Cane building @ Thomas and Thomas

Discovery Channel ran an episode from their 'How it is made' series on building cane rods at Thomas and Thomas. For who missed the show on TV, here it is. We see Tom Dorsey working on a rod. I always wondered how they made the distinctive tiger striping (flamed) on their rods. Well, pretty simple as you can see in the clip.



What surprised me in this clip is how efficient the whole process of rod making looks. Pretty much like a manufacturing plant. It's not the small garage type, work bench full of bamboo curls, cork dust and used tools I've seen often with individual bamboo makers. It also demystifies a bit the Thomas and Thomas bamboo rods have...

Getting ready for the new season

Spring is finally in the air. At our local fly fishing club the members are getting ready for the new season. My first trip of this season is a good week away. I can't wait to wet my first line this year!

I hope the weather will keep its course this year. We've had more bad conditions last year than I can remember.

Higher quality YouTube movies

I was complaining about the low resolution of movies when watching fly fishing and fly tying clips on YouTube. With the standard low quality you can't see the strike, the details of the fly or even whether it's a rainbow or a brown trout!

Now, I found out that you can change the resolution simply by changing the settings in YouTube itself! Change the video quality to high quality in your Accounts menu. If the clip is uploaded in high quality, you'll be able to view it in a higher quality as well. Obviously you'll need a broadband internet connection to enjoy the high quality video.


Now we're at it:
With TubeTV you can download YouTube clips, convert and save them into your wanted codec, including the high quality H.264 codec. Sorry guys, this TubeTV is a Mac-only application.


About my next trip:
It's planned for the week of 12 May 2008.

Marcelo's Patagonia trip

Our friend Marcelo Calviello just returned from an amazing fishing trip in Patagonia. Just the sound of it makes most fishermen mouth-water... Take a look at the picture on the left. It's just fly fishing heaven!

Patagonia must be, next to New Zealand, the most intriguing destination for the trout fisherman. For me it's one of the two destinations I'll have to visit one day. Not to forget the fascinating history of Buenos Aires as well as the world famous Argentinean beef!

Click on Marcelo's blog on the list of links on the left or just here to read and enjoy the fabulous pictures of the trip. I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Hmm... one day...

Orvis

What was your first high end rod? Mine was Orvis. Orvis is one of the oldest fly rod manufacturers in the world. Founded by Charles F. Orvis in 1856, the company grew from a rod manufacturer to a full service mail order company.

I bought the Tippet and later the Western Tippet (which I regrettably sold). Orvis was when I started fly fishing the only high end US brand known here. I remember drooling over the Orvis ads in the fishing magazines. I just loved how the Superfine grip on their rods looked.

The Tippet (7.5ft, #3) is still my favorite rod to fish small to medium size streams

Thanks to Zach Mathews for letting me use the picture he shot during his visit to Orvis.

Web page grabber

While you're at the TastyApps site, check out this amazing application called WebSnapper.

I've seen web page saving applications (saves web pages as PDF) before but I've never seen one that also preserves the links in the PDF document. So, if you click on a link in the PDF document, your browser will open the URL! 

To make life easier, WebSnapper can also add a button on the Safari browser (it's the button right to the printer button) for instant access to save a web page.

I just bought it right away. At only $8 it's a steal! (Same as VideoBox)

Jobs vs Gates

Not a very common sight: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together in an interview.
These gentlemen have been in the computer arena since the start of the personal computer. They both run a very successful company. In spite of the domination of Windows, Apple and Jobs are considered THE innovative company and mind in the industry.

This is a really interesting interview. In this interview you get to hear how the most influential parts of the computer history was written from the men themselves! They even give you a peek to the future developments.



The video above is a high light of a long (1.5 hour!) interview between the two captains of industry. If you want to watch the whole interview, check it out here.

Almost here

It's pretty impossible to film a video and fish at the same time. Unless you have someone walking next to you. Yet my guess is that the ideal fly fishing video camera is almost here. With the camcorders getting smaller and smaller thanks to the high capacity memory cards, it's just a matter of time that camcorders are the size of a cellular phone. In fact, maybe the next revolution in video recording will come from a phone company.

The camcorder I'm waiting for is one that has a small lens on a wire to the main device. The lens on a wire should be small enough to be attached to the visor of a cap. Together with a decent wide angle lens, a large capacity SD memory card and you got an amazing camcorder which records every thing you see! Kinda neat huh?

It isn't here yet, but there are a few developments that comes close. Here is an idea on development for a device which connects to a cellular phone to 'film what you see'. Here's a (video)camera that can be attached to a helmet. I've never seen a fly fisherman wearing a helmet. But if we do see one, he might be a pioneering with the first ever first person fly fishing movie!

