Bamboo and Fishing Small Creeks

As some of you know, I started fly fishing last year and I have become a hopeless addict to everything fly fishing.  I even started tying this year and I am anxiously awaiting the perfect moment in time when I catch my first trout on a fly that I have tied myself from the feathers of birds that the dogs and I have harvested in one our many trips to the uplands. To further fuel my addiction I recently read a book authored by one of my favorite outdoor bloggers Erin Block.  The View From Coal Creek is short book detailing Erin’s experience building her first bamboo fly rod, and after reading her book I was dying to fish a cane rod on my favorite little cutthroat creek.  I researched bamboo rods online, talked with a few folks that had built their own cane rods and I quickly realized that fishing bamboo was something I wouldn’t likely be able to afford any time soon and as such I placed the thought way back in dusty shelf part of my brain where I keep all my other goofy ideas. 

You can buy Erin’s book here if you’re so inclined.  http://www.whitefishpress.com/bookdetail.asp?book=165

Fast forward to last Thursday.  My son and I were discussing our dinner options for the evening when the doorbell rang. After getting the dogs settled down I opened the front door and all that greeted me was the backside of my mailman as he walked back to his truck, but there on my front step was a PVC pipe with a return address from somewhere in California.  I had been expecting a package from the same gentleman for a fly swap that I was running, but this was much too large a package to be flies.  Curious, I took the package to the kitchen and was blown away by what was waiting for me when I screwed the cap off of that PVC.  Inside the package was a note telling me to try the rod and we’d work out the details later, but more importantly the package contained a beautiful handmade 3wt bamboo rod that the maker had aptly named “fishing small creeks.” 

So without further adieu I’d like to introduce to you “Fishing Small Creeks.”  Together we hope to experience everything that little cutthroat creek has to offer….

 

 

 

My little cutthroat creek.