Trout Grass

Trout Grass is a documentary on the journey Tonkin bamboo, the material to make bamboo fly rods, makes from mainland China to Twin Bridges, Montana. I have read many articles and some books on bamboo fly rods, but none of them really gave much information on the area where the bamboo grows and how they are harvested. Trout Grass fills up this gap very nicely.

During the 45 minutes it shows how the Tonkin bamboo is harvested, transported down the hills and cleaned by the local people who make a living out of this amazing product of nature. This specific spieces of bamboo grows only in a small area in the Guangdong province of China.

The second part of the movie shows how Glenn Brackett of RL Winston Rod company crafts his famed bamboo fly rods out of the very few bamboo poles that made the cut during the selection proces which started all the way back in China. How amazing it is to know that such a plant (a family of the regular grass that grows in your back yard) ends up as a high priced and masterly crafted fly rod.

I really enjoyed this documentary. Too bad there is no 'The making of' or similar extra footage on how this documentary came together, interview with different people who worked on this, maybe some funny stuff on when things went wrong, etc.

This is not a how-to-make bamboo fly rods movie but a documentary showing how 'important' bamboo and the bamboo fly rod is for one half of the chain versus how bamboo has been a part of the Chinese culture for millenniums as source for many applications and is crucial for the local economy. You don't need to be a bamboo junk, but for anyone who wants to know more about this amazing journey of the Tonkin bamboo this DVD is a must see. More info (as well as some small movie clips) on Trout Grass and how to order can be found at the site of Trout Grass.

Ordered my first custom bamboo rod!

I just ordered my very first custom built bamboo rod!

I ordered a rod from Homer Jennings. The exact specifications aren't definite, but I want a 3 piece rod for traveling conveniences. I also want a slightly longer rod than the 7 foot rods I already own. Length longer than 8 foot seems to make bamboo rods uncomfortably heavy. My choice is a 7.6ft rod, but I might even consider a 7.3 ft rod. I want a rod which I can use for various conditions and is capable of handling dry flies, hoppers, weighted nymphs and maybe an occasional small streamer, so some authority is needed. I think a #5 rod would be more versatile than a #4 rod.

I have been reading a lot on bamboo rods the past couple of years. Although I still consider myself a rookie on this subject, I have seen that there is a large variation on tapers giving each rod a different action and feel. I do have an opinion which type of action I like best. I like a medium-fast to fastish rod. It should cast well close (10 feet, 3 meters) up to 30-40 feet (9-12 meters).

Homer told me that it will take about 14 months to deliver, so I have a lot of time to think about cosmetics (grip shape, hardware, wrapping color, etc.), so keep posted!


Update Feb 2, 2011:
Today my Jennings rod arrived! The rod was finished by Homer on Dec 27, 2010. That makes it a 6 year wait. It 's a 7.3ft 3 piece for a 4 weight with an extra (3rd) 3 weight tip. The rod looks like a jewel. The finish is simply superb.

LED lights

It's past 8 PM and the hatch is really intense. The dusk is making it difficult to see the fly. Ever tried to tie a fly in the dark while fish are rising between your legs? By the way, where did I put the damn flash light?

Fishing during dusk and/or night has always been an awkward operation. I hate to fish at night because I want to see what I'm doing, be it tying a tippet or a fly. And when I'm done fishing I want to see where I'm walking. A nice twig in my nose isn't funny. So carry a flash light!? The usual flash lights are inefficient in terms of energy consumption (full lighting for just a half an hour and gradually lower light intensity), vulnerable (these bulbs always die when I need them) and just plain heavy. We fly fishermen tend to travel light, but a lightweight flash light also means small batteries and guess what? These little critters are dead faster than the you can say mother-in-law...

The recent years the so called LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology has made great improvements in lighting devices. These LEDs have come a long way since they were used in calculators and digital watches in the 1970's. Nowadays traffic lights, rear end lights of cars and acres of video displays in big cities use LEDs. In the future you'll probably see more LED applications in your home as well.

What's so great about LEDs? They are:

* extremely durable in life-span (10+ years) as well as being plain tough;
* compared to regular bulbs LEDs have extreme low energy consumption as well as energy loss through heat;
* produce very bright light;
* produce very focused light without the need of mirrored hoods.

This all means that LED lights can be very small, light and easy to operate.


Take a look at a LED light I found a couple of years ago at my local outdoors shop. This little critter is the diameter of a golf ball, since it uses button cell batteries it's as light as a pen. Since LEDs are so energy efficient, they easily keep emitting bright light for a dozen or more hours. I haven't tried them extensively for more than a dozen of times for several minutes. But on my recent trip to Canada I used them for about 3 hours non stop during a nightly fishing on the Bow river (damn mosquitos!) in the city of Calgary and they are still going strong. I do keep spare batteries in my vest.

This LED called Ear-Lite is worn on your ear, pretty much like those Bluetooth headphones for cellular phones making hands free operation a breeze. It fits comfortably on your ear, but too abrupt head movements can shake it off your ear, so you need to remember that. But since it's attached to your head, it lights up the spot you look at. The angle of the lighting can be adjusted so everything from just under your nose to several meters / yards in front of you can be lit. And I'm telling ya, this critter produces some hefty bright light!

Besides for fly fishing, this LED Lite is also quite handy for reading without disturbing anyone next to you like in the car, train or airplane. There are many other equally small LED lights available these days. From key holders to one that you can clip on the visor of your hat. For heavy duty applications (both in amount of light as well as lighting time) there are more (most head mounted) LEDs to be found at your local outdoors shops. Petzl seems to be the leading brand in head mounted LED lights.

