Tango

There are probably a dozen movie clips on building bamboo fly rods on YouTube, but none so far is as fun to watch and sounds better than the one from my friend Marcelo Calviello from Argentina. This one is actually a series of still pictures but nicely zooming and panning makes the experience very alive. The gracious tango of Astor Piazolla accompanies the clip. Well done Marcelo!

Get a drink, press the play button, sit back and enjoy!

Weather blues...

Well, our trip to the Isar turned out to be a bummer... Basically we were rained out.

The heavy rain period two weeks before our trip turned the Isar into a milky blue soup. Even though the water levels dropped considerably during the week before we left, the visibility of the river was far from ideal.

The first day of the trip was pretty nice and sunny. Yet the visibility of less than 10 inches made fishing very difficult.
The second day the blue sky was exchanged for dark grey clouds. After a few hours in the morning the clouds opened their doors and the wind picked up seriously making fishing further impossible. The additional rain wiped out any hope we still had for the river to clear up.

We decided to head back home after another cloudy day. Andy who arranged the fishing for us mailed me later that once the water in the lake that feeds the Isar gets milky, it can take up to 2-3 weeks to clear up.

How frustrating to know that the following days will be quite sunny and nice!

Well, we'll definitely try this river again. Hopefully we'll have picture perfect conditions. The nice grayling I caught the first day probably tells me there is more to come.

Tying bassbugs (II)

YouTube is such a wonderful medium. I found this four part video on tying a Dahlberg Diver by a tier called Ken Bohannon. Someone filmed the tying process of Ken's Dahlberg Diver at the 2007 Texoma Tie In. Probably a fly tying show of some sort.

Although I like to tie my divers slightly different, the basic idea is the same. Ken's explanation is top notch so there is lots to learn for anyone who wants to tie a diver or improve their hair tying process. If anyone has a a question on tying the diver, hair bugs or tying with hair in general, just leave a question in the comments window and I'll get in touch with you.


Enjoy Ken's video on tying the Dahlberg Diver:



Here's part two, three and four.

Lukas' tip for Southern Germany

Lukas sent me a picture of a bead head nymph he used on his recent trip with great success. The bright maylar body seems to work well in discolored water. I will definitely tie a few of these nymphs if we do encounter discolored conditions. Thank you Lukas!

The weather in Southern Germany looks pretty bad right now. This is a snapshot from the weather widget as of now in the Munich area.

We're hoping that the weather will improve by next week and stays that way! At this moment I'm not really worried about the weather because it's still two weeks away. If it stays this way the week we leave, then I'll look a bit more worried...


Update on the weather (14 sep 2007):
It looks like the weather is improving after a rainy period. Early this week the raining stopped. The next couple of days will be even sunny and warm. The second half of next week the temperature seems to drop quite a bit.

Only concern now is the amount of water that flows through the river. At this moment the amount is dropping from a whopping 5x the average amount early this week to now about 2x. Hopefully by the beginning of next week it will be just above the average of 25-30 m3/sec.

Next trip coming up!

I'm looking forward to our next trip in a few weeks. We'll be heading to a new river in Southern Germany with 4 guys. All our gear is waiting to get back in action again. There is supposed to be lots of big graylings in this river. The scenery I've seen so far reminds me of a mixture of New Zealand and the Rockies. Are you guys getting a bit curious which river we're talking about? Patience my friend...


Some news from the FF front:

* The weather has been brutal in the US this summer. Most states are having some very hot and dry weather. Not good for smaller trout streams.
* Hans went fishing for a weeks fishing for atlantic salmon in Norway last month and he caught... zip? You gotta love the surroundings.
* I can't seem to find big (size 8) light wired scuds hooks. Tiemco dropped this size some years ago. Anyone know which brand still has LIGHT WIRED scud hooks in size 8?
* My Dynaking vice is still going strong.
* Olli is falling for Orvis in a big way. My guess is he will be ordering some Orvis thongs soon!
* I'm hoping for sunny & warm weather in September. So I can wear shorts and (breathable) hippers rather than chest waders.
* Rolf finally got his wet dream: an orange colored Orvis breathable waders. So no more jokes about waders!
* My minimalism in flies for fishing has come to an optimum. I'll be using just two patterns now.

Summer break

Due to moving to my new house I haven't had much time to work on my blog. No thanks to my ISP either. I'm still waiting for my internet connection...

My next trip is due in mid september. So keep posted!

Update 23 Aug:
My internet connection is finally up & running again.

