Fishing the Lower Deschutes Early May 2017

Posted on May 3, 2017 by Mary Ann Dozer

Wow what a winter we had in Central Oregon! At one point 28 inches of snow on the ground for multiple weeks. Turns out we didn’t have deer prints in the snow but belly prints from the dear drudging through the snow.

Spring is late to come and waters are high – but this last week I have been able to get out multiple days on multiple pieces of water . It was been splendid to be on the water. Water has been high on the Lower D, one day 6200 CFS but dropping, yesterday it was 5300 CFS. Both days we have good fish action -No big Deschutes Redsides – but some nice fish in the 12 to 14 inch. Amazingly nothing on the big stone fly patterns. For me everything was on a green rockworm pattern and Dave a Cadis Pupa.

Enjoy my photo essay!

First time on the oars in 2017

Dave’s Rainbow – Euro Nymphing

For our two days on the water, Dave’s most productive fly – a La Fontaine Pupa Caddis

Love my Winston Super 10 so sensitive to the subtle takes.

My most productive fly – a Green Rock Worm. Yes that is my tie!

Checking out the loops on my 8 foot 6wt rod. Loved how it cast the big dry stone flies. However the fish weren’t interested.

It’s been a while since I swung flies with my 10’5″ 300 grain micro spey. So fun – a few grabs but I was snoozing.

First fish on my Bamboo Rod – Yeah Rah!

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Mary Ann Dozer

Dave and I headed out to the Fall River today. As you can see from the pictures – we have had just a tad bit of snow. Since I finished the rod in mid- January today was the first day we were able to get on the water. And at approximately 11:30, Friday, February 10th – I hooked and land my first fish a 12 inch rainbow on my personal crafted bamboo rod! It was a joy to build this rod and a hoot to get that first fish. Dave offers Bamboo Rod Building classes – you won’t be disappointed in building your own and then fishing it.

The hike to my favorite spot on the fall river!

The hook-up

In the net – whew! This was a fish I didn’t want to lose!

Had to have a classic grip and grin shot of my first fish – and it was a rainbow!

Pure Beauty

Thanks Dave for all you guidance in building my rod – nothing like having my own built bamboo fly rod.

Building A Bamboo Fly Rod – Day 7

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Mary Ann Dozer

Wow – my bamboo rod is finished. Last time I posted I had just completed getting my bamboo rod to a “blank” state. What remained was the finishing and wrapping.

For the finishing I used rub-on coats of Tru Oil, often used to finish gunstocks. Each application took 10 to 15 minutes. It pays to do multiple coats and have a good 4 hours of dry time between coats. For me this was completed in a period of 4 days.

Before applying the finish – one more sanding of the blank.

Before applying the finishing, I did make sure to get my signature and rod size onto the rod blank.

An application of the finish.

A polish on the rod – before wrapping.

With the finish as sharp as I could get it – it was now time to wrap. Rather than just do a one color wrap, I opted to do a two-color tipping. The main wrap is functional as it holds the guide in place – but the two smaller wraps really are accent colors. This was my second wrapping of a rod and I had never done the two tippings. Although tedious and many re-wraps I did get the wrapping done. I am very happy I took the extra time for the two color tipping. Each 5th wrap I would then stack the thread – to get a very clean look on the wraps. When a wrap was complete I applied one coat of varnish – to ensure it didn’t unravel. When all the wraps were complete I applied 10 coats of varnish – with two “sanding of the wraps” – again to get the cleanest look I could. Needless to say the wrapping did a good bit of time, about 20 hours. The varnish again, was a quick 10 to 15 minute task, but like the finishing, the dry time between applications meant it took multiple days.

Wrapping the final tipping to the agate stripping guide.

Packing the wraps

Applying the first coat of varnish.

I have to say – there was a time and duration investment in applying the finish, wrapping, and varnishing the wrap – but it paid off in a extremely clean looking rod. Yes I am proud of myself and would love to jump into building another rod. Thank you for following my rod building project.

A close up of the reel and ferrule

Voila – my custom crafted bamboo rod.

Yes a bit of snow of the ground – but that didn’t deter me from casting. Love the action – has the guts to cast big flies in windy conditions.