Never without drinking water

Have you ever been without water hours away from your car? Imagine the idea of hours walking back to your car in the hot sun. The fishing was great, but you could really appreciate a nice cold drink...

I always carry a bottle of water with me (in a bottle holder attached to my wader belt), but it's usually not enough to last a whole days worth of fishing. My worst story so far was that I 'buried' several cans of pop (Coke, 7 Up, etc.) in a stream with a couple of rocks to keep them cold. After a hot day of fishing we came back for a nice cold drink, but the cans were gone. My best guess is that they came loose due to the flow of the water and are probably still floating in the pacific ocean now.

There are several options to assure yourself of having enough water to drink. Carrying several bottles of water is a lot of weight you have to haul. Other option is a hydration system like Camelbak or water reservoirs which you can put in a backpack or the back pocket of your vest. I've tried them too but again, you will have to cope with a lot of extra load in your back. The thing I don't like is that the water tastes bad out of these rubber reservoirs. Because you're carrying it in your back, the water warms up. Finally these reservoirs are hard to clean, so after a while I'm not really looking forward to drink water out of a fuzzy looking reservoir. Platypus also makes hydration systems. Their reservoir doesn't have the bad rubbery taste, but their reservoir is also very difficult to clean.

It's funny that this cold and clear water you're fishing in looks like drinkable water from the tap. But with exception of very clear and clean springs, it is advised not to drink. Contamination like Giardia, sediments and other nasty little debris can make you real sick.

On my recent trip to the US my buddy Doug had this empty bottle with a (replaceable) filter. Although I had my usual bottle filled with bottled water, half way through the day it was empty. I watched Doug fill up his bottle with cold water from the Coeur d'Alene river and drink it with a big smile. I was a bit reserved on drinking water from the stream, but Doug assured that the filter takes care of 99.9% of the bad stuff in the water. Instant cold and clean water!

Doug sent me a new bottle with a filter as a gift (thanks Doug!). I was surprised that the bottle is the same bottle I already own, except for the removable filter. This company Aquamira makes a lot of outdoors equipment, so I guess they know what they are making. The filter works up to 200 refills, so that should easily make 75 - 100 days worth of fishing. For me that's probably at least 4 years. A replacement costs about 20 Euro's (or 20 US Dollars), so that's pretty good value. Check out your local outdoors shop for similar products.


So, my hydration system is: a bottle filled with bottled water and the seperate filter in a zip-lock bag to use when my bottle is empty. This way, I will never be without water and still 'travel light'!

Subway in the low lands!

Subways finally landed on the low lands! I knew there was one in The Hague, but I wanted one in Rotterdam. And it's there now! Today during a quick shopping for some new stuff for my wardrobe I stopped for a steak & cheese sandwich at Subway. Tastes as good as I remember from my recent US & Canada trip.

The Rotterdam restaurant is housed in what was once the internet cafe called EasyInternet from the Greek entrepreneur Stelios. He is also known for his air carrier EasyJet. During the mid 90's fast internet connections weren't common as these days. The slow and tedious dial-in connections at home of those days were a pain in the ass. A visit to EasyInternet showed us how nice surfing the web could be with a fast connection. We were able to download mp3's within minutes rather than half an hour or more. I remember my buddy Eric-jan downloading some top 40 songs to please his then (now his wife) new girl friend! :)

Fly tying + Essentials = Travel light

For my tying I use a Dyna-king Professional. The Dyna-king is as robust as a vice can be without being (and looking) bulky. It holds a hook as firm as one would like for bass or saltwater hooks yet still you can adjust the holding power for midge hooks without damaging them. I always hated the all-or-nothing holding of the Regal-style vice. There is simply no way to adjust the holding power of these vices. Unlike many other vices, the adjustable Dyna-king jaws still 'locks' down rather than 'tighten' (knop, lever) the jaws. My humble opinion is that the lock down system is superior over tightening.

The Dyna-king allows you to rotate the head to check out all the sides of a fly. It's not a true on-axis rotary vice like the Renzetti or Lawrence Waldron vice. Some folks like them, but I don't like the limited working space behind the head of these vices. For a review of many of the current vices on the market, check out this article at Fly Fisherman (it's an old article by now, so there are some layout issues when you try to access the article). Do keep in mind that the authors have their own preferences, so check out the vices yourself (if possible) to make your own decision which vice suits you best.

Eventually I also used to carry around my Dyna-king and the heavy pedestal while traveling. Obviously this wasn't working, especially when traveling overseas. I needed a true travel vice! There aren't many travel vices which I would consider being a TRAVEL vice: easy to carry, light and still versatile. I checked out the vice that comes along with the Marco Polo tying kit from C&F. This wasn't what I was looking for....

First, I don't need all the tools that comes along. Second, with all the tools and the carrying case (very neat though!) it's still as heavy and bulky as carrying the Dyna-king. Third, the vice looks too vulnerable to me. The tiny head with it's tiny knobs are too flimsy. Finally, the price tag is huge!

Then I ran into this peculiar pocket knife-like looking vice. This vice called the Travelmaster folds into a size of a swiss pocket knife, while unfolded the vice would let you adjust the angle in various positions. The German engineering ensures a bomb-proof quality. It's what a travel vice should be: it's small, light (well, lighter than the pedestal) and it's robust. Too bad the vice comes with a very spartan leather bag with a string. So, I bought a small camera bag to store the vice.

