Carp Trip!

Hello everyone!
My buddy Evan at Feather-Craft is putting together a really cool trip to Beaver Island, Michigan this summer.  It looks to be a great time sight fishing for carp with some guys who really know their stuff.
Check it out here:  Carp Trip

Christmas in Austin

I spent several days last week at my mom's house in Austin. There's a great little creek about 5 minutes away from her house that I always fish when I'm in town. It was also a special treat that my nephew, Peyton has become interested in fly fishing and tying so I got to talk fishing with him and 'guide' him on this creek as well.
I got to town Wednesday at noon and after lunch with family and getting settled I had a little while to fish. I grabbed my newly built rods and ran off.
It was crazy to me to think about wet wading, but it's December in Texas and you never know what the possibilities are!

Even though since the last time I was there the creek had experienced extreme drought the water looked great and there was fish activity all over the place.

My first fish was a redbreast sunfish, which happens to be my favorite fish, on my new rod to boot!

This creek has some huge carp in it and I hooked into one but it broke me off right away.
I caught several crappie too. I've never caught any of these in here before so this was a nice surprise.

Thursday I had a great day with the family but when the afternoon lull happened I took my opportunity to try a different section of the creek.

I caught my first Guadalupe bass in a while. Small, but fun and satisfying - another one of my favorites.

Friday we were headed to Sea World in San Antonio so I decided to wake up before the sun to hit the water before we had to leave.

I caught a nice little spotted bass, some more redbreasts, bluegill and a longear:

And a surprise red ear:

Saturday brought the day I was most excited about. After a large family breakfast, I had the honor of taking Peyton and brother-in-law, Kenton fishing. Kenton had to leave early so Peyton and I kept on. We didn't catch anything at the first spot but decided to head to another area.

I caught a few more crappie, redbreast and bass here.

 I was about to head over to see how my nephew was doing and made one last cast to where I saw something disturbing the water. I let my beadchain soft hackle rest for a little bit. I lightly twitched it then got a strong strike. I set the hook and hung on.

I yelled for my nephew to come over because this was a big one. The fish surfaced after a few minutes and I saw it was a good sized carp.

It was a really strong fish and I ended up having to wade out to keep it from wrapping around an underwater tree. I finally landed it after about 10 minutes - we were both pretty tired by then. My new Superfine Touch 8' 2 weight had enough backbone to fight it and control it at times which really impressed me. I didn't know about my 4x tippet and knot though so I tried to be gentle.






I think it taped out around 26-28".

Not a bad way to end 2011, I'd say!

I built a couple of rods

Just before Christmas I finished my first two rod builds, a Superfine Touch 802 and 704. A friend in Chile now owns my Orvis custom 802 and when I sold it I vowed to own another built by own hands. I built the 704 because I wanted a small stream smallie rod. 

My goal was to copy the old original Superfine aesthetic and simplicity and I built the two rods identically except for the exact shape of the grips.  I didn't even put on a label on it.  I may change my mind on that aspect.

Here are the specs for the 802 (the 704 is similar with the guides being slightly different):
Guides: snake guides are Snake Brand and the stripper is American Tackle Titan Ring Loc
(2/0), (2/0), (2/0), (2/0), (2/0), (2/0), (1/0), (1), (2), (8mm)
Grip: reshaped Angler's Workshop cigar
Seat: from AW too (though it came with HUGE pits in it and I'm going to replace it with a better quality one that AW sent me to replace it).
Reel seat rings and matching end cap: Lemke aluminum anodized nickle
Thread: Fish Hawk medium brown size A
Finish: U40 Permagloss


Here's a link to my album of excessive amounts of photos: http://s730.photobucket.com/albums/ww302/CBarclay/Rod%20Building/Superfine%20Touch%20704%20and%20802/

Overall, I'm very happy with how they turned out. There is a lot of room for improvement so I'm already planning for more. Other than fishing itself, I haven't had this much fun in a long time.


















I ended up deciding to replace the reel seat on the 802. The quality of the cork really bothered me but what bothered me even more was that when I tried to fill the pits (with Titebond III and cork dust) I made it worse. When I sanded it down, the diameter was reduced so much that the rings wouldn't hold the reel on without me needing to use my daughter's hair band.