In the mean time, the Canon Powershot TX1 might be an interesting alternative to the fly fisher's camcorder. This hybrid camera/camcorder is really tiny!


Update 28 dec 2007:
This is the Samsung SC-X300L. This nifty little camcorder (also) has an external lens that can be clipped to your cap to shoot hands free. This camcorder is probably the closest thing that comes to my idea. The price tag is around $350.

According to some reviews the image quality from the external lens is very much a fish-eye view and a much lower resolution than the main lens. It's a very nifty little gadget still. Unfortunately this device doesn't have a Mac driver yet...

Classic Mac TV ads

It's pretty funny that some 20 years ago we used to use personal computers by typing in commands like DIR and MD FOLDER for simple tasks we today do it by a click with the mouse. Here are some classic TV ads Apple made for their new Macintosh in 1984.

Don't forget to notice how many applications basically haven't changed since. For instance: did you know that Microsoft Word and Excel were originally Mac-only applications? These professional business applications were the Mac alternatives against PC (Dos) applications WordPerfect and Lotus 123.



Here's a great little application called VideoBox to capture & save Flash movies (like YouTube movies) into Quicktime MOV files. Sorry, Mac only!

Goiserer traun Dec 2007 - Mixed bag

The recent trip to the Goiserer Traun turned out to be a mixed bag. Basically it was a get together with my friend John, enjoying the amazing (winter) scenery and mediocre river conditions.

We decided to give it a try to head down to the Austrian Salzkammergut region since I had a pretty nice trip last winter. We had our hopes to catch some nice big graylings and we had some catching up to do.

Days before our departure the forecast looked pretty unstable: rain and probably snow in the higher elevations. We arrived at our destination and it was covered with about 10 inches of snow. The snowy condition stayed until the second day. Although we both had excellent protection from our gear, I prefer a more warmer weather for my fishing.

The fishing was mediocre at best. The river was higher than last winter and the fish were there but not the amount and size we hoped for. The first day turned out to be the best day. We also tried the Ischler Traun the second day for a couple of hours. I lost a nice rainbow during a long run while John caught two nice fish near the shore.

We decided to head home on the third day due to fishing conditions getting 'worse': clearing skies and warm temperatures... The warmer temperatures caused snow to melt causing higher water levels as well getting murky. The rain during the previous night didn't help either.

Well, not the epic trip as we hoped for yet a very enjoyable trip still.
Next time, we'll try fishing in shorts!

Reminiscing - part III

My first visit to the Rocky Mountains region in 1992, I ran into some very memorable moments. That year I saw the majestic scenery of the park for the first time as we entered the park through the north eastern entrance.

In the little town of West Yellowstone, my buddy Don and I awaited for Scott to arrive in his camper he bought from his (then) boss. It was an old beast, pretty much resembling a lunch box on wheels. But we had the best camping experience in the park! The fishing in the park has never been as good as during my first visit.

I also met Craig Mathews, the owner of Blue Ribbon Flies. I wasn't aware that he was a fly fishing celebrity then. Like any fly shop in the Rockies, this shop was like heaven on earth. Every imaginable brand, equipment and the ambiance was just amazing!

What made an everlasting impression was that he agreed to trade in my 2 piece rod (Sage 690LL) I bought back home specially for this trip for a brand new 4 piece rod, which was quite a novelty back then. The 4 piece Sage 490 LL I traded was an eye opener for me! The lighter weight of the rod was such a joy to cast all day. The multi piece rod that casts like a 2 piece rod was also totally new to me.

2007 & weather

It's early November and it's hard to imagine how a nice and sunny day feels like. Talking about the weather! 2007 is surely one of the most unstable year when the weather is concerned. We had a hot spring, cool summer and basically a wet year. Friends who took a trip to New Zealand during October were treated with lots of rain and windy conditions. Not exactly what you are looking for when you decide to take the wet dream destination of fly fishermen...

Was 2007 a normal year at your heck of the woods or are the weather hick ups we saw in Europe part of a global proces?

2007 is almost coming to an end. Well not quite maybe. I just might treat myself with a short trip to the Austrian river which is still open this late. Not sure how the weather will hold up.

Keep posted for the trip report. Here is the trip report of last winter.

Apple's iPhone - part II

The iPhone has been released in the UK and Germany today. No sign of it being released in The Netherlands yet... Folks are buying these iPhone from the US and hacking them to work on their local providers. I'll just wait and see when it officially arrives here.

Again, I haven't seen one in real life yet but I have been watching the reactions about the device from a distance. I'm sure Apple has made a fine mobile phone, but it can't be THAT good?...

Well, after watching this guy's comment on the iPhone, I'm really starting to think that the iPhone IS really setting a whole new level of mobile experience. This Chris Pirillo is supposed to be the uber-geek of the computer world. I've never heard about this guy before but I understand that things he says are respected by many.

