DFoster

I can say as a guy who owns an $1100 Hardy, 3 bamboo rods I absolutely love my little CGR 3 weight 5' 3". I think Paid $70 and I find myself reaching for it as often as any of the others. It's simply a great rod and I would recommend one to anybody that likes the feel of glass. I use mine on New England small streams but as your video shows it can hold it's own on open water. I've surprised at how far the little rod can cast when needed and' with enough accuracy to keep me from getting into trouble with the dense overhanging brush we have here. Usually anyway, sometimes I get a little to brave but that's not the rods fault. 3 or 4 seasons of regular use and no quality issues at all. Thanks for posting this-

I found some really nice water on Saturday morning here in central Massachusetts. I took a chance and decided to try a pull off I was told about years ago but hadn't gotten around to exploring. It paid off. This river holds a lot of small wild browns/Brooks and there are some nice Rainbows courtesy of the state. As a bonus it's not very heavily fished other than in the spring after stocking. I also caught a 14" pickerel on a Golden Ace (Davie McPhail version) in a still water pool, A nice way to spend a few hours in the crisp morning air. I got this nice little brown on a #14 Black Zulu- This rainbow grabbed a #10 green Wooley Bugger. I had a second one the same size on but sometimes you pay a price for fishing barbless.

Well if it makes you feel any better I still have all my toes. 😉

N- The New England woods and their small streams are beautiful. So are the Brookies!

I can't argue with you about that-

Agreed- I would argue that time is more precious than money, you can always make more money but you can't make more time. On most Saturdays I have from sun up until about noon to fish before life's responsibilities conspire to cut my stream time short. Back when I was using store bought leaders I would inevitably make a catastrophic casting error (occasionally I still do) and turn my leader into a plate of spaghetti. I would to spend as much time as needed to untangle the mess and save the $5 leader. These days if it's bad enough I'll just cut the thing off and re tie. Saving a $5 leader is less valuable to me than the precious time to fish.

My 1st experience with JB Weld- I'm a professional musician and one of the bands I work with uses Sure 55 series microphones (see below). They look and sound great but after screwing them on and off of mic stands over hundreds of gigs the treads in the metal housing eventually strip. These mics are heavy and I play a very expensive upright bass which is made out of old school wood. A microphone getting dislodged from a stand and falling onto, probably through the soft spruce wood was a terrifying scenario. A JB Welded that sucker on a decade ago and there it still remains-

I can't say these two have been aggressive towards me but knowing they could be anywhere underfoot is a little unnerving at times.

Nice!

Interestingly shortly after I posted this topic I stopped seeing the turtles in that particular pool. I don't know where they went for the summer. In over a decade of fishing it often I've only seen 3 other anglers so I don't believe they ended up as soup.

Great idea- Seriously a lot of fun can be had in this hobby simply by finding tying materials from outside a fly shop.

If you find out please post. I've been told over the years by many individuals that the state doesn't stock juvenile fish, but it occured to me that I don't know that as fact. I catch a lot of the the little guys and all year long which is one reason why I believe they are wild. But the state web site doesn't list minimum sizes so who knows?

Thanks- I believe there are wild rainbows and browns here in MA. I've caught many small ones on the Swift, Quinapoxet and Still Water rivers in the 5" to 10" size which is well below what the size the state claims they stock. They can't all be hatchery escapes can they? If they are wild I don't know how big they can get to be in those rivers. The Bow in the last post was about 12" so maybe she's a wild trout? Here's a photo of a recent 5"-6" (wild?) bow I caught on the Still Water river.

