flamed
 

took a break from making bamboo curls to take a couple "artsy" shots of the progress :corn:

Making a bamboo fly rod? Rick, your knowledge never ceases to amaze me. Were you at Hausmann's in June, if so I missed you.

HI, sorry I missed Hausmanns this year

and yes- i haven't finished one up in a while - and am a bit rusty at it

the one I was planing this week is for a very light 3 weight, it's the lightest one I have ever tried to do - the tip strips are .030 thick at the end, I hold my breath each pass of the plane towards the end - one strip split at a node and it was back to square one for that one. I am praying I can get the tip sections glued up without a twist :corn: - not planning another that fine - but there is an orphaned old Hardy Lightweight 2 screw version on the shelf that needs a rod

there are strips for a 5 wt also roughed out, and a steelhead/light salmon to follow but I am not too quick at this.

My go-to light wt flyrod is a 3wt Orvis cane rod. I never go fly fishing without it and really like it. Pics are from a trip to the Ambler River at the western end of the Brooks Range with author friend Nick Jans. Grayling up there can run in the 3-4 pound range. We also came home with 3 caribou that day.

I don't know how a grayling "pulls", as compared to other fish, but a four-pounder on a 3 weight in current should be quite fun! Can you imagine what a three or four pound bluegill or redbelly would be like!?

Grayling are very strong swimmers. They go further upstream than any other fish. If I had that fish on my Orvis 1.25oz 1-wt graphite flyrod it would be even more of a battle. The biggest grayling I've heard of up here was out of Nome and went 4# 15oz.