Sunday, October 13, 2024

Introducing Withernot

As a child of the 1980's, through grade school my closet was a mix of striped collared polo shirts, corduroy pants, and if memory serves, a rugby shirt or two.  I can still remember fiddling with the rubber buttons while sitting in class.  I'd like to say I was one of the cool kids but looking back at yearbook photos, the bowl haircut certainly works against that notion. 

I recently came across Withernot, maker of purveyor of high quality rugby shirts, and what started as a conversation with founder Patrick Hunter Hill about an upcoming gear review, has turned into a new partnership (maybe you've noticed the ad?) that I'm excited to share.


It's just starting to get cool enough in South Carolina to wear the couple of Withernot rugby shirts that I have and I'll be living in these this fall.  These rugby shirts are made of heavyweight 14 ounce, traditional 12 gauge knit that can handle just about any activity, and look and feel great.

Want one or several for yourself?  Withernot is offering a discount code "FIBERGLASS" which will give you 15% off if you spend over $100 and 20% off if you spend over $200. 

BECOMING THE CARP

This is a silly one from guide Dagur Árni Guðmundsson and he's certainly someone that I'd like to spend some time with on the water.  Oh, and he's a "Glass Geek", too.  Click PLAY...



Check out Dagur's website and book a day or several with him.  He's a fun follow on Instagram, too.

6 Good Reads

Let's get into the weekend with a few reads that range from Phil's gut punch sign off with his departure (sadly, along with others) from Orvis, a fiberglass fly rod review, cold beer theft, trout town love, a Boundary Waters experience, and an artist's whirlwind of paint and fly fishing on Wyeth's Island.

ORVIS NEWS - TIP OF THE CAP TO PHIL AS HE SAYS GOODBYE


FLYLORDS - A FEW NOTES ON STEFFEN BROTHERS GLASS


CHRIS'S SUBSTACK - NEVER TRUST YOUR BEER AROUND THIS GUY

TROUT UNLIMITED - NICHOLAS'S ODE TO A TROUT TOWN


OAK & OSCAR - A BOUNDARY WATERS OWNER'S STORY

THE MESSY PALETTE - 48 HOURS ON WYETH'S ISLAND WITH PAINTS AND FLY ROD

Okay, enjoy your weekend.  Hopefully, you'll get some time on the water.

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Rest in Peace, John Gierach

Late last week, author John Gierach passed away and a couple of hours later artist Frederick Stivers  posted this sketch with a fitting quote on his Instagram story...

"I think I fish, in part, because it's an anti-social, bohemian business that, when gone about properly, puts you forever outside the mainstream culture without actually landing you in an institution."

It's been interesting to read the social media posts from his friends and those who knew him along with those who felt connected to him through his many books.  It's hard not to have wistful feelings that the original "Trout Bum" has passed on, though if the stories are somewhat true, he seemingly made a good run at life.   
 
 
In the late 1990's, my wife and I started married life with living in northern Colorado and I worked a job that gave me several days a week to go fly fishing.  One afternoon I drove over to Lyons and up the South Saint Vrain Canyon to check out the creek that I had read about in Gierach's books.  I didn't really know how far I was going to drive up the canyon but figured that I'd pull off when I found a stretch of water that looked good.

As I was rounding a large uphill curve, a small red pickup truck was parked on the right side of the road and leaned against the tailgate was slender man, hunched over working his hip boot waders off.  He didn't look up but he didn't need to.  I immediately knew it John Gierach.  He was dressed in the full "uniform" of a weathered button up shirt, jeans, and his brimmed sweat stained hat was on his head.  He still had his vest on and it looked like he was just wrapping up a late afternoon session on the water by himself.

I continued to drive up the canyon and had a brief moment where I thought about turning around to say something to him.  I just as quickly decided against it.  That creek was John's special place and there was no reason to wreck his solitude with a goofy twenty-something year old telling him how much I enjoyed the books of his that I had read.  I figured he heard it before and didn't need to hear it again. 

