Trout Pics...Caught on my New Bamboo

[FrankB2]

After stopping by the Sporting Gentleman fly shop to look at the dozens of
bamboo rods they have, we stopped by Ridley Creek to have a go at the
trout with our new Lew Parks 7' 4wt split cane rod. The section I fished
was ff'ing only/catch and release, so I decided to show them something they
might not have seen a zillion times in the past few months. I decided on a
#16 Chan's Chronimid (gold bead, white antron gills and tail section, peacock
herl throax, and red thread body), and they starting taking it pretty quick!

Here are some pics:

Hard to Hold

Here's a video: Click Here

We have caught plenty of crappie, bluegill, and perch on the bamboo rod
in the past 10 days, but these are the first trout. It was a splendid outing . My wife didn't fish (strained her ankle wading yesterday), but
she served as cameraman.

 

[dshort]

Nice work. What kind of line are you throwing on that new cane rod?

 

[FrankB2]

SA Mastery Trout WF. I have the same line in a DT, but haven't bothered to
try it yet. It's a really great rod to cast, and the ff'ing experience takes on
a whole different aura. I love it!

That wiggly brown wouldn't hold still long enough to get the hook out, and
I was beginning to think he'd never calm down !

 

[mcnerney]

Frank: Nice fish! When I first saw you with the bamboo rod I was wondering how you pried that out of your wife's hands, then the last sentence explained it.
Nice looking rod.

Larry

 

[Davo]

Hi Frank

Nice post. Good video too. I've fished there a few times while I was at Villanova. Good spot.

 

[FrankB2]

Hey Davo!
I never even saw Ridley Creek until this past March! They say it'll fish well
throughout the summer, unless the temp reaches near 100* for a couple
weeks. Sounds like a party to me !

 

[Davo]

If I recall right Frank they stock that aeveral times a summer. The Fly Shop in Media usually knows when they have stocked it. Sorry I don't remember the name of the shop.

 

[FrankB2]

Yeah...."They" is Barry, the owner of the Sporting Gentleman in Media. That
shop is busy all the time, but the creek is only a few minutes away. The
water temp was relatively cold on Ridley Creek today, and we plan to hit
it whenever possible this summer. Seeing other fly anglers is a refreshing
change of pace for us: they're a rare sight where I live in Lower Bucks
County, and I see maybe one every two months . Not only did Ridley
Creek have flyfisherman today, there was a flyfisherbabe just downstream
of me. I couldn't convince my wife to take a picture of her, however .
She caught a really nice brown BTW!

 

[Davo]

Frank

Sweet. I hooked my brother in law up with a 4wt from that shop years ago. It was his wedding present from me. He and my sister lived in Media at the time. When she would let him go fishing we would hit Riddly, or French Creek(out by Brandywine), and Tulpohocken Creek( in Reading), not to mention Valley Creek.

 

[FrankB2]

Nice ! Barry and his people are a real class act! Barry says he's going to
turn the shop over to his daughter sometime soon, but I don't know when.
There's another woman who works there (Mary), and she was an entomologist
before retiring. A graceful lady, Mary is an encyclopedia of ff'ing/tying/gear
knowledge.

EDIT: Barry had two bamboo rods strung up behind the counter today, and he said one was
close to a hundred years old! He intends to fish both of them this week, likely tomorrow since they'll
be closed.

 

[Sasha]

Great post!

Those guys must have been fun on that rod. I have thought about making the move over to cane myself I just have not done it yet :smile:

 

[FrankB2]

Hi Sasha,
Yeah, they were fun! I've wanted to try cane ever since reading John Gierach's book Trout Bum. I thought they'd be too heavy, expensive, likely to break, and just plain old wimpy. The 7' Lew Parks is built on a Dickerson 7012 taper, and is anything but wimpy. It has a more supple feel
than my graphite 4wts, yet had plenty of back bone to bring in those trout
quickly. The rod weighs 3.3oz on my digital scale: 2.8 butt section; .5oz tip
section. Lew sells his rods on ebay, and the Buy it Now price is generally
$889. His reserve was $600 for my rod, and that's what I paid.

I'm not old enough to be nostalgic about anything except for the 1965 and
1970 Mustangs I owned as a teenager, but cane/bamboo somehow adds to the experience of flyfishing, at least for me. My graphite rods are very nice,
but they're simply tools when compared to the amount of workmanship that
goes into a nice bamboo rod...IMO. I'm not going to chase after largemouth
bass with this rod, however, and in the past I would have muscled such a
fish with a 4wt if I happened to hook one on graphite. OTOH, as long as the rod's tip is
kept down, I suppose a monster could be fought off the reel, and the rod
wouldn't suffer at all.

The action on this rod is faster than I had expected, and this taper is reported to be a good choice for people moving from graphite to bamboo.
The rod flexes more at the tip than the mid section, but the butt section is
"hollow-built". This reduces weight, and allows the butt section to flex when
under load from casting and handling fish. It can throw a 2" muddler minnow
with ease, and does well with #10 weighted wooly bugger (both on 3x or 4x
tippet). I suspect that I'll be using this rod for smaller streams, as I never
know what's going to take a fly at the local lake. Attached is a pic of a LMB
I caught on April 7, while fishing for trout:

I was fishing a 9' 5wt graphite rod, and a #10 wooly bugger. That was not something I had expected to catch that day, and was quite a thrill !
I first used the Lew Parks bamboo rod at the same lake about 10 days ago. I was having palpatations as I strung up the
rod, but calmed down once I landed a 12" crappie with ease. That monster
bass was landed using the reel more than the rod, and I never put much
pressure on the rod's tip. I did have to guide the fish into very shallow water,
and then use my trout net as a spatula to left him. I would have had to cut
him into sections in order to fit him in the net...LOL! After showing that
picture to the owner of the Sporting Gentleman fly shop yesterday, I earned
myself a place on the store's wall of pictures !

I've discovered that there are more than a few bamboo rod makers working
in the U.S. right now, and some of them have very affordable rods....

 

[Sasha]

A while ago I was talking with a rod builder who was going to make a 1WT boo for me. I was all set to go then the job issue came up (I was laid off). So until I can get back working I don't feel it is the best thing to spend money on new toys. Heck I am just thankful that I can still go fish!

 

[FlyRichardFly]

Frank,
I'm so glad that you like your Bamboo rod. It looks beautiful in the pix.
I always wondered why the Sage Fli was that color, maybe to imitate a Boo rod?
I'll have to take a second look at the bamboo rods. I thought they were heavy and wimpy. I'll have to check them out again.

 

[FrankB2]

Hi Richard,
I decided to pull the Parks out last night (hadn't seen it in 2 days), and was
thrilled by its looks! I ran my hand along its finish, assembled both tip, and
then put it back in its sock . Graphite never gave me that fuzzy feeling...

 

[bigspencer]

Frank,
Nice brown...try taking the hook out of their mouths while still in the net & water, they won't squirm and flap around as much...

Steve

 

[lkyboots]

Nice rod, I've been fishing a 30 year old Orvis bamboo rod and its my favorite rod. Largest fish I ever caught on it was a 20 inch rainbow. I love bamboo, have a coustom made bamboo Ipe long bow and shoot bone nocked bamboo arrows with knapped stone points.

 

[fredaevans]

Different part of the US ... wait till you get your first Boo Spey Rod. A whole new world in front of you on the river. Swish, line goes out, you 'anticipate.' It really was a silk line ....