I used to lug around this huge fly tying bag from JW Outfitters (now out of production) where I would stash every tying material I had. I could barely close the bag! Sure I had everything with me (okay, I also had a seperate duffel full of hair when I was really into tying bassbugs). This is of course a traveling nightmare. I needed to scale down this habit of carrying everything with me.

The past couple of years I carry a small bag from Eagle Creek (called cubes) as my tying kit. It's basically a small sized clothing bag with only a zipper. No seperate compartments, no handy see through mesh bags or specially molded coffee cup holder. Just a nice little bag to store my essential tying stuff. And boy, this helps when you are traveling by air!

To keep the different tying materials organized, I use these zip-locked bags with the neat little zippers on top. Regular zip-lock bags would be fines I guess, but the zippered ones I can count on that they won't open up without notice. I only stash the the bare essentials. One bag is filled with tools and hooks (in type and sizes for only flies I fish with) while others are filled with some hair, synthetic stuff for wings and bodies, special dubbing and feathers (hackles, etc.).

Talking about neatly organizing: check out this little container with these neat little compartments (15 on each side, 30 compartments in total) which I filled with my most used dubbings. I saw this box many years ago when Partridge came out with their SLF Davy Wotton Masterclass dubbing.

Well, I hope you picked up some tips here. My motto when traveling, whether within Europe or going intercontinental: travel light!

Any questions? Please feel free to leave a comment with your e-mail address and I'll get in touch with you.

Update 2012:
The Travelmaster is no longer made...

Update 2012:
After many years of duty my Eagle Creek cube died. Eventually I was about to get a new one, but then I thought why not check out the toilet bag from Eagle Creek? Besides being small enough, it also has several compartments (both zippered and just pockets). Now this neat little bag is my tying bag.

The end of (an era at) Winston rod company?

This weekend the bad news came: the whole bamboo crew (Glenn Brackett and his colleagues Jeff Walker and Jerry Kustich) resigned from the RL Winston Rod company as it seems. The story is that there is a difference in view about the successor to Glenn. The management wants to hire a successor on their merit while Glenn feels that he is the one who can say who is capable of continuing the bamboo tradition that made Winston so famous. The other issues seems to be that the management wants a huge production increase (2500 rods vs the ca. 100 now!).

This is certainly the end of an era (Glenn has worked 30+ years at Winston) and probably we are looking at the end of a great name (more than 75 years) in bamboo.

Not sure what will happen to Winston bamboo rods, the older ones and the new to be built rods. The older ones built by Brackett surely will increase in value making them even more out of reach for the average Joe. The quality of the new bamboo rods will definitely be different from the Brackett built rods. But maybe a new master builder will stand up to take Winston to the next era as a premium bamboo rod company. Although I doubt that any ambitious maker would like to work under the conditions of the current management...

Here are some articles from/about Glenn:
Glenn's view on bamboo rod making (Part 1)
Glenn's view on bamboo rod making (Part 2)
Glenn's view on bamboo rod making (Part 3)

Glenn's regret on selling Winston to Ondaatje

Glenn and the Boo boys opened their own bamboo rod making company in 2007: Sweetgrass rods.

Update March 2015:
Here is a more recent interview with Glenn.

Picture books by Apple Computers (part III)

So after about two weeks the book arrived. Even the packaging is stylish: a nice box with a big Apple logo on front. Inside de box, the book is wrapped nicely in a plastic sleeve. The first thing I noticed was that the book really feels like a book.

Let's take a look at the book! The hard cover is coated with a tightly woven texture giving the book a warm appearence. The card box that is used to give the cover the sturdiness feels pretty firm indeed. The inside part of the cover is nicely layed with a profiled sheet that forms the blind pages. The pages are glued and bound firmly. A close look at the pages that are bound shows that the pages are tightly alined. I'm not sure how durable the gluing is, but it looks a lot tougher than some professionally printed books I bought. The double side printed pages are glossy and has the right thickness.


Now, what about the quality of the pictures? I must admit I was pretty skeptical about the quality. The print outs of digital camera's I've seen so far were generally pretty grainy, especially parts with contrast and/or color differences. The pictures were probably made with camera's in the 3-4 megapixels range and probably also shot in a lower resolution than it was capable of. The more recent camera's in the 5-8 megapixels range should give better results.

A close look at the pictures in the book show that they are just below professional print quality. The sharpness is probably comparable to pictures in magazines, maybe a tad better. As mentioned before, digital camera prints can't compete with the quality of the traditional analog 35 mm film prints yet. Especially if you look real close, you still can see the 'dots' or pixels that forms the picture. Since I used many different pictures in different sizes, I wondered how they turned out. Uncropped or slightly cropped pictures turned out pretty good as (nearly) no resolution was lost. Parts (cut out) of pictures which were enlarged, some to full page while others as part of a multi picture lay out, suffers from some visible graininess. But again, this might be a lot less visable if on a smaller size book (or print out).

On the coloration side, the pictures turned out excellent. Pictures with good contrasting backgrounds are really amazing (check out the panoramic pictures). Some pictures were edited using iPhoto's 'temperature' altering function making the colors more vibrant. Other pictures, especially with darker areas and/or taken with low light situations, this alteration made them worse.


Check out some of the more technical parts of the book:








Well, this was my first iPhoto picture book. I am surprised how nice the book turned out. I had a lot of fun creating one and the joy of having a nearly professional looking picture book has to be experienced. If you want to make a memorable happening or trip to be truly lasting, you should seriously consider making a picture book. I'm sure you'll enjoy browsing through it and walk back the memory lane many times to come...

