"One Man's River"

As children we have those moments when we say to ourselves " I've seen that before" or "I have been there" when in fact we were never "there" or we "never saw that".....As we get older we experience these same feelings and they seem to be more realistic and vivid. Just the other day I to had one of these moments when I saw someone I knew, only to find that was not the person I knew but in fact the person I was talking to had been to the same place where I remember him from. Please don't think I've flipped, but this does happen and it brings me to the reason for this post.

Several weeks ago I received this book from a reader of Small Stream Reflections. I placed the book on my desk and had planned to start reading it in the following days. I continued what I was doing before placing the book down and soon I found myself picking up the book and thumbing through it....I never put the book down. I read it from cover to cover. It was like I was the man who wrote it. I never in my life heard of the author, O. Warren Smith..until that day. The book never crossed my many paths in search of fly fishing reading material. When I think of the places, sites, and real old book stores I've visited I never saw anything written by this man. The way O Warren Smith wrote is very similar to what I write. They were musings, jotting down parts of life's happenings along a small stream. Some of what he wrote were so much like my writings. His love of the little stream he fished is so well expressed. Now this book was published in 1942, five years before I was born....

A Gift From Pennsylvania ....Cane And Silk Bamboo

My relationship with Cane and Silk and Mike Kattner originated back in 2016 when I purchased one of his fiberglass fly rods. It was a short rod designed for small stream fishing. That rod and a few more have been with me on almost all of small streams I've fished since receiving that first rod. Last July in a conversation with Mike about some fly tying tools that he makes, which by the way are beautiful, he mentioned he was making me a bamboo rod. The rod was based on my blog "Small Stream Reflections" and it was going to be one of three that he would make in that style. Well let me tell you I have been waiting so patiently since I was told of this rod and finally on Monday it came.

The rod is based on the Leonard "Baby Catskill" rod with some differences. It's a 5'1" for a 2/3wt. The blonde finish cane is striking. Mike incorporated the meaning of "small stream reflections" "simplicity" in every aspect of this rod. His detail is awesome and can be seen in the colors chosen to compliment the rod.

The wrapping of silk near the handle are the colors of the brook trout...green, red, black and white.

The cork is fine, and the hardware is silver and is tastefully embossed.

The green wraps are a fine compliment to the rods blonde finish. As with all of Mike's work this rod is first class. Now all I'm waiting for is that warmer weather and my chance to fish this fine rod.  Mike makes a variety of bamboo rods and can be seen on his site. Any questions you may have can be answered by giving him a call. Thank you Mike for your thoughtful gift.

Blog Potpourri

I have always said that March is the toughest month to fish for me. That transition from winter to spring is about as difficult to get trout to take a fly with any consistency as I ever encounter in the year. Weather conditions also are way to the extremes. I mean down right cold, windy, warm, snow, and rain, you get the picture. In March I fish lots of big wet flies, and small dry flies. I have had success with fishing a size 18 Bomber, as well as a size 10 wet fly. Often I'll pull out "pinkie" and get some takes.

I'm going to get out today at some point. It looks like the pick of the week as the weather guessers say. Maybe I'll get lucky and be able to drop this #10 on a trouts head.

Matt Harding who hails from the Pacific west coast sent me this photo of a pretty hefty coho salmon that took a Montreal Whore streamer. Matt has also sent me recipes of flies he uses on sea-run Cutthroats. The patterns look like they would work on the brook trout here.

This is a salmon I took back in the late 90's. It was also taken on a Montreal Whore. If you look at the rod you'll see taped markings. These I put on the rod for measurements. The one closer to the handle is 12" from the end of the rod at the cap. The other piece of tape is 20"...I guess to salmon to be 21"...the fish was caught in Rangeley Maine, and it gave that Orvis 5wt all it could handle.

I have some terrific news coming.....Cane and Silk news...stay tuned.

Small Stream Featherwing Streamers

I have been fooling around with some featherwing streamer flies designed for use in small streams. Most of the flies have been tied on size 10 and 12 hooks either Mustad 3665A or Kieth Fulsher Thunder Creek. I really like the Thunder Creek hook. I have already tested a few patterns and they do get it done. These flies are designed to be fished on small streams and they do an excellent job of looking like many of the small baitfish that are found in most small streams. Most of the flies use a Furnace or Badger hackle for the wing. I like those hackles for the provide a dark stripe down the center as well as a dark shoulder. When looking at the fly you may say the wing looks to long and might be problem causing fouling. I can tell you they don't. I use jungle cock eyes because I have an abundance of little nails.

Most of the bodies are just thread, with mylar tinsel, some have Uni-stretch. I vary the color of the tail and throat hackle. So below are six patterns and three of them have been stream tested. I am quite satisfied that as the weather gets better my success with these flies will increase.

We have some snow in the forecast...good tying....