Fly Fishing Christmas gear

ML gave me a bamboo fly rod for Christmas. It is made in China but is imported/marketed and guaranteed by Headwaters Bamboo Company which has been in business for 25 plus years.

It is a 7 foot 6 inch 5 weight rod. ML paired it with a Lamson Liquid reel. She had it spooled with floating 5 wt line.




She  also gave me a wooden fly box. I love the design on the front.


The inside is foamed to hold flies.


She also put a sentimental saying on the back.



I can't wait for spring to give this a test drive.

Outstanding!  And seldom have so few words told such a beautiful story as the box inscription.  

I'm thinking she nailed it.  

Very nice!

Don’t catch and release Phil. This ones a keeper.

Very nice gift! Yup, a great catch!

Hi Everyone,
This is Mary Lou (ML). Thanks for the kind words. Phil forgot one other gift I gave him, a collapsible wading staff to keep him safe when fishing/walking in the streams and mossy covered rocks. I don't want him to get hurt as he too is a keeper.


It is held together with a stretchy shock cord. There is also a keeper leash to clip to your vest in case you drop it. It "snaps" together and comes apart quite easily.

Closed (with a pen for size reference)



Opened.

Oooooo he's a lucky man, indeed! I'll wait patiently for fish photos. Enjoy!

We may never see fish pix. But I won't presume to speak for Phil. I can only tell you that when I was fly fishing I returned the fish immediately to the water after reviving them, to be as kind to them as possible and insure (as best I could) their survival. I was only fishing for relaxation and enjoyment when it came to the salmonids I fly fished for. Just being out on the water, matching the hatch, and enjoying the casting was enough enjoyment. It's a great way to lose oneself in the moment, for hours at a time, and the cares of the world slip away so easily.

But I did have one place that I would drive to when I wanted trout for eating. I was pretty much guaranteed enough fish for a fish feed every time I wanted one. It was a gorge with deep potholes gouged into the bottom. It wasn't sport fishing, it was fishing for a meal. I would use worms, very tiny hooks, and unweighted line to give the bait a natural "swirl". When I would catch a fish, and it wouldn't take long (maybe 15 minutes for a handful of trout), I never lost one because the bait was taken deep. There was no catch and release on those fish, but that wasn't the point of the exercise. It was just a fresh fish dinner. Now for me, those trout could have been photographed, but I never did.

edit:
Phil, I never told you (that I can remember) but years ago I used to make my own fly rods. I would buy the fiberglass blanks (never bamboo) and wind the ferrules and such and add the handles and reel seats. The lightest I ever made was for a 3 weight line for midges. It was (and still is) a wisp of a rod. The midge couldn't even be seen on the water and one had to divine when a trout sucked it in. But mostly I'd build for heavier weight line. I haven't fly fished in decades. Fly fishing got tangled up in life and lost to view. Back in those days (4 decades ago) I fished the Willowemoc and Beaverkill rivers, classic Izaak Walton dry fly water. It was nothing for me to drive 2 hours to catch the Green Drake hatch, then drive back again to get a few hours sleep before work the next day. Of course the 3 weight rod wasn't used for green drakes; the trout caught would have also been too large and 3 weight line never would have delivered the fly. But the big guys would rise to suck them in and it was worth the drive for 30 minutes of insanity on the river.

Hmmm..... I see ML has posted. I do like the wading stick. I found myself cutting branches this past summer when fishing the Wells River.

HighSpeed,
Yes she nailed it. And as I get older I have become more sentimental. Opening that gift left me teary eyed. I'm just an emotional old fool

Lipripper660,
35 years - she is a keeper. Fortunately, as she posted, she feels the same way about me.

MsBlackwolf,
Most of my fishing is done off a dock into a pond. I catch perch and blue gills. Not the fish of legends. Plus my internal clock refuses to recognize that it is a weekend. Therefore I am out there around 5 AM - long before ML is awake on a Saturday or Sunday. She is the family photographer so none of my catches are recorded for posterity. I also do catch and release.

But if I ever catch anything noteworthy I will try to remeber to take a pic for you.

ShadowsDad,
I grew up fishing Kettle Creek in the central mountains of Pennsylvania. An excellent wild trout stream though the lower portions and a damned reservoir are stocked. I looked up the Beaverkill. Seems to be similar in terms of rating and excellence. We are both lucky to have had the opportunity to fish such waters.

The only moving water I have fished up here is the aforementioned Wells River. It is not stocked. I started fishing it recently when ML gave me hip waders last Christmas. I have yet to snag a fish, feel a bite or even so much as see a fish. But ALL fishermen are eternal optimists and I will keep trying. There are lots of places on the river to explore and test. I am looking forward to it.

My new rod is 7' 6" - my shortest fly rod by far. Selected to use on smaller streams and rivers. My carbon fiber rods are longer for further casts into the pond. With the short bamboo rod, the wading stick and hip boots I expect to put a lot of time in exploring/fishing the Wells River.

This morning it was 18°F out at 7 AM. I threaded the line through the guides and took the rod outside.
The grass was covered with frost. I could practice dry casting without harming the fly line.

The action is quicker than I am used too. I "cracked the whip" with an audible snap on some back casts. This is not desirable. But I did not have a leader attached - just the floating fly line. And it was 18° making the line stiff. I believe these 2 factors more than the rod action caused the snapping.

I played around for about 15 minutes until my hands got too cold. I enjoyed the rod and adjusted my casting to stop the snappy back casts.
I can not wait to try this out come spring. Sigh...... 4 more months.