Some tips when using digital cameras

Here are some tips I found particularly useful:

* Always shoot your pictures using the highest available resolution. For showing pictures on screen you can always downsize the resolution, also downsizing the file size as well. The other way around is obviously impossible. If you are afraid of running out of memory card, just get a bigger one. The ones that comes along with the cameras (16 or 32Mb?) are laughable! But try not to buy too large (1 Gb and larger) memory cards. First, if the memory card gets damaged or an error occurs you will loose all the pictures. Better buy two smaller memory cards rather than buy one large memory card. Secondly, it takes AGES to import the huge amount of pictures to the computer all at once. I'd say get one or two 256 Mb memory cards, saving you from running out of memory all too often;

* Do try to hold the camera STILL when you snap the picture! Especially with low light situations and/or using the zoom function, this is particularly important. With low light situations you could set to a lower (more light sensitive) ISO mode, but often this will result in 'snow' (whitish grey spots in the picture). Some cameras are pretty slow with the picture snapping & storing on the memory card. Try to hold it still for a second even after taking the shot;

* When making print outs, pay attention if you want to use a smaller part of the picture to blow up to a full page. This will result in a grainy picture which is logical because the picture contains less pixels. Anything smaller than, say, 25% of the original picture will result in disappointing pictures. Of course the 'graininess' will be less visible if you make a smaller print out or order a smaller size book.

Picture books by Apple Computers (part II)

The application I'm using is iPhoto, part of the iLife suite which contains the full range of applications that's needed for the digital lifestyle: iPhoto (organizing & editing digital photographs), iMovie (editing digital movies), iDVD (making your own DVDs), iTunes (digital music jukebox & organizing your mp3's) and Garageband (music composing & editing). Every new Macintosh comes with iLife installed. For Mac users who doesn't have iLife, it can be bought at your local Apple dealer or order it at the Apple Store.

With iPhoto you can organize and edit digital still pictures. But with iPhoto you can also layout and create your own picture books, all at the comfort of your own home. I'll try to give you an idea how this works.

After importing the pictures to iPhoto, you are ready to start selecting which pictures are worth keeping and which can be deleted. It's amazing how few pictures are good enough and worth keeping. I shot almost 400 pictures of the recent trip and I ended up keeping about 40 pictures. That's barely 10%!

Most pictures 'just out of the box' are okay, but sometimes you want to emphasize a certain aspect of the picture. If you took a nice scenic view of a mountain side, you want to show the panoramic aspect of the picture. By cropping the picture to a more 'broad' proportion, the picture gains strength. Same goes for pictures where you want to show the glorious blue sky, you want to show more area above the 'horizon line' than below the line. If the gracious river is what you want to show, make sure that the water shows 2/3rd below the horizon line. This cropping (getting rid of unnecessary areas of a picture) trick works up to a certain amount. It helps to start with taking pictures the 'right way'.

After editing the pictures you want to use in your book, it's now time to select the size of the book. iPhoto has many so called 'themes' from which you can choose from. Each theme has it's own layout as well as design. After choosing the theme, you choose the size of the book. Most themes has three sizes from which you can choose. This is the first book I ordered using iPhoto, so I wanted to see what they are capable of. A hard covered book has a nice 'book' feel to it, so I ordered the hard cover version. The hard covered books are only available in the large format (about the size of an A4 page or 8.5 x 11 inches). Check out here to see which sizes are available as well as the prices.

Making a book is now merely dragging and dropping the pictures on the virtual book. On the upper part of the window, you can see which pictures are still available. The layout of each page can be changed, so if you want three pictures on a page or maybe only one page filling picture of your pet? Just press the layout button and select your desired layout of that page and drag-and-drop away!

It's always a nice 'problem' to think about which story-line to use. Making such a book gives the 'author & publisher' the opportunity to come up with a book that is entirely a personal view on a happening or trip. Just adding every picture you like will rarely make an interesting book to browse through. Surely you know such boring photo books (just ask your aunt or neighbor!). Try to limit to a certain aspect of the trip or happening. What do you want to show? That mythic atmosphere of the Greek temples? The quietness of the back country? Or the happiness of the wedding? I chose to make a picture book with just a few impressions (without descriptions) of the trip rather than a full review. Adding descriptions are possible, some themes are better suited than others though.

Okay, we are done and let's press the 'Buy book' button! iPhoto starts to crunch numbers and after a few minutes it is ready to upload the book to Apple's printing center. The size of the file which will be uploaded depends on the amount of pictures you used. My file was around 80 Mb, so a fast internet connection is recommended.

Picture books by Apple Computers (part I)

Wouldn't it be nice to make your own 'picture books' with the same professional layout and physical appearance as those books you own? With a Macintosh and iPhoto you can! Well, okay it's not true professional quality like the books I reviewed here below but it's close as you can get without spending a huge amount by hiring a professional editor and the full printing costs. Take a look how my book came to life...


These digital camera's are quite an invention. You shoot as many pictures as you like and just delete the ones you don't want to keep. When the memory card is full, just move the pictures to your computer and after emptying the memory card the camera is ready for another shoot. The quality of the pictures are improving on a nearly monthly basis. These days consumer oriented 'point-and-shoot' cameras have 4 to 6 megapixels (amount of pixels that form the picture), while professional SLR digital camera's go 8 megapixels and more. According to analog enthusiasts, the digital photography still has a long ways to go in terms of resolution (to get the same quality as a regular 35 mm film, you will need about 15 - 20 megapixels), but for general use these digital camera's are perfect.