Peeling/scraping the reel seat off was easy and only took a few minutes.  Reaming and slightly reshaping the new seat was simple as well.  Overall it took about 1 1/2 hours (with interruptions) to replace the seat and now I feel I can rest easy feeling I have a completed rod. 


The finished product:




First fish pics to come...

The Smokies trip: refined

You know how I posted on my recent Smokies trip?  Well, Will just finished his write up too and you need to read it. Here: The Riparian Corridor.

Orvis 2 weight's: old and new

If I were to choose a single line weight to fish for the rest of my days, it'd be a 2 weight. It's light weight, helps to provide subtle presentations which I feel are of utmost importance, and is a lot of fun in the small water situations I usually find myself in. I can also cast as far as I need with a 2 weight.
I have fished several different 2 weights but I've found a rod to compare all other 2 weights to. A benchmark.

I've had an Orvis Superfine 'Ultrafine' 792-2 (7'9" 2 weight 2 piece) for a while now and it has been my 'go to' rod ever since I got it. I use it for bluegill and light bass fishing as well as small to mid size stream trout fishing. It bends deep and is the smoothest rod I've ever cast.

When Orvis came out with the Superfine Touch line of rods with initially only a 6' in the 2 weight range I was a bit disappointed as I fish longer rods more than shorter rods. Then in the early summer they came out with the longer 8' 2 weight and I scrambled to figure out how to afford one. My main issue with this newest generation of Superfine rods is the new style of reel seats (which I've found that most people prefer so I understand why Orvis made the change). I prefer the old style cork and rings reel seats of the early generations. I've never had an issue with a reel falling off or coming loose. I also like the simple and classic aesthetics. It also lightens up the butt section and allows me to use a heavier and more versatile reel to achieve the balance I prefer.

 A good friend had previously ordered a customized Superfine Touch 763 with a cork and ring reel seat and it only took a few weeks to receive it with no extra cost to make the change.
So after saving up some cash and selling some gear I talked to my friends at Feather-Craft and placed the order. It took exactly 2 weeks from 'go' to 'in my hands'.  I was floored by the speed of which I received it as well as the quality of work. I have no complaints.
Before ordering the 802 I asked Jim West, rod designer at Orvis, what the differences were between the two rods. He said they were different rods from taper to type of graphite. So I didn't expect the 802 to be the same rod but newer.

.

Physical differences and similarities
The 802 is 8' and the Ultrafine is 7'9" - duh.
The 802 is 4 pieces while the Ultrafine is a 2 piecer.  I actually prefer 2 pieces because I usually don't need a rod to pack down small and it's less to mess with when aligning the ferrules.
The Ultrafine is a staggered ferrule design meaning that the tip is longer than the but section.  The 802's sections are symmetric.  The Ultrafine has a sleeve ferrule while the SFT 802 has a tip over butt ferrule.
Both are unsanded graphite.
Guide placement was basically the same compensating for different lengths.
Both weigh 1.5 ounces (the factory stock SFT 802 weighs 2 1/8 ounces)
Butt half of SFT 802:  1.3 ounces (39 grams)
Butt half of Ultrafine:  1.1 ounces (33 grams)

Fishing the SFT and Ultrafine
The first thing I noticed was that while the Ultrafine seems a bit tip heavy without a reel, the 802 seems a bit butt heavy. They weigh exactly the same (1.5 ounces) but have the weight distributed a little differently.

The first time I fished the 802 I could tell immediately that they were completely different rods.  The 802 has faster action and recovers faster from being flexed.

The casting differences are pretty obvious.  I'd describe the Ultrafine as more of a parabolic flexing rod while the 802 is more progressive.  I could get more sensitivity, accuracy and distance from the 802 but felt the Ultrafine was marginally more fun to cast and play a fish with. 

The lines I have fished on these rods include: Sage Quiet Double Taper 2, Sage Performance Taper WF2,  Orvis Spring Creek DT2, Monic Freshwater Clear WF2, Scientific Anglers WF2, Scientific Anglers Mastery Trout DT2.  While both rods are not finicky about which line they perform best with, the SA Supra line surpasses all of them.  The Mastery Trout was a good option as well but it turned out to have severe memory and sinking issues so SA is replacing it.

If it came down to making a choice between the two rods for all eternity, after much toil I'd choose the custom Superfine Touch 802 over the Ultrafine because I could do more with it. I feel that the SFT 802 is a superior and more versatile rod and if I never fished an Ultrafine I wouldn't know that I was missing anything.

