Recycled Waders the World Over!

As June is quickly passing by I thought I'd share a few photographs of Recycled Waders gear that has been showing up literally all over the world the past few weeks.

This post is also to serve as a reminder that the Recycled Waders Offer of the Month is winding down so get your orders in to take advantage of the 20% OFF discount!

Patrick Jenkins sent this studio photo of various Recycled Waders products looking good in sepia tones.

Kevin McGuire of North Carolina smartly practicing the "Gift One/Keep One" principle with the two Nook Sacks he ordered.

Kevin McGuire getting his Nook Sack wet on a small stream in Northern Georgia.

Kirk Werner filling his Messenger Creel with stacks of his wonderful Olive the Little Woolly Bugger books.

Hitoshi Takemura had a mess of Recycled Waders gear shipped to him in Japan. Check his blog for more photos of his order!

(Photograph courtesy of Aaron Otto/Sleeping in the Dirt)

Mr. Reel Pure, Eric Rathbun, battling roosters and carrying his Big Fanny pack in Baja, Mexico last month.

Mike Carlson with his Messenger Creel on one of the various lakes near his home in Northern Wyoming.

Finally, my summer striper gear pared down to the essentials and carried in a Nook Sack in the "Dirty South" on the Saluda River.

Order your Recycled Waders gear now!

This is a cool GREEN company producing an excellent line of products.

Sunday Cinema - Flies and Fins

Internet fly fishing O.G. Jeremy Cameron of Flies and Fins has been a friend to T.F.M. nearly from the start by repping an ad space on his site (keep refreshing your page. The T.F.M. ad is there on the right lower side of the page.) and I can't thank him enough for the technical help and advice he's given as well as I figure my way through all of this. A stand up fellow no doubt.

When I saw this video last weekend I knew I wanted to use it for a Sunday Cinema post. Original song, neat mix of salt clips, making for a stellar video to enjoy.



Jeremy...thanks for letting us use the video. I'm still waiting for that "T.F.M. Spotting" photo of you in your t-shirt holding a Maine fly caught stripah! Just saying...

T.F.M. Spotting - The Graduate

This past week T.F.M. friend, Molly McGuire, graduated from high school in Asheville, North Carolina as proud parents Kevin and Anne McGuire were left wondering where their little girl has gone.

Molly is about to start a trip filled summer that will end with her beginning classes this fall at the College of Charleston.


All robed up with diploma in hand. That smile says it all.


The Graduate T.F.M. repping with her father's hat on.


Kevin's vehicle properly badged but most importantly displaying his "College of Charleston Dad" decal to let everyone know how proud he is of his daughter.

CONGRATULATIONS MOLLY! We're just up the road if you ever need anything while you're away at college.

Plastic Drift Boats and Fly-O Fishing!

A couple of weeks after Finn was born, I came home to find a long triangle package waiting for me at the doorstep. I opened it to find that fly fishing photographer Aaron Otto of the photo blog Sleeping in the Dirt, had sent along a Royal Wulff Fly-O for Finn to learn on. (Little does Aaron know that Finn's casting hack father could learn a few tricks on this thing too.)


It didn't take to long for Hadley's interest to be perked and she commandeered an empty laundry basket as her drift boat, the Fly-O as her fly rod, and she was off on her float through the great room into the entry way of the house.


Apparently the fly fishing was excellent since she soon had caught a brown trout, a salmon, and two "eels". The imagination of a child is really quite amazing.

Aaron, thanks for the gift of the Fly-O which I hope leads both of our children to enjoy fly fishing more than they would have otherwise.

Finally, check out Aaron's site Sleeping In The Dirt. He is always on the go to some place epic with a fly rod and camera and his site tells these stories with stunning photography work. Always worth a look.

A Glass Fly Rod Gift

A couple of weeks ago I received a detailed email and photographs from Sam Snyder about a custom fly rod build his cousin, Ben Casarez, had built and then gifted to him. I asked if Sam Snyder would mind if I shared his email along with several photographs of the build with the T.F.M. readers since I felt there were many truths written within the lines of his email that others would enjoy.

(Sam Snyder giving the build a bend on a Michigan stream.)