I wanted:
* a small camera (fit in my fly vest pocket);
* capable of taking wide angle shots (no need to step backwards to get the whole scene on picture);
* fast ready-to-go time when I turn it on (moments are gone when you have to wait 18 seconds for the camera to get ready...);
* at least 5 megapixels and
* capable of taking just plain good pictures.

After some intensive research on the internet I downsized the list to three camera's: Fujifilm Finepix E550, Canon Powershot S70 and the Ricoh Caplio R2.

The Canon was too slow with getting ready (almost 3 seconds!) as well general use. Slow operation kills the pleasure of taking pictures. The 7.1 megapixels is of course excellent and the 28 mm wide angle mode (max. 3.6x zoom, 100 mm) is great too. The camera does feels very robust though.

The Ricoh has some excellent specifications. Wide angle starts at 28 mm up to a very nice zoom mode (almost 5x) of 135 mm. It's also a very small camera making it perfect to slip it into your shirt pocket. And this little bugger is FAST (less than a second)! It would have a been a real serious contender, but the guy at the shop said that Ricoh's overall quality isn't up to the major camera brands. The rectangular form factor isn't really comfortable holding it either.

So I ended up with the Fujifilm Finepix E550. It's small enough while having a great holding form factor. The wide angle isn't as wide as the other camera's (32.5 mm vs 28 mm), but the overall quality of the camera as well as the pictures it takes makes this camera a very nice camera indeed. The 6 megapixels is fine, the fast start-up (around 1 second) and operation times and the long battery life (it uses regular rechargeable AA batteries so no problems with getting extra batteries) and the nice zoom (130 mm, 4x optical zoom) made the choice easier. It has an interpolation mode where the 6 megapixels is doubled to 12 megapixels. That's great for earth shattering memorable moments (like running into Anna Kournikova while fishing) but it will fill up your memory card really fast.

Okay, so we got a camera. Let's shoot some pictures!

Some nice 'coffee table books'

I would like to share with you some books I consider being nice books to browse with a nice cup of coffee or tea. These books give the reader fuel to fantasize about destinations far away, enjoy the craftsmanship of fine fly tiers or just pick up inspiration. Excellent photographers like R. Valentine Atkinson, Brian O'Keefe and the Beck's are a few of the people who manage to capture a moment of beauty and the essence of fly fishing. Ever since I saw the book Casting Illusions at a friend, I've enjoyed browsing through these books.


Casting Illusions by Tom Rosenbauer starts with a brief history of fly fishing with the famous books 'The Compleat Angler' by Izaak Walton and Dame Juliana Berners 'Treatyse of Fysshynge Wyth an Angle'. Several chapters on flies, gear and places give the reader to walk through the history of fly fishing. Accompanied by beautiful photo's and many historic drawings, this book is a true 'relax and sit back' book. The final chapter called 'Friends' shows us what fly fishing is about for most of us: enjoy the outing with friends and cherish the moments.


Streams of Dreams by John Ross is one of those books that shows us the great destinations we all fly fishermen want to visit one day. Rather than focusing on the famouse rivers or streams we all know by now, the chapters covers countries or parts of continents of the world and their fishing possibilities. It's nice to see that the author also includes the less well known continents like Asia and Africa as possible fly fishing destinations.

Rather than an extensive coverage of the country, this book gives a concise view on the geography, possibilities and spices that can be found of that part of the world. Each chapter also comes with a little advise on tackle and flies. For more detailed information on a destination, further browsing the internet and books that are written about that specific destination is needed. But nonetheless, it's still a nice book to have a look what certain countries have to offer for the traveling fly fishermen.


Judith Dunham's The Art of the Trout Fly triggered my fly tying as no other book has done. I think that this book was probably the first fly tying book that was written as a picture book. The photography by Egmont van Dyck is simple yet effective. Although all flies shown come with pattern information, it's not a 'how to' book. This book covers a list of fly tiers from USA, Europe and Japan and their view on tying. Some tiers are true innovators (like Dave Whitlock and John Betts), while others are masters of 'keep it simple stupid' (like Al Troth and Roman Moser). I do wonder why some tiers are included though... I guess, the list of tiers was just a 'snapshot' of a certain period.


Patagonia in Argentina is for most of us one of those destinations we want to visit before we die. Fly Fishing Patagonia - The Lake District is one of the two books written by Francisco Bedeschi and Juan Pablo Reynal in this format. With the large landscape format of the book and the excellent print quality these authors chose surely give the photographs the podium to excel, the many scenery photographs are stunning.

There is no doubt that Patagonia is a wonderful place to be. The backdrops that can be seen on most of the pictures are simply awe inspiring. The book is devided in three chapters covering the three major national parks in the northern part of Patagonia. Within the parks, the most famous rivers are given a short description about their characteristics and which tackle to use.

The nice thing about this book is that it is bilingual, everything is written in Spanish as well as English. Although English isn't my native language I could find quite some weird sentences and grammars used. But since the pictures are the main attraction, this isn't annoying. The second book by the authors, Fly Fishing the South covers the southern area of Patagonia. More info can be found here.


John Cave in one luck guy. He has travelled to most destinations we mortal souls only dream about. His journey has taken him to places like Patagonia, Belize and Costa Rica. The book Fly-fishing Odyssey - The pursuit of great game fish is a particular nice book which can be browsed on a lazy sunday afternoon as well as a first introduction on the fly fishing possibilities of a certain destination. Although it covers many destinations, the emphasis can be found on salt water fly fishing.