I have to clarify that I did recently sell the 802 so I could afford the trip I recently took to fish in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I did this with with plans to buy an 802 blank this winter so I could build one myself. It may seem that my logic is a bit off when hearing this but I'm okay with that.
If I had absolute control over all that is unknown and unseen I will never be without my Ultrafine, or an 802.

(The last time I looked on the Orvis website the 802 still isn't listed in the regular line of Superfine Touch rods. You'll find it in the 'New Fly-Fishing Gear' section under rods and reels.)

GSMNP October 11

As I mentioned a little while back, Will and I made plans to spend some time in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park to fish for brook trout.  We talked our good friend, Joe, into flying down to meet us there.  Well, it actually happened.  There were several points in time that we thought we wouldn't be able to make it.  But it actually happened.  We had a few months to plan and do some research about where and how to fish. 
We made a trip there last spring we - learned quite a bit (meaning we caught one fish between the two of us) and had a fun but difficult time.  This time was a bit more successful but still fun and difficult.

Like last time, we left St. Louis in the evening and drove through the night to arrive in time to take a short nap before getting in the water. 
The beginning of the trip mirrored our days there.  We packed as much as we could in to each day.

 I can describe the small mountain stream fishing as full contact commando sniper fishing. You have to sneak up on the fish.  You have to hide from the fish while casting to them.  You cannot reveal your shadow or cause a ripple.  Most of the time you can't see them because those beautiful little brightly colored fish are also perfectly camouflaged and hide in and under the most amazing things - namely rocks.  They would sometimes reveal themselves in a defiant act of showmanship.  Almost as if they were saying "yeah, look at me while you can because you aren't going to catch me!".

My rod of choice was my old Orvis Superfine 'One Ounce' 6'6" 2 piece 2 weight paired with an old Orvis CFO II with half a Scientific Anglers DT3 Supra line on it.  It was perfect for that type of fishing -nice and light, full flexing and accurate.  I couldn't have wanted anything else.  Will mostly fish his 7' Lamiglas 3wt but also used a 9' 2 weight he recently built that was surprisingly adept at handling the tight quarters and reach casting.

Some of the time I was thinking 'why the hell am I doing this!?' then I'd catch a fish, rise a fish, make a good cast or mend, or even just look, listen and smell I'd remember why. It's amazing there.  Beautiful trees, water and fish.  Occasionally we'd catch a whiff of some sweet mountain smell.  Which was more than welcome by day 6 of no showers and spending all day in waders.  You don't even want to know what the tent smelled like. 

The first half of the week was wet.  It was hard to have a good attitude about it.  Especially when we made a 4 mile hike, in waders and wading boots, gaining 2500' of altitude, only to find that the water we hoped to fish was a steep valley of boulders-the-size-of-your-kitchen with a little water flowing through it.  After trying to fish and realizing that one of us would be killed or maimed if we kept on trying we tucked our tails and hiked back down (still in waders and wading boots - lesson learned) to find more hospitable water.

Wednesday morning before we drove to pick up Joe in Knoxville we fished a larger river nearer civilization.

I caught my first brown trout ever there. I have never purposefully fished for browns but have wanted to catch one for some time.  I caught him on my current favorite fly - a partridge/orange soft hackle. 

Not long after that fish I slipped on a rock and broke my tail bone (in the easiest water we fished all week, go figure). 

We also fished a little creek that was supposed to only have brookies but we only saw and caught rainbows.  

**please note that allowing trout to rest on the ground isn't good for them - this fish flopped from my hand when taking a picture and I quickly took the pic and released him**
We hit a wall one afternoon (I honestly don't remember which one) and decided to just hang out and take a break from fishing (ironic, huh?).  It was a nice respite and prepared us for a good time the rest of the trip. 

The last day we ended up finding the best water and having a great time before needing to drop Joe back at the airport and beginning the drive home.

There were times during the week where we were convinced we were crazy for making the effort and sacrifices necessary to make the trip happen. And 6 days is a long time to spend in close proximity with another person who hasn't showered and who isn't perfect (finger pointed squarely at myself). In the end, there were no regrets and many great memories. 

I'd make the sacrifices to do it again for sure.


Please check out Will's account in his video here. 
You can see more pics in my photobucket album here.