Building A Bamboo Fly Rod – Day 6

Posted on December 22, 2016 by Mary Ann Dozer

As you will see by the end of this post – my rod is really looking like a bamboo fly rod. Reminds me a bit of like tying – starting with raw materials and uncertain of what the outcome will be – and with each build step it looks more& more like a fly rod! It definitely does now. After the gluing process – I had a bamboo rod blank! Next up the a series of steps to 1) fit the ferrules, 2) make the grip, and 3) prep the rod for the reel set.

Fitting the Ferrules

The first step was working through some numbers – One making sure I had the proper ferrule size and Two, determine the appropriate cut length for the tip and butt sections. There were lots of short steps to get the ferrules mounting all requiring precision work. The first was the first cut on the bamboo – scary. But really minimal risk if you “measure twice and cut once” I took a photo of the cross section of the rod at this point – I just love the cluster of power fibers you can see – these power fibers are what give bamboo it’s strength and sensitivity. Next, started the hexagonal shape needed to be “rounded” for the round ferrule. Additionally, there was flaring on the ferrule and bamboo to ensure a tight fight – thus distributing the pressure points so as to reduce the chance of breaking at the ferrule. Oh – it hurts to think about a break at the ferrule – but it can happen.

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Doing the math – so sort out the points to cut the bamboo blank

Cutting the rod blank

Check out the power fibres – I will always be in awe of strength yet sensitivity of the power fibers.

Sanding down the ferrule.

Fitting the male ferrule to the rod

Making the Grip

The first step was to pick the 12 cork rings that would be glued together and sanded down to make the grip. Lots of sanding with the lathe to go from the cork rings to the final grip. And of course it fits my hand perfectly. Before the final sanding of the grip, I turned down the hexagonal shape to a round shape that the real seat fits over.

Turning the bamboo rod for the real seat placement.

Only the best cork for my rod!

Gluing the cork pieces to the rod butt.

The final sanding to on the grip.

Gluing and Bluing the Ferrules

No elaborate magic here – but a bit unnerving to light the glue to burn off the solvent.

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Prepping the female ferrule for glue – cleaning out any dirt and grease.

Applying the glue

Lighting the glue on fire – just for a second – don’t want to light the rod on fire.

The Ferrules all glued on!

It looks like a Bamboo Fly Rod

What remains? Multiple coats of a rub-on finish and wrapping the guides.

Building my own Bamboo Rod – Day 5

Posted on December 15, 2016 by Mary Ann Dozer

Wow – As I continue building my bamboo fly rod, I am developing a deeper appreciation for the “The art of craftsmanship”. Like many things in life – “doing it” – brings so much more meaning to “it”. I am experiencing just that in building my bamboo fly rod. I always heard many people from woodworkers to quilters call their craft an art. I now get it at a much deeper level – If your a craftsman your are an artisan.

Many anglers talk about the joy of catching a fish on their own flies! As I my progress on crafting my bamboo rod – I am beginning to anticipate the feeling of catching a fish on my bamboo rod. However, as you see, I may be getting ahead of myself – as I have many steps remaining on my bamboo rod before I can literally head to the river.

With the last few days I have taken my bamboo from planed split pieces to a rod blank!

The split pieces prior to gluing!

My bamboo rod blank – is now two solid pieces!

To get from the split pieces to the rod blank – was simply a matter of gluing up as they say! I say. It was a bit more than that! My first steps was to mix up the mixture to create the glue and then apply the glue. Reminded me more of a home economics class than a wood shop class. The mystery process is rolling up the laid out glued-up pieces of bamboo into its hexagonal shape! Pictures can’s capture that. From there it’s the sticky mess of hand tying a few strings to hold the pieces together and then manual wrapping string up the entire piece, prepping for the binder.

Mixing up the glue! Precise measurements!

Yes that’s a toothbrush I used to apply the glue! Sometime it isn’t all high Tech!

Stringing it up to create the blank!

Hand-wrapping a string the entire blank – in prep for the binder

After a clean-up of the hands – yes the glue is gooey! I stepped over to the binding machine to wrap the blank multiple times. The value of the binder is the tight wraps you get on the rod blank to maintain your taper and minimize any chance of glues lines between the 6 pieces.