The first section of the book contains 20 chapters on various destinations. Besides a brief characteristics of the destination and an anecdote of his trip, good information can be found on planning a trip as well as tackle to bring along. Almost all the pictures are John's own shots and they are pretty good indeed. The second section takes a more detailed look on the spices that can be caught in the destinations covered. Description, feeding habits and recommended tackle and flies are combined with a nice drawing of the fish. The final chapter contains an extensive information on the gear we need if we are lucky to be hired as a professional traveling fly fisherman. I also liked the helpful hints for traveling.


The final book I would like to show you is a book I picked up recently. Fly Waters Near & Far by Barry and Cathy Beck is what in terms of music we might call 'the best of' album. This book is in my view the ultimate dream-away-and-drool picture book so far. The Beck's, the only celebrity couple in fly fishing, have fished nearly every imaginable fly fishing destination in the world. Still, rather than covering every place they visited and fished, the book limits to 13 most famous destinations. Fresh and saltwater destinations are nicely balanced out.

When browsing through the book, it's no surprise that there is a certain deja-vu experience. Beck's pictures can be seen in all major fly fishing magazines, many books as well as commercial leaflets of manufacturers. The quality of the photographs is simply outstanding. These guys sure know how to capture the magical moments of a trip. I for one have learned a lot about taking good pictures with my camera after analzing the pictures taken by professionals like the Beck's. I guess no shame is needed to have a nice and friendly appeal like Cathy because she can be seen on at least half of the pictures. Maybe the book will be used as a resume when Cathy decides that it has been enough and wants to pick up a regular 9-to-5 job.


I'm not sure all the books covered here are still available. As mentioned, the book from the Beck's is just out, so that should be no problem. The book series on Patagonia by Bedeschi and Reynal are still a current publication. Check out at Amazon to see which are still available. Except the book by the Beck's, most of these titles have been out quite a while. So it's possible that you can get them with some nice discounts these days. The thing with books is that if it needs to be shipped internationally, the shipping costs soar to the roof...

Skyline of Rotterdam

The first week of October has been unusually warm and sunny. Temperatures around 20 degrees Celsius (high 60's F) is hardly the the type of weather that we associate with October. So I went out with my in-line skates to cruise the smooth asphalted bicycle lanes along the riverside of Rotterdam and generally enjoying the view.

I've lived near Rotterdam, the worlds largest harbor and the second largest city in The Netherlands, for almost 20 years. During this period, the skyline of Rotterdam has changed quite dramatically. The municipality of Rotterdam started an active architectural and urban development policy during the 1980's. The city is still growing, so it looks like the skyline will change again in the future. Let me show you some pictures of the skyline that makes Rotterdam so different from all other cities in The Netherlands.

Here's a view that one will see when entering the city from the eastern part of the highway system around the city. As you can see Rotterdam is divided by the river Maas. The high rise of Rotterdam has given Rotterdam the nick name 'Manhattan on the Maas'. The right side is the part where the main part of the city lies. The left part, the southern part, has always been the the underdeveloped part of Rotterdam. The main reason was due to the lacking of a good physical connection between the city center and the southern part (Rotterdam Zuid).

Until 1996 the main connection between the two parts of the city was the Willems bridge, an old old train-bridge (later replaced by the New Willems bridge which can be seen as the red bridge on the picture) just outside the city center. The other option was to take the highway and go around the city and enter the southern part, which is beyond the walkable range.

In 1996 the Erasmus bridge (also known as the 'Swan' as the structure has some resemblance of a gracious swan) connected both parts of the city in a way that goes beyond a physical connection. The development that followed in the area called 'Kop van Zuid' gave the southern part of the city a huge economical boost. Office buildings, apartments (the 140 meters makes MonteVideo the highest residential apartment building in The Netherlands) and educational buildings (college) improved the image of this part of the city in a big way. By the way, it's great fun to go down from the bridges with the in-line skates!

This is the vista that is visible on the Maas Boulevard, the avenue entering the city center from the eastern highway. The opinions on this Maas Boulevard varies. Some say it's a nice contrast to the busy roads and lanes in the city center, other say this main road into the city has to be alive with nice cafes and restaurants right next to the riverside accompanied by apartments and other buildings. My opinion is that the profile, that's the width and proportions, of the Maas Boulevard is too broad and the functional interpretation too limited to have an appeal of an avenue like many well known avenues in the world, like the Champs Elysées of Paris. Well, maybe this will change for the better in the future.

Here's a view from the New Willems bridge. This is what we might say the start of the city center. The first big building on the right is the P&O NedLloyd (a container shipping company) building, also known as 'Willemswerf'. This building is the first in a row of high rises on the extension of the Maas Boulevard called the 'Boompjes' (translated: little trees). Recently a new high rise was added to the row of buildings for the consulting firm Ernst & Young.

For more pictures of the architecture of Rotterdam, take a look at this site.

The Weisse Traun in June

For the folks who haven't seen the pictures I took earlier this June, here are some pictures. I fished the Weisse (translated: white) Traun in southern Germany during a long weekend in June.

As you all know we have no mountains in The Netherlands, so lack any form of trout fishing in streams or rivers (ah well, maybe a teeny tiny stream here and there in southern part of the country). For my trout fishing I go to Southern Germany, near the border with Austria. Many would say, what about the lake of Oostvoorne? Well, I've tried it several times, but lake fishing (and it's a HUGE lake!) is not my cup of tea. I prefer moving water over still water.