Reminiscing - part II

This is the mighty Missouri river in the state of Montana.
It's one of those rivers where one gets the feeling of being tiny and totally absorbed by the greatness of the scenery...

Hardy is losing its identity

Hardy of Alnwick, maker of fine fly reels as well as fly rods, is moving their production to Korea.
In other words: Hardy is outsourcing.

There are four main reasons for outsourcing that is occurring in the fly fishing industry:
* Labor is much cheaper than homeland;
* Production related costs (the non-labor related ones like housing costs, taxes, etc.) are much cheaper elsewhere;
* There are simply no new craftsmen available;
* The investors just want more money for their bang (= getting greedy).

If a company is to stay producing in the original country, the question is: is the consumer willing to pay a higher price for it? How realistic this is depends on whether the product is unique enough simply because it's a one of a kind...

Hardy's decision to outsource is an approach that probably will hurt Hardy more and deeper than they realize. Hardy equals tradition and tradition only. Not because it's technically more advanced that other similar products (which long ago was by the way). Hardy made in the far east means it's just a fishing brand just like many others. No more distinction so it just needs to fight for the same value for money balance as the next brand.

Good bye Hardy...

No comment...

A tick-free summer

There's no reason to get freaked out or to get afraid being in the outdoors. But with just a few good sense tips you can enjoy a tick free summer. After reading Tom's posting on his blog about ticks made me realize that fishermen should be educated rather than freaked out about ticks.

Especially my buddy Rolf is one terrified mama when it comes down to this subject. I remember one trip to Austria's Koppen Traun river where he was all zipped up to his chins wearing a rain jacket. Mind you it was around 30 degrees (around 90 F) with a clear blue sky! Needless to say that he was sweating like a seal in the jungle... *grin!*

Here's some good information on keeping tick free as well as taking care of it if you got bitten by one of these nasty critters.

Reminiscing

Maybe I'm getting old but I like to look back at the good times I had in the past. Here is a nice picture of the Crowsnest river in Alberta (Canada). This picture is from my trip in 1998.

Hot April

Just back from my annual trip to Southern Germany (also known as Bavaria). This trip can be summarized as way too hot for the month of April. The temperatures (25-28 C or low 80's F) were uncommonly high for this time of the year. But all together great fishing weather! This time I went to Southern Germany with my friend Hans. We were going to stay there for a full week, so for change of scenery sakes we decided to take an outing to the Deutsche Traun as well as the Torrener Ache in Austria.

Although we fished the last week of April, the whole month of April has been just too warm & dry. We usually see this kind of weather in mid June. The past winter was too warm already with hardly any snow, so river ran extremely low. I've seen the river this low during the end of the summer!

Don't know if this will stay this way further on this summer? My guess is that the fishing next year will be hurt by the current hot spring. I talked to the manager of another stretch of the Weisse Traun and he was considering closing down the river for a few weeks in May. Closing the river will disappoint quite a few fishermen who wants to fish in May but it's probably the best thing to do. But we'll see how the weather stays during the course of summer and fall.

Surprisingly the fish were still in great condition. I enjoyed some superb fishing using nymphs. My buddy is a dry fly fisherman and with the low water conditions, the fish were almost forced to look up. The upper stretch seems to contain less food than the lower part of the river. The fish, especially the rainbows, caught on the upper stretches were a lot slimmer for their size. The browns were overal in much better health. I even caught a handsome grayling, which is pretty rare for this part of the Weisse Traun.

The fish were pretty spooky because of the low water levels, but this also made sight fishing with nymphs a deadly method. I sometimes caught rainbows feeding in just ankle deep sections. As soon as a feeding fish was located, it was just like hunting: crawling on the knees to get as close as possible without spooking them. More often it was a one cast chance. It's a real kick to see the fish move ever so slightly to the side and detect a take. The more faster sections with deeper water levels, it's the general nymphing with little strike indicators.



Deutsche Traun
Our day on the Deutsche Traun was quite different than the other days. This day the sunny blue sky was substituted by an even grey sky. The slight drizzle was a nice welcome to the warm and sunny days.

The Deutsche Traun is the result of the Rote Traun joining the Weisse Traun in the town of Siegsdorf. Yet the fishing in the Deutsche Traun near the town of Traunstein is a whole different ball game. The river is slightly larger in size, but it's the fish that really makes fishing a different experience. One can catch some serious big fish. Fish (rainbows, browns or grayling) in the 20-25 inch range isn't uncommon. And boy do these fish kick ass!

