Restored to Fish Another Day

I read a blog post at Fishin' 4 Walter  where Gramps talked about Fenwick Fiberglass Rods and Pflueger Medalist Reels and it reminded be of a project I did for a customer a while back and thought I would share it.

The customer came to me with an old fiberglass rod with a Pflueger Medalist Reel that he had purchase when he was in his teens.  He had kept the rod with him through all of his life and in the multiple moves and storage the rig had deteriorated to point where it was no longer fishable.  He was nearing retirement and wanted to get back into fly fishing again and asked if there was anyway I could restore this old rod and reel.  Challenge accepted.

The wraps on the rod were unraveling and many guides were missing

The reel had a bent handle, spool and frame.  It would not rotate without force.

The wraps on the rod were unraveling and/or missing, the winding check on the front of the grip was scuffed and dented and the reel seat was tarnished and scratched.  The reel was in worse condition. Due to a bent spool and frame, it would not rotate without extreme force.  The handle was bent and the spool cap was cracked, so that when I removed it, it came off in two pieces.  I wasn't sure what I had gotten myself into.

First Step - Fix The Rod
Fortunately there was no damage to the rod blank itself, so that was good news.  The grip and reel seat had been on there so long that I did not believe I could remove them safely, so I chose to work with them on the rod.  I stripped the blank of all the guides and carefully removed the dented winding check from the front of the grip.  I made a new winding check from aluminum and anodized it.  I found the closest thread color to the original, and some metallic underlay and wrapped new guides. I cleaned the grip and polished the reel seat and installed the new winding check and hand inscribed the customers name where the old decals would have been.

The next challenge was the reel.  I completely disassembled it and inspected all parts.  I used a vise and some basic hand tools to straighten the handle, frame and spool.  I was able to get the spool running true to within a couple of thousandths of an inch, no wobble detectable with the naked eye. Fortunately the design of the spool cap had not changed and I was able to use one from a newer reel I had laying around.  I repainted the entire reel with black epoxy paint and machine cut the beauty ring around the spool.

When I delivered the rod to the customer he remarked, "it looks almost exactly like what I remember when I bought it new."  He intends to once again use this rod for fishing and someday give it to his son.  Hopefully this rod and reel will be used for many more years to come.

Fishing Report - St Joe River August 2nd 2015

Had a chance to fish for a few hours yesterday.  Fishing was surprisingly good. The water, although low, has not dropped considerably in the last few weeks, and water temperature is still decent in the morning.  I found most fish in the upper end of the riffles, in about 1 to 2 feet of water, where oxygen levels are high.  Water in these areas is moving fast so fish don't have time to be selective.  I was using a #18 St. Joe Special for most fish.  Ended up catching 15 or so with the largest at about 14 inches, although I was unable to hookup on two or three larger fish.  All in all, still good fishing on the Joe, but they are not in the deeper pools, fish are seeking cooler water with more oxygen.  Hit the riffles.

Little Dale and the Big 'Bow - A Story From My Younger Days

When I was around 16 years old, just old enough to have a driver’s license and be able to take myself fishing, my friend Doug and I decided to go see if we could catch some trout at one of our favorite stretches of Crab Creek.  

Old Railroad Trestle Crossing Crab Creek

His parents insisted that we bring his little brother Dale with us.  I have an older brother named Dale, so Doug’s brother was referred to as ‘Little Dale’, who was about 10 or 11 at the time.  The stretch of the creek we were fishing was west of the town of Edwall, WA, at an old railroad trestle with an old road bridge that we never felt safe driving across but had no problem walking.  Under the two bridges was a stretch of water several hundred yards long that had a good population of 6 to 12” Rainbows, an occasional German Brown and a plethora of shiner minnows.  I am not sure how long we were there, or how many fish we caught, but I do remember that at a certain point Little Dale became frustrated because he had not caught a single fish.  We knew how to fix that.  We used to catch the shiner minnows to use as bait in our crawdad traps, so we knew how to catch them easily.  All you had to do to was to tie on a small black fly (even though we were using spinning rods), and go stand on the old road bridge, which was about 8 to 10 feet above the surface of the water.  If you let out just enough line for the fly to reach the water directly below and dance the fly off the surface, you could catch shiners to your heart’s content.  We suggested that Little Dale do that so he could catch a fish, which he did, and he began catching the shiners.  Soon the tears left his eyes and he was beginning to have fun.  I was fishing from the bank about 10 yards upstream from the bridge where Little Dale was standing.  I had been there for at least 15 minutes throwing a little spinner up and downstream in a section of the creek about 8 feet wide and 2 to 3 feet deep, all the while Little Dale was catching shiners.  At one point Little Dale lowered the fly to the surface and began dancing it around to attract the shiners, when out from underneath a clump of grass directly across the creek from me, a very large Rainbow emerged and began swimming downstream towards the bridge.  This fish had been under there the whole time I was there, and was well over 20 inches long, by far the largest fish I had ever seen in that creek.    I yelled up to Little Dale "keep dancing that fly there is a big one coming."  The big bow cruised down the creek directly under the fly, went passed it by about 3 feet and slowly circled back.  Little Dale was almost shaking with excitement, but the big bow once again passed under the fly on his way back upstream.  I told Little Dale to keep doing what he was doing.  The fish continued to cruise upstream this time about 4 feet past the fly.  Then, with a flurry of speed the big bow suddenly turned back downstream and attacked the dancing fly with a vengeance.   Little Dale had zero chance against this brute.  Standing 8 to 10 feet above the surface of the water, with 6 pound test line, a #20 fly, on an ultralight spinning rod and the emotions of a 10 year old that just hooked the biggest fish of his life… the fight lasted about 3 seconds before the line broke and the fish took off downstream at warp speed..... leaving Little Dale once again in a fit of tears.  