I used to go to the Eifel region, which is near the border of the three countries The Netherlands / Belgium / Germany. But after fishing these streams for more than 15 years, I wanted to go for quality rather than quantity. It's a long drive to southern Germany (around 9 hours, opposed to 3.5 hours to the Eifel region), but it's worth it. In southern Germany there are many other options to fish, including many nice rivers and streams in Austria.

So, this first weekend of June was sunny and hot. Not really the best weather for fishing, but being out in the gin clear water (click on the pictures) and fishing with my bamboo rods was nothing short of pure enjoyment. Too bad my buddy Rolf couldn't come along. Just a week before the planned weekend he pulled his calf muscle.

This weekend I decided to fish exclusively with my bamboo rods. I picked up the idea of fishing with bamboo rods after reading about them for many years. Dunno, but fishing a nice bamboo rod with a matching reel (no modern large arbor reels here please) on a small / medium sized stream has a very 'back to basic' feel to it. I always thought that a bamboo rod was just plain heavy and slow. Boy, how wrong I was. A well built bamboo rod, especially with understated cosmetics, is a thing of beauty. The attention and time that was put into building one, the workmanship that is needed and the material that was once just a 'piece of grass' is just amazing.

I now own two bamboo rods: a Tom Moran 7ft 2/2 (2/2 means 2 pieces with 2 tips) #4 and an Orvis Superfine 7ft 2/2 HDG (I use a #3 on it). This last rod is very special to me. First of all it was built in 1968, which is my year of birth. Second, I bought it from a gentleman who kept the rod all those years in the closet. He was too scared to break it if he fished it. He (RIP) passed away due to cancer. So I bought a brand new 36 year old bamboo rod. Since these Orvis rods all have serial numbers, I mailed Orvis and they could trace the buyer & year they built the rod without any problems!

Since it was the first time I took my Orvis out for fishing, I ended up fishing it 90% of the time. Although rated for a HDG line (similar to a 6 weight), I found it casts a 3 weight superbly. I always loved the Superfine grip on an Orvis, especially finished with two reel rings. 

My Orvis Tippet graphite rod has been my all time light weight rod for ages. This Orvis bamboo performed superbly during the weekend. One other myth: bamboo rods are NOT vulnerable as one might think. Abuse (e.g. sudden stress like jerking the rod after a fly caught a tree, hitting the tip with a bead head nymph or slamming car doors) is something no material will handle well. Playing a big fish with force EVENLY exerted is no problem for a bamboo rod. Check out some of the nice fish and the gin clear water of the Weisse Traun.

The many faces of the Bow river

How does this mighty Bow river play with ones mind? This trip sure showed how me the different faces of the Bow river.

The day after my arrival in Calgary I went for a float down the Bow river with Ryan. Ryan who just ended his night shift still had some energy left to go fishing with me. The weather couldn't be more wonderful. It started slightly overcast, but soon it cleared all up. What a great day we had! I started with my regular nymph rig (beadhead caddis with a prince as a dropper), but Ryan suggested to try out some hoppers. I did manage to hook up some nice fish, many of them still got away after an initial jump or two. But heck, we are out on one of THE best rivers out in the west. The size of these fish (catching a 20+ incher is just nothing unusual here), the changing scenery and the vast stretches of amazing dry fly water. All this just next to a city with more than a million inhabitants makes the Bow river a very special river indeed.

The recent June floods (3 floods short after the other) seems to have changed the looks of the Bow quite drastically. First thing that I noticed was that there was NO weed in the river! I remember the Bow as a river of thick weeds, but without them it sure looked different. Along the way Ryan was in constant excitement as he saw how the flood changed the banks of the river. The take in & out point at Policeman's Flats was nothing more than a small island in the river. Looks like the banks of the Bow is also known to non-fly fishermen: a Hollywood production with Brad Pitt was being filmed during this week. Haven't heard or seen any screaming teenagers yet...

I offered to take over the oars after a couple of hours. That's a nice break from the endless casting. Ryan grabbed his streamer rod and tossed out the heavy gear (can't remember which fly he used. Can you help me out here Ryan?) and along a deeper eddy a nice twenty incher brown decided it was time for lunch. That's was just only minutes after I lost a nice rainbow, as it took the highway after a couple of jumps. Around 5 PM we picked up Dave somewhere at 'the corner with the house on top'. Good thing there are only a couple of (very nice BTW!) houses along the hills. While Dave tossed his streamers, I picked up my nymphs again. Together we fished our way down the the take out point at McKinnons Flats to end the day's fishing with some great pizza at Dave's home. Life is good!

After this wonderful day I went to see my buddies in Idaho and Montana. Since I came back in Alberta a lot earlier than planned, I was looking forward to fish some of the less crowded streams of Alberta & BC. Aaron, who also works at Fish Tales, offered me to come along with his trip to the Castle river in the Crowsnest pass. Due to my appointments in the US I had to pass this offer (next time just stop me Aaron! Use of force is permitted), but boy did the pictures of the fat cutts he showed me afterward look great! I also had the Wigwam river in BC in mind. Ryan suggested we float the Elk, as being a amazing river to float. Then this huge low pressure system came along and stayed above Alberta and the eastern part of BC...

Three days of more or less continuous rain just about ended my fishing aspirations. The rain caused the Bow to run high and dirty, almost to the level of the earlier June floods. One of the guides called it a day after seeing a telephone pole coming down next to his boat. In the higher elevations like the Crowsnest pass the heavy snowfall caused electricity lines to collapse and basically left the community without electricity for many hours. The few fishermen who were already in the area had some great fishing during the first hours of snow. Little did they know that the snowfall led to more uncomfortable situations later on the days to follow.