I hooked at least a half a dozen fish in the 20 inch range, but most of them got away due to my tippet (4x) snapping or the hook simply bending out. I did manage to land two big fish. One in the 20 inch range which had a unusual high back, just like an American football. The other one was in the 23 inch range. Much slimmer but still very muscular. A bite out of the tail fin showed that these fish aren't wild fish from origin. But the fishing sure is exciting. Once hooked these fish explode and head for the river as if there's no tomorrow!





Torrener Ache
Our next outing was the Torrener Ache near the town of Golling in Austria. This little stream runs through a national park and the scenery is simply breathtaking. Under a blue sky the teal colored stream looks just like magic. The cold water and the pebbly bottom seems to contain much fewer nutrients for the insects. The population is mainly brown and brook trout. The small but beautifully spotted browns are so pale they just seem to disappear on the light colored bottom.

The gin clear stream is typical for this part of the world. Talking about water, being somewhat adventurous, I got wet after crossing the stream by jumping from one side of the stream on top of a fallen tree to the shallow bank on the other side.

Wearing breathable hippers rather than chest waders, the splash of the landing meant I had to take off my hippers to get them dry. But heck, the scenery was superb and it was hot and windy. Half an hour later I was fishing again. In spite of the small fish, the Torrener Ache has to be seen to believe.



Here are some of the many shots I took during this trip. Enjoy!












Previous trip reports to Bavaria in 2006 and 2005.

Best of the west - part II

Yesterday (April 14) the unofficial Dutch version of the Best of the West casting competition was held in Kampen. The weather was unusually warm (even hot!) for this time of the year. Unlike the US version this event was held outdoors. Under a blue sky a nice stretch of lawn was found near the Pikefly fly shop. Although the event was talked about by many, just about 50 people showed up with only about 30 people joining the competition. The competition was split in to four categories: youth, women (with only ONE contender!), recreational and pro's.

To keep the event as true to the original, the same rules were applied: every contender gets to make three casts with one trial cast (which can be measured but then you only have two more casts). Only casts which end up on the casting lane (width of about 2 meter) are measured. Everyone used the same line as mentioned earlier. Any factory made 9ft #5 rod was allowed. I borrowed a G. Loomis Stream Dance GLX rod from one of the contenders. It's not as stiff as the Sage TCR, yet casts like a dream. In fact I prefer it over the super stiff Sage. I don't like the titanium coiled eyes though. It's supposed to be super light and nearly indestructible, but it looks cheap.

The occasional gust of wind (slightly from behind & left) sometimes made the final delivering cast a problem. One of my casts ended outside the casting lane. I ended second in the recreational category with 29 m (95 feet). I was aiming to end up somewhere around 33 m (108 feet). My trial cast ended somewhere between the 30 (98 feet) and 35 (115 feet) meter mark. Foolish me for not having it measured... Well, try again next time. The overall winner made a phenomenal cast of 38 m (125 feet)! This is pretty amazing.

All together, this was a very nice event which will be probably repeated next year. It was great fun trying out many different kinds of rods, talking with old friends as well as meeting new people. The weather was nothing short of spectacular.


Next: I'll be off for my first trip of the year soon! Keep posted!

April morning

The weather is getting warmer and warmer. I can't wait to feel the sun on my face standing in a gin clear stream. Three more weeks and we are back in business: my first trip of the year!

In the mean time, I need to compete in this crazy casting competition, tie some nymphs for the trip and get my gear ready. This is going to be a great fishing season!

Anyone else getting ready for a nice fishing trip soon?

Best of the west

On April 14, 2007 the Dutch version of the Best of the West (the guy in the picture on the right is Steve Rajeff) competition will be held in Kampen. Well, it's not the official tournament of course, just a get together organized by the Pikefly fly shop. It started as a joke after reading many statements of fly fishermen on the Dutch bulletin boards about easily casting 90+ feet. This is the means to check who is really able to cast 90+ feet or just don't have a clue about distances and measurements...

I'll be competing too, just for fun. I had my first practice this afternoon. It went okay, a bit rusty after a long winter break. We used the Sage TCR rod to practise. Man, this is one mean casting machine!

As you can see I already got the competition line: a #5 SA's Expert Distance Competition. The Expert Distance Competition is the line that is used at casting competitions and is 120 feet (36,5 m!) long (hot orange color) rather than the regular version which is 'only' 105 feet long (mist green color).

All casts will be made using a #5 weight ED Competition line. Any 9ft #5 rod can be used. Since I don't own a very fast action fly rod, I'll be borrowing a Sage TCR 590 or (I hope) the new Sage Z-Axis 590.