I stand by that decision some twenty-five years later but seeing him and his little red pickup truck is a core memory that I'll never forget.  I guess it's even a little sweeter now.

A Day in the Driftless with a Couple of Favorite 3-Weights

Once plans were made to attend the Oak & Oscar Built to Discover Trip to the Driftless, Brad Eaton of Greens & Streams and I put our heads together on what we could do with a few days leading up to arriving in the Viroqua area for the weekend.  It didn't take too long to sort out a plan of fly fishing, golf at a couple hidden gems, and borrowing his neighbor's Airstream camper so we'd have a place to crash for a couple of nights. 

As soon as I touched down in Madison, Brad was there to pick me up.  We made the necessary stops for groceries, lunch, and then headed north into the Driftless, dropping off the camper at Jerome Kohout's mixed use campground where he also grazes his cattle.  Brad has camped here for years and it's a special place though it's advised you watch your step for cow pats in the middle of the night if you need to take a walk to the outhouse.       


The streams that we fished over these few days were perfect 3-weight water.  You may be asking yourself, "What makes for a perfect 3-weight fly rod?"  At least in my opinion, it's three things.  This fly rod should be fiberglass, it usually doesn't need to be longer than seven foot, and it should have an action and taper that falls on the spectrum of full-flexing and even what some would say feels slow.  I'm sure there are some graphite (gasp...) and bamboo that could check these boxes but I don't know about them.

As this trip approached, I put together a carefully curated Sea Run Case with six fly rods, which I'll deep dive into in another post, two of which were cherished 3-weights with the Ijuin-Rod Yomogi (built by Kazutomo Ijuin) and a C. Barclay Fly Rod Co. Blue Ridge Special 68 (built by Chris Barclay).  Both of these fly rods are paired with a Japanese-made KINEYA Tackle Maker fly reel, which just raises the level of aesthetic perfection of each outfit.      

Fly selection was easy with small foam hopper patterns and even though it might have yielded a few more fish, I didn't bother with dropping a nymph off the back bend of the hook.  I'll take pure dry fly only eats over treating that same fly as an indicator.  I end up fishing hopper/dropper tandem rigs differently than if I am only casting a single floating fly.  And, honestly, F$&% nymphs.  That might be a hot take but it's late summer in the Driftless.  Let small foam hoppers float high and swirl in the corners, near the undercuts, and along the tall weed lined riffles and runs.  Wait for the slow rise of a trout nosing up the surface.    





Brad and I took a long walk downstream through a series of pastures trying to time how long it might take us to get back to the bridge.  Chase from Oak & Oscar had left Chicago that morning and was planning to meet us at the pin that we sent him for the afternoon.  This would divide our day into two halves and I spent this morning session with the Yomogi.  It was overcast but warm.  Hoppers of several sizes jumped and flew out of our way as we walked through the pasture and even though none of them were pink and purple, those colors of the foam flies worked better than more natural tones of tans and brown. 









While Brad and I were fishing one of the last zig zags of the steam near the bridge, we heard from Chase that he was gearing up at the car.  He made good time from Chicago and this was a good enough excuse to walk back to crack a beer and snack on some chips.  I took a moment to put together the Blue Ridge Special 68 and tied on a fresh hopper as the couple that I used all morning were a bit chewed up.

Chase and I decided to work our way upstream and Brad wanted to circle back to a few areas downstream for a second try.  We crashed our way through tall grass and weeds that much of it was taller than Chase and I.  This wasn't the same pasture water that I had fished through the morning and it required careful short casts, always looking behind you to make sure that the backcast wouldn't get wrapped up.  Several trout rose to Chase's fly and it wasn't too long before he slid a brown trout into his net.   


I walked upstream from Chase and even though I had told myself that I didn't really need to fish anymore, there was a deep corner just ahead that was being fed with with a shallow rock riffle.  The riffle was now in the early evening shadows but the corner was still lit up in the autumn sun.  Maybe I'd try just one more spot and if a trout didn't rise from here, I'd call it quits.  The tall grass of the bank leaned over the dark water and the click and pawl sang as I pulled thirty or so feet of fly line from the reel as I looked on at where I'd want to land the hopper.  There had to be a trout there, maybe several, and I wanted to carefully pick this spot apart.   