Greetings Cameron

I am writing to you about a rod that my cousin Ben Casarez built for me. Ben, in case he did not tell you, is not only my cousin, but my best friend and best fishing buddy. He is the first person I call to talk fishing and he is the first person I go to when I am working through ideas about fishing, fishing history, and conservation. You see, he built that rod for me as a present for completing my PhD. My dissertation examined the history of fly fishing and conservation/restoration ethics and grassroots environmental politics. I am going to continue this research in the Spring 2010 at the National Sporting Library as the John Daniels Fellow.


But enough on me and back to this rod. It truly is a work of art. I recently acquired a Thomas and Thomas four weight glass rod. Until I received this beauty from Ben, I thought the Thomas and Thomas was one of the most ethereal rods I had ever cast. It still is. But something about the McFarland blank is so exquisite. It is soft and subtle, yet has an amazing amount backbone and delicacy even at a distance. I have only fished this rod briefly, I am looking forward to fishing with it in three weeks on the Conejos River, Colorado.


This river is Ben and my favorite river. It seems to be the standard by which we evaluate all rivers, which anglers do, right? As Geirach has said, every angler (despite love of new waters and famed watersheds) loves their own personal streams. This is the nature of fishing, we love places where we feel most at home. The Conejos River is one such river. Rarely fished by many, yet contains tons of wild brown and rainbow trout.


To fish with this new glass rod, on the Conejos River, seems the perfect way to christen a rod like this. David James Duncan has said that with rod in hand we become more than tourists on rivers. "A rod extends the fly fisher’s being as surely as do imagination, empathy, or prayer. Within the eithty or so foot radius of our cast we gain this crazy ability to pierce the river’s power of concealment, bringing life that would otherwise remain hidden right up into our hands.” I feel that this rod (and the more I cast them, glass rods more generally), might be quite adept and helping us to more subtly pierce the river's power of concealment and bring life into our hands.


Keep up the good work on your blog. It is a pleasure to read.

Cheers

Samuel Snyder, PhD
Visiting Faculty
Environmental Studies
Kalamazoo College
Kalamazoo, MI


Thank you Sam and Ben for the email and photographs. I can't wait to hear how the trip to the Conejos River went and your thoughts on this rod after you've put a few fish on it.

T.F.M. Spotting - Left Coast Tackle

It is not often these days that someone opens a shop and decides to distribute only fiberglass and bamboo fly rods. Dan Dixon of Left Coast Tackle recently did just that. Located south of Seattle in Covington, Washington, Dan Dixon is offering customers high end bamboo and fiberglass fly rods and a Bellinger and Peerless reel dealer as well.


(T.F.M. and some sharp looking Left Coast Tackle gear)

Dan Dixon is working with famed builder A. J. Thramer on a deluxe series of bamboo and fiberglass fly rods that are built to the highest standards.

Left Coast Tackle is also offering fiberglass fly rods rolled in "E" Glass and "S" Glass in several configurations and line weights and stocking new Mario Wojnicki builds from time to time as well.

Dan Dixon will be at the Metolius Bamboo Rod Fair in Camp Sherman, Oregon on July 18th and 19th with his new lineup of hollow built bamboo and fiberglass fly rods.

Check out Left Coast Tackle's website and if you should have any questions Dan Dixon can be reached by email at leftcoasttackle@yahoo.com.

Sunday Cinema - The Salmon Fly Hatch

This past week Marc Crapo and I were talking about the epic salmon fly hatch on the Henry's Fork in Idaho and how he had spent the last three days editing this video that they had shot this past week.


This morning over coffee I'm thinking I need a last minute plane ticket, a box of big flies, and a few days in Marc's drift skiff.

RECYCLED WADERS - From Start to Finish

The third installment of our Recycled Waders series shows a pair of damaged waders that T.F.M. co-founder, Mike Carlson, sent to Recycled Waders to have them made into a Messenger Creel.

A few photos of the process in creating a practical product from an otherwise trashed pair of waders.






Skip ahead a few steps and in the end we have a finished Messenger Creel.




Mike Carlson sent a photograph of his Messenger Creel loaded with fly gear. He had his kayak out this past weekend on a nearby Wyoming lake with a couple of his custom fiberglass fly rod builds.


I like my Nook Sack a lot...but this post has got me seriously thinking about adding a Messenger Creel as well.

Thank you Patrick Jenkins of Recycled Waders for the T.F.M. Offer of the Month discount, photographs, company background, and most of all producing a product from material that would otherwise go to waste.