A bit of fly fishing history

Here is a bit of fly fishing history captured thanks to today's modern technology. Somebody uploaded a famous movie (Salar, The Leaper) on Lee Wulff fishing for atlantic salmon in the Miramichi river in New Brunswick, Canada. Lee Wulff needs no introduction. He is the most famous fly fisherman ever. He introduced us the fly vest as well as the Wulff flies, the Royal Wulff being the most famous one.

It's really amazing how Lee fishes for salmon so differently to what salmon fishing is these days with long spey rods. Here in Holland we have this saying "why do it the hard way, if it can be done easier?". Well, I have never ventured the salmon fishing area to say we are all doing the wrong way, but it sure shows that there is no method that should be seen as the only way. Isn't that why fly fishing brings us so much joy?

Here's the first part of the movie. The second part can be seen here. By the way, don't you just love the opening music?



What really caught my attention in this movie is how Lee catches salmon up to 15 lbs using a small Orvis Superfine rod. The bamboo fly rod that is and not a graphite rod. Orvis introduced graphite rods in the mid 1970's (they weren't called the Superfine series back then, just Graphite). In this movie Lee is using the 6ft ONE piece Orvis Superfine bamboo fly rod (Orvis introduced this rod in 1953). Did you know that this tiny rod weighs a mere 1 3/4 oz.?...

For Orvis geeks only, here's a (huge) list of serial numbers (incl. model name) of nearly all the bamboo fly and spinning rods made by Orvis since 1943 to 2004 (and the list is growing every day). Very interesting to see which models were introduced through the years. Warning: this is a VERY LARGE file (almost 8Mb), so it might take a while before it is loaded.

I've heard that Lee has caught even larger salmon using these small rods, just to prove his great ability to cast and catch these mighty salmon. It also shows that the weird idea of bamboo fly rods as vulnerable fishing tools is rubbish. Todays bamboo rods also use much more advanced glues to keep the six strips together. Knowing that I own a rod that shares history with Lee Wulff is kinda nice to know...


Update:
Someone figured out which rod Lee Wulff used in the movie. Lee Wulff owned Superfine #19836 (8/25/56 by Jordan & Reid), which may be the rod he's using in the film. He also owned other Orvis fly and spinning rods including #15270, #15426, #16557, #16693, #18498 and #33096.

Another history fact:
The Deluxe rods were all 2-piece lightweight models introduced in 1952 and went through at least one taper change in the following years. The 6ft one piece rod was named the Superfine. In 1967 Orvis renamed the Deluxe rods to Superfines consisting of three models: 6.5ft, 7ft and a 7.5ft fly rod

Tying bassbugs

I will be tying at a fly shop in Kampen (Netherlands) on March 24. It started as a joke about the shop having Danville tying thread but not stocking the great Danville Flymaster Plus thread as well. This thread is my choice of thread for tying bassbugs. So I told him to show how good this thread is as well as being dirt cheap compared to all these high priced gel spun and kevlar threads.

I need to tie some new bugs to get prepared for the show:

* hair mouse (always a favorite amongst women and kids)
* a couple of hair poppers
* one or two diving frogs

Update March 25:
Tying at the shop was quite enjoyable. Again, tying bassbugs in Holland of all places always raises some eye brows. Most people have hardly any experience with spinning & stacking colorful hair bugs. This makes it hard to explain which part of the tying they need to take care of to get the best results. The mouse pattern always put a smile on their face. I'll ask Hans to take a nice picture of Mighty Mouse soon.

New spring season inspirations

Spring is the time to get our fishing gear ready, but also means new inspirations for the grooming part. Here are some pictures I find very inspiring.

Just have a look and see why I'm so fond of Italian (especially Napolitan) suits (the silhouette is more 'cut to the bone' than English suits) and Italian shoes, especially Santoni and Sutor Mantellassi. I won't bother you with my suits, so just enjoy the nice silhouette of these nice suits.

Catskill dry flies (III) - Rube Cross

Reuben Cross was born in Neversink, New York on March 16, 1896 and would become one of the legends of the Catskill tying scene. During his early teenage years Theodore Gordon was tying flies for a living and Rube claimed that he learned tying from Gordon, although this was never confirmed by anyone.

In 1927 Walt Dette asked Rube Cross, in exchange for $50, to teach him the art of fly tying. Rube told Walt to go to hell... Walt started to untie Rube's flies and mastered fly tying retying the fly. (1992 Eric Leiser, The Dettes, Willowkill Press).