The binder – yes an interesting gizmo

A close-up as I get ready the run the blank through the binder another time.

From there it was place the two rod pieces, butt and tip, into a warm dust free place to dry for a couple of days. So now to the fun of undoing the binding string and dried glue from the outside of the rod. Yes put the process in reverse – first take off of the binding strings and then another “zen” process of filing and sanding the glue residue off.

Manually – unwrapping the binding strings

Gently & carefully filing off the glue residue. All of the residue has to be removed.

My rod building mentor, Dave, doing one of his many quality control checks. This time is all the glue residue gone?

Next up just a few more steps to prep the rod for adding the ferrules. One step is to check you rod thickness to make sure your finished product is as your rod taper design sheet prescribes. And then the removing any curvature out of your blank pieces.

Right to spec with .067″ at the tip.

Eyeing it up – is it straight?!

Building my own Bamboo Fly Rod – Day 3

Posted on December 1, 2016 by Mary Ann Dozer

Today, I continued with the process of building my bamboo rod. My start point today was with the 16 pieces that I had done the initial beveling to get to a triangular shape. The first step was to send the pieces through the beveler to get closer to the final dimensions. We took off about .03 of an inch with each pass.

Another run or two through the beveler shaving .03 inch of each pass.

At this point I picked the final 12 split pieces of bamboo from my initial 18 . I choose 6 from each culm – my choice selection was a mix of the look of each split and how straight it was. 3 pieces from each culm will make up the butt and tip sections. I set the other four to the side – just in case!

Next step up – bevel in a rough taper into the final 12 pieces.

The start of the rod taper – that determines the action of the rod.

Another angler on the rough tapering step.

The next step was to straighten each strip of bamboo. Straightening the bamboo at this point will enable the hand planing process to be smoother and more precise. To get the bend out of the bamboo you bend the rod in the opposite direction over a heat – until the bend has been removed.

A bend that needs to be straightened.

Apply pressure in the opposite direction over heat to straighten

A straightened piece of bamboo.

All twelve pieces ready for the hand planing process. You can see the difference is the size for the butt versus the tip section

Next step – setting the depth on the planing form to create the desired taper for my 8′ 6 wt rod. Accuracy is key with this step – so I did double check my settings and then Dave checked me. We set the specific taper depth at every 5″ mark – the depth for the tip section started at .104″ and ended at .028″

Setting the depth on the planing form with my taper sheet as a guide.

Today – I just got started on the hand planing process. I anticipate it will take me about 4 to 6 hours to plane all the strips.

Planing my first strip – 1/2 way done with one strip and then 11 more.

Building my own bamboo fly rod – Day 2

Posted on November 26, 2016 by Mary Ann Dozer

Today I continued my pursuit of hand building my first bamboo fly rod! My husband, Dave, has been building for years, so I am fortunate to have an excellent mentor. If your’re curious about building a bamboo rod check out his website. My goal is to post a blog every day I work on the rod. My goal is to have the rod complete by Christmas – we will see how that goes. I hope you join in to follow my progress and learnings.

Today – I spent about 6 hours in the shop taking my bamboo rod from the initial rough splits to rough triangle splits – ready to start planing!

My first step was to heat treat the rough splits about 9 per bamboo culm. This takes much of the moisture out of the rod and stiffens the bamboo. The heat treated bamboo made it easier for me to split the bamboo into sections small enough to rough plane. There were 2 steps to split each culm into 18 pieces.

Step one – Start the split with a box cutter.

Step two – finish the split on the vise, making sure the split stayed in the middle of the split culm.

A close – up of the split culm – check out the power fibers that give bamboo it’s strength and feel.

All ready for the next step

At this point I selected 8 pieces of each culm that had an even heat treat and good width for the beveling step. You may wonder why eight pieces. Eventually I will use 6 pieces to form each section of the bamboo (tip and butt section) – choosing 8 pieces allows me to 1) pick the best six split pieces for the final rod and 2) yes, allow a mis-step in subsequent steps:).

With my selected 8 strips from each culm,

I belt sanded each split to remove the enamel layer on the outside of each strip.

16 strips waiting for their next action!

With the rough sanding done – I moved to the beveller. I fed each strip through the beveller to get the rough tri-angler shape. I have to say running the beveller step was a hoot!