Cheap Item to Help Increase your Success When Fishing Dry Flies

One day early this summer, I was fishing a riffle where a side channel flowed back into the main channel of the St. Joe River.  There was a hatch of Pale Morning Duns rising off the water, flying around in the air and fish were rolling.  I tied on my closest match to the size and color of the PMDs that were flying and began to fish.  Cast after cast, no strikes.  Fish were actually taking bugs off the surface within a foot or two of my fly, but absolutely no interest in mine.  I tried several different variations with the same result.  When I was tying on yet another fly to try and match the PMD's in the air, I noticed a bug drifting by on the water.  It was not a PMD, it was darker and larger.  I tried to scoop one up in my hand, but in the moving water it was difficult.   It took me about 5 minutes to finally get one that I could inspect.  It turned out to be a slightly larger Blue Winged Olive spinner, much darker in color.  Once I was aware of this, I tied on a BWO pattern of the same size. and I hooked up with a 12 inch cutthroat on the very first cast, and proceeded to catch about 8 more fish before the action dried up.

Maybe this is common knowledge to some, but for me this was a learning experience.  First, it does not matter what bugs are in the air, it matters what bugs are on the water.  The second thing I realized is that I needed a much better way to catch the little buggers as they drifted by.  The next day I went to the local pet store and bought a small fishnet for aquariums, like this one.

I cut the handle down, and put it in my fly vest.  Over the next few weeks while fishing, I noticed bugs drifting by in the current, and with the help of this little net I was able to scoop them up on the first try to get a closer look at them.  I can now catch the bug and match a pattern to it much quicker and easier, and believe it has improved my hook up rate.  For about $3.00, this little item has shown its value multiple times.

Row v Wade - Where do you stand on this issue.

This discussion is not about abortion, I will leave that for others to discuss.  This is about fly fishing.  

I have fished from drift boats, float tubes and a whole lot of wading.  Over the years my preference has become increasingly more towards the walk and wade approach.  I absolutely enjoy every minute I spend wading in the river and working every little seem, swirl, riffle and bolder.  I can spend hours working a 300 yard stretch of a good river.  My experience fishing while drifting have always left me feeling like I missed opportunities to catch fish, as I drift by and am not able to work every hole as effectively as possible.

I do understand that there are waters that are not conducive to one or the other, but if I am on water that is accessible to walk and wade and suitable to fish from a tube or boat, my preference would be standing in the river, what is your's?  Please comment below.

King of the Hole - Small Stream Strategy for Big Cutthroats

I am fortunate enough to have property on one of the bigger tributaries of the St. Joe River in North Idaho, and have been fishing it for over 10 years.  With the main river so close, most anglers don't venture up the tributaries, and I rarely see any one else fishing my stream called Big Creek. To say the least I know it like the back of my hand.

One of my favorite holes on Big Creek

In the years that I have been fishing it I have caught hundreds of West Slope Cutthroats ranging from 2" to the largest at 19.5".  Every year I am able to land nearly a dozen that are 16"+ and I have noticed a clear pattern in the behavior of the bigger fish.

KB2 Fly Rods Retail at Idaho Fly Fishing Company

KB2 Custom Fly Rods now has a new retail outlet in Avery, Idaho.  The Idaho Fly Fishing Company, located on the banks of the beautiful St. Joe River in Avery is now carrying a small selection of KB2 Fly Rods.

Plans are in place to grow the selection for next season with a larger variety of weights and designs. If you are in the area I recommend you check out this first class operation, have some of their delicious huckleberry ice cream, try some of the world class cutthroat fishing on the St. Joe and of course take a look at the KB2 Fly Rods on display.  KB2 looks forward to a long and successful relationship with Dan and his crew.


http://customflyreels.webstarts.com/index.html