Here are some of Rube's dry flies and pictures of Rube at his tying table from his book Tying American Trout Flies (1936 Dodd, Mead & Co). Did you notice how he ties without using a a bobbin holder? It's pretty amazing how tiers like Rube and Walt during that era (1920-1940's) managed to tie such wonderful flies using fly tying materials which were pretty hard to get and hardly the quality as we know now. Wonderful fly tying history. 

About my Catskill project: Hmm... I still haven't had the moment to sit down and tie the Catskill dries... If I start tying, I just want to tie the whole project at once. But before I'm up and running I'll be distracted by the rush of the weekend. I also need to tie a bunch of flies for Ed (olive dahlberg diver) and experiment on some Zoo Cougars for my streamer box. I think I just promised Zach a lanyard. I just need a sunday afternoon without chores and phone calls!

More about Reuben Cross from the book 'Fish Flies: The Encyclopedia of the Fly Tier's Art' by Terry Hellekson.

Update Nov 22, 2025:

I found this issue of Outdoor Life December 1934 in the Internet Archive with an article about Rube Cross. Don't forget to scroll to page 63 for the final part.

Update Oct 24, 2024:

Check out the new book about the life of Rube Cross.

Kelly Galloup's Zoo Cougar

I watched Kelly's streamer fishing DVD at Dave's shop during my last trip to Canada & USA. I rarely fish with a streamer during my fishing because I think using a streamer will ruin a stretch of the river which I prefer to fish with a nymph or a dry fly. But there are parts of a river that a streamer might be the best approach, like a very deep pool. Again, streamer fishing means you have to re-rig your rod and often as not I'll just pass and move to the next part of the river where I can continue fishing with my nymph.

I ran into this tying video of Kelly Galloup's favorite streamer, the Zoo Cougar. The nice thing is, it's tied by the man himself! Kelly Galloup is a fishing guide and a lodge & fly shop owner, but he became well known because of his streamer fishing methods (jerk strip retrieve) which are on DVD nowadays. The videos on YouTube aren't ideal for fast moving videos. For slower moving shots it's just watchable.

Here's Kelly showing us how to tie his Zoo Cougar:

Here's a podcast interview with Kelly Galloup which contains many excellent tips on fishing with a streamer.


Back to the streamers:
I don't have a favorite streamer yet. Mostly I'll carry a bunch of Wooly buggers and a few muddler-type streamers. Since I don't fish a streamer that often, I haven't developed a certain preference for a pattern. I think I should fish more often (where possible) with a streamer this season. Maybe I'll tie half a dozen Zoo Cougars and fish with them exclusively to improve my knowledge about streamer fishing.

Update:
I just found the video where Kelly shows us how he fishes his streamers. The shots aren't worth a dime, but the info on the rig is the main issue.

Update April 24, 2016:
Here's a Zoo Cougar tied by Kelly in a superb high resolution:

Apple's iPhone - the Phone reinvented

The huge success of Apple's iPods started to raise the question: when is Apple going to make an iPod integrated with a mobile (folks in the US call it a 'cellular') phone? Well, after many months of speculation, it's finally here! Today Apple launched the iPhone.

Apple's interpretation of anything is always different from anything else that's on the market. The iPhone isn't a regular phone with just an option to play music, but it's a personal communication wonder. It's a phone (quad band so useable all over the world), it's an internet client with Wifi & Edge (web browser Safari and Mail built-in) and a wide-screen video iPod. Of course one of Apple's trademark is how they approach the Human Interface of their applications. The iPhone is no exception.

Obviously nobody has seen the thing in real life yet. The iPhone will be available in June in the USA, Europe at the end of 2007. Prices are aimed at $499 for a 4Gb and $699 for a 8Gb version for the moment. But it looks like this thing will blow away every phone with MP3 playing feature available. So you thought Sony's Walkman phones were nifty? Check out the iPhone's amazing capabilities and possibilities here.

Flashback:
What did Steve Balmer say about the iPhone back in 2007?

By the way, wat the heck is a Zune?...

Making dubbing brushes

I met Jan Siman during the Fly Fair of 1992(?). I was tying at the show and Jan came to my stand and gave me a bunch of dubbing brushes to try. He said he made them himself. Ever since my number one nymph, the bead head caddis pupa, is made out of this material.

Dubbing brushes can be made at home using a simple dubbing whirl or the neat dubbing brush spinning block. Several years ago I met this elderly German who made a similar machine himself. I bought one of his few machines. I haven't used it since these ready to use dubbing brushes are so easy to come by. Or maybe I'm just plain lazy to try it out.

On the YouTube site I ran into this instructional video of Jan Siman's dubbing brush spinning block. This video does a much better job explaning than the (badly) written one.