A small wild brown and 2 pics of the same Rainbow. I got the Rainbow on a #10 royal coachman winged wet variant (I used yellow floss instead of red). That bow was probably the hardest fighting fish I've caught this year. This river is stocked in the spring but perhaps this one was wild? Two cast later I hooked another decent size fish with the same fly until a rushed blood knot let go and ruined my fun. I know better than to rush through a knot- I think the adrenalin from the first bow got the better of me. 😵

Please post a photo on the "Show your bench" thread when you get it set up-

I tied these #24s for one of my home waters, the Swift River here in Mass. More often than not Micro flys (dry and wet) can be the best option for the big Rainbows there so it pays to have at least a few ready. RS2 MICRO Variant HOOK: #24 DRY FLY THREAD: 8/0 BLACK TAIL: WOOD DUCK FIBERS ABDOMEN/BODY: ULTRA FINE DRY FLY DUBBING WING: CDC WHITE HEAD: SH HARD AS NAILS

As a New Englander I know little about stingrays but I'm told a sting in "unbelievably painful". I think that would have been a situation where I would have cut the leader...

Niveker- JB Weld will never be removable once it's cured in place. If you really love the boots It might be worth asking a cobbler to repair them correctly. I only went this route because I'm trying to get to the end of the season without dropping $150(ish) for replacements. Thanks sir- JB is a permanent resident in my work shop. Over the years I've been able to stick together a lot of broken things that I was pretty sure couldn't be stuck back together. It's never pretty but it is practical. With boots and waders I don't care what the look like I just want them to work. Besides all the ugly home repairs add character to an item. Since I don't expect Prince Charles to invite me salmon fishing on a "tweed required" English estate this year- character is good.😉

Old age has gotten to my White River (Bass Pro) brand wading boots and they began to fall apart this year. The issue is that the nylon cording that holds the sole to the boot has worn through which allowed the sole to seperate. I think I paid around a $100 for them and after 12 years of heavy use I really can't complain. At this point I would like to be able to finish the Autumn fishing season with them before buying a new pair. They are pretty beat and I couldn't justify dropping them off at a cobbler. I restitched them with some heavy nylon thread which wasn't too hard because the holes are already there and thread I used was considerably smaller than the original. Because of the lighter weight thread I had to reinforce the area and worked some JB Weld 2 part epoxy into the seam before covering the exterior with the stuff. Looks like hell but it works. I repaired my left heel 2 months ago and it's still holding up. I finished the right front last night.

Well said- My iphone photos also show all sorts of mistakes in what I thought were pretty good flies while they were in the vise. Maybe Apple has back door software that photo shops in mistakes onto the pictures of my flies overnight? Yes that must be it. Apparently Apple hates fly tyers.

I'm a fan in general of Tom Rosenbauer. I've listened to his podcast and seen many of his vids, all of which is produced through Orvis. Like someone on here said It's really nice they're not just a giant commercial for Orvis but are really geared towards educating fly anglers new and experienced.

Nice looking spinner!

I don't often fish with streamers, mostly for Salmon in the fall. Deer hair in my size 14 to 18 world is almost always used on my dries. A few days ago I went fishing on the small river behind my home and caught 20+ blue gill/crappie in less than 2 hours. All of them on #4 -#8 streamers out of my salmon box. Really great fun- So...Obviously I'm still working out tying with Deer hair muddler style and I had to trim these free hand because I don't have a razor holder yet. Still I think they'll catch fish just fine and I began to learn another tying technique. I tied some with different color tails, swapped the peacock herl for Crystal flash and tied a few without any added weight. WHITE MARABOU MUDDLER HOOK: #8 3X STREAMER THREAD: WHITE 140 UNDER BODY: .020 LEAD- HALF SHANK TAIL: YELLOW MARABOU TIPS BODY: HARELINE FLAT DIAMOND BRAID THORAX: NATURAL DEER HAIR UNDERWING: WHITE MARABOU WING: GREEN MARABOU WITH PEACOCK HERL HEAD: SLIVER BEAD

Our daughter has a golden and his undercoat is wonderful for dubbing. I make sure he get a brushing whenever we have him overnight. I caught quite a few Brookies on soft hackles with golden bodies.

Saved yourself 9 grand- thats what you did...