Brown trout as a project

Dave and Amelia Jensen eat, breath, sleep and probably dream fly fishing. To narrow it down even more, brown trout fishing. They also let others enjoy their fly fishing adventures with their very engaging, almost intimate, way of capturing videos, like about hopper fishing and a short promo on the Orvis glass rods. I ordered their DVD Sight Fishing trout rivers a while ago. Very entertaining as well giving some good pointers on (dry fly) sight fishing for trout.

Then all the sudden Stripped Down - The Brown Trout Project arrived and this project is their largest video publication so far. It's a compilation of the past 13 years chasing brown trouts in Alberta, Montana and New Zealand classified in 8 chapters. Thanks to modern video-on-demand technology you can download ($6 per chapter or $40 for the whole lot) the video chapters in glorious HD. A double DVD (which is only SD by the way…) can be ordered soon.

Just check out the trailer to see what's all about.



Update June 16, 2014:
Just shipped half a dozen Alien Bugs to Dave and Amelia to feed the hungry browns in Alberta this summer.

Review: Graywolf Epic 480 ('So Blue')

I just received the Epic 480 (8ft for a 4 weight) finished by Shane Gray of Graywolf Rods. And the final product is just superb. The Epic blanks by a New Zealand company called Swift (Carl McNeil of the fantastic DVDs Once in a blue moon and Casts that catch fish fame) are making quite a splash in the fiberglass community.

These blanks are designed by Carl and his team and made in New Zealand by CTS. Carl calls these blanks high performance S2 FastGlass, the Epic 480 casts super smooth indeed.

One can order a blank from Swift and build a rod as desired. You can also order a kit with all the needed components and finish it yourself or buy a finished rod from Swift directly. Finally you can ask one of the many talented Epic certified rod builders like Shane from Graywolf or George from Tightloop to finish the blank. I can recommend these two builders without any hesitation.

The current line up of Epic fiberglass blanks are typical for fiberglass blanks and rods available ranging from a 7.5ft for a 3 weight to a 8.6ft for a 6 weight. There is one blank aimed for saltwater use (9ft for a 9 weight). All blanks are 3 piece except the saltwater blank.

What's really unique is that the blanks can be bought in no less than six different colors. Colors common to fiberglass blanks as seen mostly are amber or brown, but Epic blanks are also available in blue (poetically called 'So blue'), red, olive and white.

My rod is built in a utilitarian style with cork reel seat, up lock screw and a mini wells grip. The matching blue agate stripping guide is from Joe Arguello (also a famous bamboo rod maker). Check out Shane's amazing workmanship and you'll agree that this rod is a looker.




Update Aug 27, 2014:
Swift just started delivering new blanks for double handed rods. Probably more models to come but the first model comes with the name DH11 (11'6" 320-540 grains 4pc).

Update Aug 29, 2014:

I cast the rod with a 5 weight line and I was amazed how well the rod casts! The feedback I get with just 4-5 meters of line was amazing.