Recently, I added another rod to the list on the Available Rods page. This one is a Custom Series bamboo fly rod. Made for a 3 wt line, this 7'-0", 2/2 rod has all the bells & whistles!!

This particular rod is brand new & has never been fished. It has a moderate - fast action. Made for a 3 weight line, some anglers will also appreciate this rod with a 4 weight line as well. The moderate - fast action is great for casting dry flies, but you'll also enjoy fishing nymphs & wets with this rod, too. All in all, it's a pretty versatile fly rod.

​This rod features:
-Cap & ring style reel seat with polished Nickle-Silver metal & a gorgeous, highly-figured walnut wood spacer.
-Cigar shape cork grip.
-Nickle-Silver winding check (above the grip).
-Nickle-Silver strap & ring traditional style hook keeper.
-Real stone agate stripping guide in a Nickle-Silver bezel (see below).
-Chromed, stainless steel line guides & tip tops.
-Nickle-Silver ferrules.
-Beautiful, red/brown colored silk thread wraps with black silk tipping.
-Custom made brown cotton flannel rod bag with black embellishment stitches.
-Custom made back canvas covered PVC rod tube with padded ends, zippered closure, & leather name tag describing the rod inside.

​I think you're really going to enjoy the slightly crisper action of this fly rod. For those of you who are fairly new to bamboo, or those who are more experienced & looking for a versatile rod that will handle dry flies well, this is the rod you want. Beyond the great appearance & highest-quality components, you're going to love the feel of casting & fishing this fly rod.

​If you have any questions about this rod, please feel free to contact me any time.

​I've heard many different versions of the history of this fly. Mostly though, it's considered to have originated in Western PA. It supposedly gets it's name from the green weenies used at Pittsburgh Pirates games through the years. Those green weenies would hex the opposing baseball team while giving good luck to the Pirate players when the weenie was pointed at them. Read more about the green weenie of the Pirates, HERE.

No matter where it came from, or how it got it's name, the green weenie remains an effective fly for trout as well as steelhead in many places outside of Western PA. It is a great fly to start someone out with in fly tying, too, because of how simple it is. The legendary PA outdoor sports writer Charlie Meck called this one of his "one minute flies" because that's about how long it takes to tie one. 

Here's a short video showing how to tie this pattern:
(one note: this is a slight variation of the green weenie in this video. It's traditionally made with medium, or even micro, chenille - not the fuzzy stuff shown here. It's also usually bright or fluorescent green. I'm showing you this video because the tying is spot on, the colors are close, & it's the best video I could find to show how to tie it.)

​If you happen to be looking for trout rather than a pot of gold, the green weenie is an excellent pattern to try. You'll have a lot of luck when you try this magical fly!!

I hope you've all had a successful 'springing ahead' of the clock. With the time change they say that on this day there are more heart attacks, strokes, & car accidents than usual. I can believe that, since even though it's only an hour, the loss of sleep can have a big effect. 

My loss of sleep brought to mind a funny story my dad tells of a time he went fishing....

He had been working the night shift at the time & was finding it difficult to squeeze any daylight hours in for fishing. As it was the peak of trout season, he decided enough was enough & that he would take his rod & reel to work with him one night & go fishing for a while on his way home, after work, in the early morning. That's just what he did, too.

Well, as any of you who've ever worked the night shift know, it can make you feel like a zombie - sleeping in the daylight hours, never seeing the sun. But on this particular day dad stopped off at a favorite little stream of his that happens to run through a cow pasture. Being tired from the full night of work, he sat down with his back against a tree by the stream to fish a small pool that was known to hold many trout.

As things will go, he nodded off to sleep - for how long he's not sure. When suddenly he became conscience of something very warm & wet against his cheek. He opened his eyes to see that he was, literally, nose to nose with a full grown bull. He screamed, the bull screamed, & both of them took off in opposite directions until they realized what had happened, haha!!!