Check out this guy's thought on the iPhone:

Sharkskin

I lawn casted the new SA's Sharkskin line today. It was a WF5 and boy does it cast!

The line is:
* Very limp;
* It holds no memory at all;
* The line glides through the eyes like a slippery snake;
* The high pitched noise it makes when running through the eyes is pretty annoying. I have no idea if it will wear out the eyes faster than regular lines;
* The diameter of the line feels a bit thicker than SA's regular WF5. So casting might feel different on your favorite rod;
* The fluorescent yellow color is a bit bright for my taste.


I just renewed all my lines this season, so I'll wait until it's time to get new lines. I have no idea if the line floats well as SA says and how it will handle warm weather conditions. I'm sure more stories on this new line will follow the next few months. The price is just too steep ($100!) to buy one solely as a lawn casting line.

SST

The rain jacket for the serious fly fisherman was and still is the Patagonia SST Jacket (SST stands for salmon, steelhead and trout). The original jacket was released by Patagonia in 1989 and has been for sale ever since. It has undergone several minor changes (mainly color and the jacket got a bit longer) but the main characteristics never changed: wearing comfort, functionality and sheer versatility.

I have had my jacket for many years and now. Last winter I went to fish the Goiserer and Ischler Traun in Austria and the first day was just downright wet and chilly. Never a moment did I feel cold or damp.

This jacket doesn't come cheap, but if you need a jacket for the three cooler seasons you might as well get the best. For summer use it's just too bulky & hot, unless your name is Rolf. He managed to zip up the jacket all the way to his chin during a scorching hot week in Austria. He wanted to prevent ticks crawling into his undies...

Picture of the week!

One of my photo's from my recent April trip made it 'picture of the week' on the RiverBum site!
Check it out at RiverBum.

Job: Trout bum

These guys at the Angling Exploration Group are some lucky guys. Seems like these guys don't have to take care of mortgage, 9-5 jobs and groceries to take care of. They just fly fish and travel to the best fishing destinations of the world! How's that for a life! I wish I could have done that during my college years or even just after finishing college and travel for a year.

These guys from AEG made two DVDs on their Patagonia and New Zealand trips. I got them both and these DVDs sure are mouth watering. The story line is pretty funky, much more like MTV-stylish shows rather than the fly fishing DVDs we're used to.

These guys are now in Mongolia to fish for huge taimens and monstrous brown trouts using big streamers. Keep track of their daily stories on their blog. If you want to listento their stories in Mongolia so far, check out the podcast at Zach's site.

Where are these guys going next time? Which remote destination full of huge trouts are there left? Hmm... probably Chile, the Himalayas, the moon, Kamchatka....

Wireless world

Wifi is everywhere these days and now it's also in my home. I bought the Airport Extreme with the latest and fastest IEEE 802.11n protocol. This latest implementation of the wifi technology is FAST. Typical 200+ Mbps compared to the more common 802.11g which has a 54 Mbps limit. Basically the Airport Extreme will keep up with the fastest broadband internet connection for years to come.

In the past, setting up a network meant that you had to string up the house with these clumsy UTP cables, drill holes in the floors and walls. Keeping the ugly white cables out of sight is pretty impossible too. Wireless networking using the wifi-technology makes life simply easier, more flexible and no messy cables laying around.

The nice thing about Apple's Airport solution is that you can hook up any USB printer and/or USB external harddisk to print from any spot in the house or access the external harddisk from any of the computers. It's obviously both compatible with Macs and Windows. But no Windows machine is allowed in my heck of the woods!

Anyone doing this?

Just curious:

Is anyone doing this?...

Sage goes bass bug

Now this is an interesting move from Sage. They released a fly rod specially for fishing big and wind resistant deer hair bass bugs. There are two rods (2009: now three rods) available: one for smallmouth bass and one for largemouth bass. The last one being a more robust rod to cast those big nasty bugs. Both are a lot shorter than the rods we are used to: 7ft 11 inches. The yellowish color gives the rod a retro look resembling the older fiber glass rods.

Here is Sage's rod designer Jerry Siem showing off the new rods:


I have no idea how much easier these shorter rods will cast the big bass bugs, but I'll let you know as soon as I've cast one WITH one of my bass bugs tied to the leader. Surely other rod brands will follow this new niche market?

Hilarious PC history

While looking through YouTube this evening, I found this hilarious piece of PC history about the evergoing battle between the Mac and Windows. This three part 'instruction videos' on Mac vs Windows 95 shows how fast the computers have evolved. The features shown, while still up and running in todays operating systems, look very dated compared to today's approach.

Take a look and have a laugh!


Here is part 2 and 3.

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!