After the steady rain, the sun did start to gain it's strength back. The temperatures weren't as high as the first week. I still had about 3 days before flying back... The huge amounts of rain that fell meant that it would take at least a full week and probably more to clear up (27 sept: it indeed took a full two weeks). Driving out to fish somewhere else was hardly an option. At the height of the rain, people were informing each other that every stream or river in the approximate of 3 hours drive from Calgary was running high and dirty.

The day before my departure we decided to try the Bow anyway. Dave, Gordon and I floated the Bow from McKinnons to Carseland. Dave suggested that, since all the boats were fishing the stretches close to the city, we might be better off fishing the lower part. Well, it sure looked like all the boats were in the upper part and catching all (although VERY limited numbers) the fish because it was tough! The visibility of the river was no more than 5-8 inches I think. The weather was cool and cloudy. Some moments we enjoyed the warming rays of sunshine, other moments it looked like the black clouds were about to open the tap. How was the fishing? Well, I lost a nice rainbow on a beadhead prince (bent out after inspection: Partridge hook!) and Gordon caught his first fish while floating the Bow.

Well, this about sums up my trip the the US & Canada this year. Fishing wise it wasn't the best so far. I've met some new friends (incl. some very small friends! :) ) and enjoyed my friendship with buddies who seem to enjoy my company too. I hope to be back within a few years, hopefully with better weather conditions and I'll be looking forward to see my friends again. Take care!

For more info on fishing the Bow River, here is a nice article on the Bow.

Alien Bug

I have been experimenting with hopper patterns since my first visit to the Rockies in 1992. Back then hopper patterns were mainly based on deer hair, either spun (like Dave's Hopper) or bullet head hair style (like the Henry's Fork hopper). Other hopper patterns include large parachute style hoppers like the Schroeder's Parachute hopper.

Dave's Hopper

Although these hopper patterns can be very productive at times, they all have one similar down side. They get waterlogged after a while and won't float very well once waterlogged. Another down side was they are very time consuming to tie. Yes, tying a neat Dave's Hopper can be great fun, but boy does it wear you out after tying five of those critters....

Chernobyl Ant

A little bit of history

During the mid 1990's high density foam made its debut as the material for buoyancy on dry flies. In 1995 the odd looking fly called the Chernobyl Ant won the Jackson Hole One Fly Event. The basic idea is a 3 mm high density black foam strip tied in several different segments to form the abdomen and head. The addition of rubber legs at the side gave the critter a very lifelike action.

Club Sandich

Foam as a tying material evolved to multi layered, very colourful and segmented extended body patterns like the Club Sandwich. Although these flies float like a cork and look more like a mutant grass hopper which stayed too long in the nuclear microwave oven I think they also are too cumbersome to tie. They also involve needing special form cutting tools as well to get the foam strips in a particular shape. I prefer a mix of foam and natural materials like deer or elk hair for the wings.

Alien Bug
This summer I was visiting my buddy David Blair who owns a fly shop in Calgary called Fish Tales. I saw this magazine article written by Seamus Toner, who also happen to work at David's fly shop. He originally tied it on a salmon fly hook and with a sort of an extended body, so I guess it's a kind of a cross breeding of a steelhead fly like a bomber and the recent foam hoppers like the Club Sandwhich.

The basic ingredient is using two or three sheets of 3 mm high density foam. You can buy these sheets at your local hobby shop in many different colours. There are no rules for colours here.

I like using bright colours like yellow or orange on top (for visibility) and more subdued colors like olive, brown or black for the bottom of the fly. To imitate the Salmon fly (Pteronarcys dorsata), the giant American stonefly use orange for the bottom to imitate the salmon coloured underbody.

Nice segmented body

Before tying you need some preparation. Glue the sheets together using some sort of flexible glue. The easiest way is to use a spray glue like Scotch spray glue. Cut the glued sheets into about 57 mm wide strips. For sizes up to hook size 10 I like to use two foam layers, for larger sizes use 3 layers.

So this Alien Bug is easy to tie, very durable, floats for ever and easy to track on the water. Since this hopper floats so well, it's also a great strike indicator to fish with a (even heavily weighted) nymph as a dropper. I fished the Alien Bug in the gin clear streams in Southern Germany, the alpine rivers in Austria, in the hills of the Spanish Pyrenees, Montana and tributaries of the Yellowstone river. Friends of mine fished it in South Africa, Yellowstone country, the Driftless area and Patagonia.


The ingredients:

Hook: Any hopper hook (#6-10)
Thread: Uni-thread 6/0 (I like hot orange)
Body: Sandwiched foam
Legs: Round medium rubber legs (I like them yellow or red striped)
Wing: Elk or deer hair
Tail: Red goose biots 
Indicator: tuff of hot orange or chartreuse (or even mixed!) indicator strand



Update 28 Aug 2021:

I sent a few Alien Bugs to Craig Mathews and he says it should be outlawed.

Update 30 Sep 2019:

Fly Fish Food fly shop made a short video on glueing foam sheets. It's really easy!



Thanks to my buddy Hans Weilenmann for taking great pictures of the Alien Bug (and more).
More flies can be seen at his site.

Here's a video I made how to tie the Alien Bug:

A nice article by Dave Whitlock about hoppers in Fly Fisherman magazine September 1997.