I sent the first cast near the tail out of the corner, then another into the riffle to the front edge of the corner, and then one last cast deeper in that landed in the riffle and was quickly swept along the bank.  I watched as the hopper floated high against the grass and then it disappeared.  I raised the fly rod up to feel the immediate weight of a trout and watched as a large, at least for this water, brown trout swam out of the undercut bank.  Moments later, I was able to move this brown trout into a thick weed bed to admire it for a moment before removing the fly and coaxing it back into the deep water.  What a trout to cap off an already wonderful day.  I likely didn't deserve it but sometimes things work out that way.






The sun was falling behind the forest when I met up with Brad and Chase to walk back to the cars.  With the tailgates up, we all cracked a beer to celebrate a stellar day on the water.  After that last brown trout, I didn't feel the need to fish again this trip, even though I would. 

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

PELAGOS FLY RODS - Peter's Jungle Rod

Pelagos Fly Rods has been on my radar for a bit with stunning builds and positive reviews popping up on Instagram with folks who use the tag #glassisnotdead.  I noticed that Peter Mulbjerg had recently completed what he was calling "The Jungle Rod" on the 8'1" Paopao Glass Blank, and I asked if he'd share some thoughts and photographs in this post.

Like Peter, I'm a pushover for short heavy line weight glass and his work in creating this fly rod is top notch.  That Abel fly reel sets is all off. 

Now I REALLY want one of these stellar looking, and it sounds like, casting 9/10-weight fly rods...


Peter wrote...  "I have a soft spot for, well, many things, but very much for bonefish, fiberglass rods and shorter fly rods.  I also have a soft spot (not to be misunderstood) for cool guys on Instagram fishing for bonefish in shallow waters.  The latter led me towards a guy from Hawaii named Elias, a.k.a. @kurupt_hawaiian, who fishes a lot of bonefish but also often poses with a Golden Trevally (Trevally - another of my soft spots) or PaoPao in Hawaiian.  In one of the pictures he posed with a funky looking rod and upon request he replied that it was a fiberglass rod from Pelagos Fly Rods, my interest was piqued.

A quick google search, and a fast decision later, the first Pelagos blank was on it’s way to Denmark.  I needed a graphite 7-weight and I also have a soft spot for 8’8” fly rods, so it was an easy decision.  Since this is supposed to be about glass rods - fast forward, the graphite is excellent - up there with the best, light, responsive and did I mention, 8’8”...

Even faster forward, the need for a couple of fiberglass blanks arose since the rod building bug had come back and Pelagos Fly Rods sprung to mind.  Once again a quick look and a couple of glass blanks were in the mail.

One of these was the 8’1” Paopao 9/10-weight blank in the color Palm Frond Green.  It was supposed to be a powerhouse of a fly rod and since I had an Abel Super 9/10N in Peacock pattern on the shelf, it was easy to choose the color and try to match wraps to the fly reel.

It came out as expected and casting the rod left me wanting nothing more.  Powerful, relatively light and with some real backbone.  An excellent tool.

Hopefully I can take it fishing for peacock bass in a jungle at some point, until then it will be going to the Maldives chasing everything but the biggest of Trevally.

If you're not familiar, Pelagos Fly Rods is a one man (and a dog, Mr. Cades) operation and the owner, only known as McLean, is very nice and easy to deal with.  I urge you to visit his website and take a look at his offerings."








Check out the Pelagos Fly Rods website and follow along on Instagram for the latest builds, fishing exploits, and shop news.

REDINGTON - The Taco Tour - Episode 4

"The Taco Tour" with Mario Guel of Taco Fly Co. and Redington continues with Wayne Peterson, product designer of RIO Products, on the Henry's Fork.

There will be trout. There will be tacos.  And, "Special Beers"...

 
Check out and subscribe to the Redington YouTube channel for more video goodness.