Feeding a strip through the beveler

A closer look of the rough beveling step – check out the triangular shape of the strip

A good stopping point for the day. The rough beveled strips patiently waiting for the next step!

Whew! A good point to stop and

Savor today’s efforts with a class of wine.

Bugs Bugs Bugs

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Mary Ann Dozer

When I first started fly fishing I never gave enough credence to the importance of bugs. Now, I think you can’t know too much about bugs. I’m a firm believer that it’s a good idea to “check out the bugs” in the river nearly every time you fish, especially if you’re doing a lot of nymph fishing. Dave and I were on the Crooked River last week fishing a spot we fish often and started with a bug sampling. We have a small net that is about 15″ x 15″ that one of us holds in the water while the other turns over rocks upstream. We then transfer the bugs in the net to a white bowl that aids in viewing and identifying. For the particular spot we sampled, there were very nigh numbers of olive/tan scuds in sizes ranging from about #18 to #10, as well as black mayfly nymphs that were about #18 and #16 in size. We both used euro-nymphing techniques for our fishing for the day. Using #14 and #16 gold or tan scuds, #18 Psycho Mayfly nymphs, and #16 Black Beauties produced a lot of rainbows in the 6″ to 14″ range. So, knowing the bugs in the water and matching those bugs certainly helped us. Here are a few photos of the day.

Look at the diversity in bugs on the Crooked River.

A closer look at the PMD (Black) Mayflies, a scud, and then a small BOW.

The flies that enticed a good number of fish

A nice 14 inch rainbow – I was able to convince my fly was the real bug!

Deschutes River June 2016

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Mary Ann Dozer

A great way to end a great day!

The summer’s always get busy for me. So I relish a day where Dave and I can enjoy the water together. Yes we call it our equivalent of a date night. This Friday we had our date on the Deschutes and the Deschutes showed us her better side. Or should I say the Deschutes Rainbows showed us some of her better red sides. Always a great Day on the Deschutes River – but extra nice when we can bring a good number of rainbows to the net. The flies that worked the classic black rubber legs, sparkle caddis pupas, and a BWO nymph! Enjoy the photos.

The day is made with just the essence of the massive Deschutes water & views

A selfie of Dave & I – Check out the view upstream

A beauty of a red side – check out the colors

My best catch of the day – on a black jimmy legs

Same Fish – just the full fish shot

Dave’s Catch of the day

Dave’s first of the day – a prelude to a awesome day

Took time to collect some bugs – is this an albino stonefly?

A green drake – just one of the many diverse bugs on the Deschutes

May Fishing in Central Oregon

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Mary Ann Dozer

Wow – my last post was at the April 28. My goal is to post weekly! Today is May 29th! What happened to May. I know what happened to May – I was busy scouting waters, teaching fly fishing classes , a few private casting lessons, and yes a good number of days guiding! I feel as I have been behind the 8 ball all month. A few days at home this week – and my to do list is getting reasonable. Key word reasonable – not necessarily done. But you don’t want to read about my scrambling to get my to do you done – you want to read about my fishing.

I will start with a great evening Dave and I had with the Wild Women of the Water. They came over for an overview of building bamboo rods and socializing, of course. You can check out Dave’s Blog to see all the photos – but Kari running a strip through the beveler is my favorite.

Getting a short hands on experience with building a bamboo rod. TOO FUN

Now back to fishing! I have spent a majority of my time on the Deschutes River – plenty of stone flies out and about! Love the aggressive takes of the big rainbows as they take them. Amazing experience – if you get a chance in the next week get on the water. The hatch will be winding down in a few weeks. A few photos of the fish, flies, and amazing shots of the real bugs.

Salmon Flies love grass! So of course they gravitate to bamboo!

Check out the egg sack on the Salmon Fly

The best part of the Salmon Fly Hatch – aggressive takes!

And fish in the 16 plus range are common

I have also been on the Crooked River imitating the Mother Day’s Caddis hatch with success!

Stream side on the Crooked. I will never tire of this view

A tattered but effective fly – a tie of my own

This rainbow was fooled by my tattered fly – A fly I have been successful with on lots of waters.

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