Bamboo

well I took the plunge last weekend and ordered a custom four weight seven foot bamboo rod with two tips. The tips will be slightly different, and one will be a little stiffer. The handle will not be cork, but burled hardwood for the sensitivity factor alone. While at the rod builder's place he showed me a gently used 3 weight that had one tip. Told me that he'd make me a deal on that one that I couldn't refuse. I may end up two rods after all is said and done!
gary

 

I hadn't planned on buying one, but in the back of my head I always wanted one. I just liked the feel I got castiing one, and the effortless distance I got. These rods just seem to stack up power like nothing I've used in the past. Most of my rods are Scotts with a couple Sages and maybe three or four Loomis rods. I do have one high end Winston that maybe the single worst rod I've ever owned. That thing won't cast, and at best is a thirty foot ros with the wind behind my back. Makes a good pitching rod for really big rats and things like that. (feels like trying to cast with a flipping stick!) If I also buy the three weight, I'll use it for pocket water.
gary

 

I love to fish the Appalachians down in Tennessee, North Carolina, and West Virginia, all the way up to the PA border.. That's where pocket water is king, and I love it. My two favorite pocket water rigs right now are a Scott G series rod in 3 weight (7 foot), and a Loomis Triology in 2 weight (8 foot). I will be playing around with a 11'6" Tankara rod this spring (might get the 13' one instead) as this might be the killer rod for pocket water. I used a 13' one last summer for about an hour, and caught a bunch of fish on a home brew green rock worm. You litterally toss it out there and let it do it's own thing in the current. The system is cheap, and there's no reel to mess with. The actually flyline is about eight inches long and made from the back end of an old piece of two weight flyline with an Orvis loop attached to it. The leaders are kinda specialized in they are very long (10' to 16' being the norm). In otherwords the perfect pocket water system. The whole rod collapses down to about 20", so it's easy to take up into the higher elevations and can be ready to fish in about three or four minutes!

Have been planning a trip up your way for about a year now. Want to fish the Catskills one more time and then move on up to the Finger Lakes region. After I'm done with that I want to head east into Vermont and New Hampshire following the Connecticut River up into Maine. Then head east over to the Rangely area. Brother in law has an RV we can operate out of, and I think it would be neat two and a half week trip up there (maybe even a month). In the past I always did a long trip out west. Starting up near Chalma New Mexico and finishing out in Montana, stopping here and there along the way. I even had three or four places I fished on the way back home. Seemed like every year I found two or three new rivers to explore the next year. Have fished a little bit in California, and kinda want to do that one again.
gary

 

There are some of those rods that are pretty decient, but I don't remember which ones. At that age it probably needs to be rebuilt. I have a beatifull bone fish rig, and can't fish salt water in the day time anymore. I'm in that 10% group that's highly suseptical to skin cancer, so I just gave up on it. Makes a fine bass and steel head rod though.
gary

 

when my son inlaw was posted at Ft. Bragg, they lived about five minutes from the Cape Fear River, and I always planed on doing afloat trip down that river, but never got the time. (really need a ten weight rod down there). I did do some nice coastal red fishing a couple times near the Sabene River on the Texas border. Never caught the fish I wanted but did get some serious break offs! Longest I caught was about thirty two inches, but there are some that are four feet long! The second hurricane went right thru the property I used to stay on, and pretty much did that fishing in for me. I mostly small mouth fish and large mouth bass fish around here. Caught a couple seven pounders and several six pounders over the years.
gary

 

got the two reels ordered last week (gulp!) Finally settled on two Hardys as I just didn't have enough money to buy two more Lightspeeds. Doctor has me on lockdown for a while longer, so my fishing is pretty much done till Spring gets here (I hope). Got bit by a hand full of black flies back in June, and they created a major leg infection that eventually spead all over my body. Just can't get out and stand for long periods, but the steriods he has me on right now seem to be working very well (now all I do is itch all over). Turns out that there was a varity of these black flies that are extremely venomus, and I had seven bites on one leg and three on the other. There are three or four other known cases in my area and they didn't know what caused it till I came along (they thought they were spider bites). But we're rapidly getting better
gary

 

I guess it's a rare strain of them as I've been bitten hundreds of times by them. But these were different! My calfs must have swollen up two inches bigger in diameter alone. Broke out with hives all over, and they wouldn't go away. (still have a few) Killed my deer hunting as well as my fishing this fall. (have a new inline muzzel loader I'm playing with).

I got all winter to stay busy tying flies, and maybe even developing a couple new rats for really big bass. (next time I get in the mood I'll tie you a couple). Also have a couple more gun projects in the works. (the 6BG is a go along with something new in 30 caliber)
gary

 

I used to bow hunt a little bit years back, but pinched a nerve on the outside of my right rib cage. I can shoot about six or eight arrows right before I fell all the muscles cramp up. Never was what I'd call good at it, but it was fun. Brother inlaw is a champion archery shooter, and shot for several of the big name companies. Where I was striving for half dollar sized groups he was shooting dime sized ones all day long. He shoots a couple custom built recurves during hunting season (Black Widow I think). I saw him practicing once with his hunting bow years ago (Quadraflex) and the target shooters goto ragging him (he also shot tournament archery stuff) after he put his stuff up. He went back out to the truck and got his bow and hunting arrows, Changed the tips, and promptly shot a 60 with 57 in the X ring. The guy that owned the place told the other guys that he knew they were in trouble when they first opened their mouths. He did the same thing three years later with a guy I worked with that shot for Mathews.
gary