big fish. Here's the 3rd fish of the trip over 10lbs!
Look at that pretty face!
This guy's got some shoulders! 22" long by 15 in girth!
Check out those chompers!
In all we landed 17 trout over 5 pounds. If that's not a testament to the bamboo fly rod I don't know what is!
Mark