The RECYCLED WADERS Story

I asked Patrick Jenkins of Recycled Waders for a few lines of copy for the blog post and received an attached document back that was just to interesting to edit or shorten.


Recycled Materials
Repurposed Products
Responsible Consumers

Background

Who would have guessed an errant back cast lodging a 1-0 lead-eye bunny leech in a scraggly black spruce tree on the high bank side of a river mouth full of Alaskan king salmon would have been responsible for the development of a small business?

But as luck would have it I scampered up the bank to retrieve my fly from the black spruce, stepped up on a downed tree to reach my fly, the tree rolled out from under my footing and a branch on the tree gauged an enormous hole in my first pair of breathable waders.

After finishing the rest of the fishing trip with leaky waders and soggy feet I drummed up the idea of using the wader material to fashion a new fishing bag specifically for my annual king salmon trip. After sketching the pack I handed the drawings to my mom and talk her through details. A few weeks later and the sewing skills that kept my dad’s sled dog team in harnesses and my brother, dad and I in beaver fur hats & moose hide mittens during the cold Alaskan winter months, had completed the first Recycled Waders bag.


It wasn’t until three or four years later after many fishing trips and many more inquiries about the recycled fishing satchel from my friends and fishing partners that Recycled Waders, LLC was created.

Early stages of Recycled Waders production involved cutting out hand drawn patterns on splayed out pieces of waders donated by my Alaskan fishing partners; clumsy sewing on a donated home sewing machine; and hand drawn logos with permanent markers. After fine tuning a few patterns we felt would resonate within the angling community I approached a few trusted industry friends, Dave McCoy of Emerald Water Anglers, Eric Rathbun of Reel Pure and Brian Bennett of Patagonia, for their honest opinions on the idea, the products and next steps and here we are today.


The Grit

Recycled Waders uses reclaimed breathable wader material to create repurposed products. This material comes from individuals, fishing guides, fishing lodges, wader manufacturers and local fishing clubs.

Once waders are received they are “deconstructed” by removing shoulder straps, waist belts, neoprene feet, manufacturer logos and any other straps, buckles or pockets that might get in the way. Next the material is washed at a local laundry shop. Those of you who have spent all day in your waders know what goes on in there – they need to be and do get laundered!

After their “de-fumigation” the waders are stacked in like sizes, shapes, and colors and prepared for cutting and sewing. As much as possible the components from each pair of waders are reclaimed with intent to be used in products as buckles, clasps, pockets, sliders, etc.

The minimalist attitude at Recycled Waders keeps all the “extras” and gadgets out of our packs. You won’t find tons of extra padding, added clasps, snaps or buckles, no extra elastic or fancy fold out fly trays, just simple, straight forward lines, with utility in mind.



Recycled Waders products are “deconstructed”, “de-fumigated”, cut and sewn within a 15-mile radius in Seattle, WA. Each product is unique to each pair of waders: whether it be aqua seal splotches, patches, stains, sun bleached sections, self imposed monograms, nicknames or color patterns, each pair of waders brings their own character to the shop and we try to capture this with our products.

Angler-to-Angler Program

The Angler-to-Angler Program is fairly self-explanatory: angler donates or recycles waders, waders are repurposed into new items, same angler or another lucky angler receives Recycled Waders products.

When you’ve decided your waders are better off hanging on a nail in your garage or leaking on a fishing buddy (been there) that forgot his waders they are ready to be recycled and we are here to help.

Offer of the Month - Recycled Waders

Over the past few months Patrick Jenkins of Recycled Waders and I have been trading emails, waders, photos, and the result will be a three part series of posts this week starting with the latest OFFER OF THE MONTH.

For the month of June, Recycled Waders is knocking 20% OFF the price of the Nook Sack and the Messenger Creel for those that mention T.F.M. with their order!


NOOK SACK - $30 ($24 with T.F.M. discount) The Nook Sack is an excellent minimalist pack to toss in a couple of fly boxes, tippet, and tools and hit the water.


MESSENGER CREEL - $60 ($48 with T.F.M. discount) The Messenger Creel is a modern take on the gear bag with room to stow fly gear, lunch, your camera, and anything else that you can wedge in there.

To place an order, email Patrick at orders@recycledwaders.com, and be sure to mention T.F.M. to receive the reduced price!