​Just imagine waking up to this right in your face:

For those of you unfamiliar with cows, they are, by nature, curious animals. Most of the time they're completely innocent creatures that mean you no harm at all. In retrospect, dad believes he was probably snoring & the bull, seeing this strange thing by the tree, making a weird noise, probably went to investigate when it got the you-know-what scared out of it......it didn't do a bad job on dad, either!!

So, by all means nap along a trout stream. It can be some of the best napping you'll ever do. Just be careful where & which stream you choose to nap beside or you could wake up face to face to a cow!!!

Today's fly fishing quote comes from John Gay, a British poet who lived from 1685 to 1732. He was a self-made man, growing up in an impoverished family, eventually coming to be a contemporary of famous British writers like Swift & Pope. This quote comes from a poem he wrote titled "Rural Sports", which was published in 1713 in two small volumes - one about fishing, the other about hunting.

As spring gets closer to arriving we start to anticipate another season of trout fishing. Quotes like this one make me anxious to wet a line.
(Note: this stanza was the inspiration for the name of this blog many years ago)

"Around the steel no tortur'd worm shall twine,
No blood of living insect stain my line;
Let me, less cruel, cast feather'd hook,
With pliant rod athwart the pebbled brook,
Silent along the mazy margin stray,
And with fur-wrought fly delude the prey."

-Jon Gay, Rural Sports, 1713

You know the old saying about the month of March, 'if it comes in like a lion it goes out like a lamb'. Well, in my part of the world March came in like a raging, angry lion for sure. There were heavy rains & high winds all across the middle & eastern parts of the country. Now, it's always tragic when there is loss of life & property damage, but storms can have a big impact on our fishing as well.

The one constant about any trout stream is that it is always changing. The flow of water will change over the course of time. The runs, riffles & pools that you know & love to fish will not always be there. Sometimes it can take years for this to happen, sometimes it only takes a few seconds. When there are strong storms along a trout stream, you can be almost certain that it will have at least a small effect on the steam itself. This might very well change how we fish a part (or parts) of those streams.

Besides the erosion caused by heavy flooding, one of the biggest impacts from storms that will effect us anglers are downed trees. It's important to note the trees along the streams you like to fish & look at their condition. A section of stream you might have passed over before, devoid of any fish, might become a great spot for trout or bass after a windfall lands in the water.

Take a look at this photo. How much longer do you think that tree is going to remain upright & out of the water? I don't know if you can see it or not, but the water here isn't very deep at all. What will happen to the water there after that tree comes down into the stream?......I think it's going to make a very nice, deep pool there someday that will hold a lot of trout. 

Now take a look at this tree on the right side of the photo. I know it's hard to tell what's behind that tree, but I can tell you that it's actually very well rooted in the ground. Those trees seem to have a very firm grasp & so it might be a while before they come down. They've withstood some massive flooding so far & they're still hanging in there. I don't look for those trees to come down into the stream anytime soon. Now, having said that - mother nature can do some awesome things. She certainly can take those trees down at anytime, so you can never be too sure. Ultimately this is just a guessing game. 

Finally, let's look at this photo. Here you can see the passage of time & see the past & the future all at once. On the left side of the photo is what's left of an old windfall that a storm blew into the stream years ago. For many years this windfall stuck out into the water, breaking up the water flow just right so as to create a seam in the current that trout loved (I also have a funny story about that windfall concerning a certain angry squirrel, but that's for another time). Then came a very nasty flood that was so forceful it pushed that entire windfall onto what would become the stream bank after the water receded back to normal flows. 

That same flood also started to compromise the integrity of the far bank on the right side of the photo. In the next few years, that tree began to lean more & more towards the horizontal. Sooner or later, it's going to end up in the stream, creating another seam for the trout to stack up under......until another powerful flood comes along & pushes it out of the way......& the cycle continues.

If you have the time & the means to, it's never a bad idea to scout out your favorite fishing streams before the season begins. It will give you an idea of how your streams have changed over the winter. Also take note of the trees & any beginning signs of erosion along the stream bank. It could give you new opportunities to fish in places that just didn't hold sizable fish before. The only thing you can truly count on along a stream is that, eventually, it will change.